Gregory Clark contrasts former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's economic policies with those of China: "Meanwhile, China, with an even larger bank bad-loan problem, solved it simply by continued economic expansion. It also greatly enhanced its Asian status at Japan's expense as a result."
It is worth pointing out that "continued economic expansion" is no "simple" matter. If nations knew how to start growing at 10 percent with the touch of a button, they would all do it. Japan spent 10 years during the 1990s trying to restart its growth engine, and failed repeatedly.
Advising Japan to "just grow its way out of debt" thus begs the question of how exactly to produce China-like growth in a country whose per capita income is $35,000 instead of $7,000.
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