Since it debuted a little over a month ago, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration has been trumpeting the slogan "No structural reform, no economic recovery." Whether that is true is arguable. But there is no question that "structural reform" means reshaping Japan's outdated market economy into one that is really free, transparent and fair. Market-driven reform is unavoidable.
Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who took office in 1982, pushed market-oriented reform under the banner of neoconservatism. At the time, a similar campaign was going on in Britain under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and in the United States under President Ronald Reagan.
Nakasone privatized the Japanese National Railways and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (Dendenkosha) and started liberalizing the financial and communications sectors. He also tried to introduce a flat-rate personal income tax and boost indirect-tax revenue.