[ExI] Japan's young turn to Communist Party ...

[Stefano Vaj]

On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 6:14 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
> Why do you assume a shift towards socialism will hurt their economy?
> They've been in recession or near-recession for 20 years while, if
> anything, becoming more right wing economically. What does that tell
> you about laissez-faire capitalism?

I have always been especially interested in the Japanese history and
business model, and my firm is operating an office there since the end
of the eighties.

Let us say that Japan used to be spectacularly successful at an
economic level in its own way since the Meiji Restoration, both before
and after the second world war, while maintaining a profoundly
*illiberal* economic system, in spite of its thin veneer of juridical
"americanisation" after the defeat.

It is however debatable whether the real - and very unsuccessful -
liberalisation which it underwent after the crisis, and as a reaction
thereto,  was a "turn to the right", unless of course one thinks that
Milton Friedman is on the right to Bismarck.

Stefano Vaj