Japan Revival Vision
Japan Revival Vision Provisional Translation May 23, 2014 Liberal Democratic Party of Japan Japan Economic Revival Headquarters 1 2 Note: This is only a provisional translation. With regard to any parts that seem unclear, please refer to the original Japanese version. Introduction In December of 2012, the Liberal Democratic Party returned to power with Prime Minister Abe in the lead, based on the slogan “Take Back Japan”. After the bubble burst, Japan had experienced a “Lost Two Decades” of long-term economic slump and deflation. Furthermore, stagnation escalated following the “Lehman Shock”, partly due to the deficient economic policies of the new government established after the LDP lost power. However, after the launch of the second Abe Cabinet, as a result of releasing what is known as the “Three Arrows,” domestic and international perceptions of Japan’s economic prospects significantly improved. This was reflected in the rapid rise of stock prices last year. The first arrow was aggressive monetary easing; the second arrow, flexible fiscal policy; and the third arrow, released in June of last year, was the Japan Revitalization Strategy, “Japan is Back”. According to the Tankan (the Bank of Japan’s quarterly economic survey) published in December of last year, for the first time in 21 years and 10 months, the Business Sentiment Diffusion Index turned positive for small and medium-sized enterprises in the non-manufacturing sector, which had been suffering from a long-term slump. Moreover, real GDP for the first quarter of this year grew as much as 5.9% on an annual basis, although this was buoyed in part by rush-demand before the increase of the consumption tax rate.
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