| Headline: Koizumi strives to save Japan Source: Euromoney Date: July 2001 Author: Kevin Rafferty In a country which had become utterly disillusioned by its politicians’ failure to revive the economy, Japan’s new prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, has quickly won huge popularity with calls for radical reform. Japan certainly needs this. And Koizumi intends to start at the key point, with the country’s ailing banks. But the consequences of reform will certainly be painful. If slowing growth and rising unemployment erode his popularity, the old political inertia may stifle Koizumi’s efforts yet.
It is a remark that may come back to haunt the country, especially since Koizumi’s warm embrace of economic reform policies is likely to increase Japan’s unemployment rate, which is already at record high levels of around 5%. No matter: only a few days after Koizumi’s new government unveiled a painful blueprint to reform the economy, at an immediate cost of up to 200,000 jobs through getting rid of banks’ bad debts, the LDP was the main gainer in key municipal elections in Tokyo. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||