Many people blame the government for the nation's prolonged economic slump. But business consultant Tadashi Saegusa believes companies that delay internal restructuring are the prime culprits.
"Consumers aside, an economy is basically an aggregate of companies. If companies' management is dull, the Japanese economy naturally gets dull," said Saegusa, author of "V-ji Kaifuku-no Keiei" ("Management for V-shaped Recovery"), published by Nihon Keizai Shimbunsha.
"Half-baked reform of business management has often been considered to be good for Japan, but I have a feeling that it has kept the economy sluggish for the past 10 years," he said in an interview.