Record Details

Japan and the Changing Regime of Accumulation: A World-System Study of Japan’s Trajectory From Miracle to Debacle

Journal of World-Systems Research

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Title Japan and the Changing Regime of Accumulation: A World-System Study of Japans Trajectory From Miracle to Debacle
 
Creator Ikeda, Satoshi
 
Description Japans trajectory under globalization is critically reviewed using the world-system perspective and the methodology of historical sociology. The Japanese miracle in the post-war period was a result of interplay between world-systemic opportunities and internal and regional institutional transformation. Japanese success invited US policy changes, ending the growth regime of accumulation in which state-led national economic development was pursued with distributional concessions given to workers. It is argued that misguided policies based on incorrect economic theories under the strong yen, pushed by the US since 1985, prepared a bubble that then burst. The institutions that had provided the Japanese miracle became the source of problems as Japan entered the debacle period in the 1990s. The Japanese debacle was part of the phenomenon of a prosperous US and the debacle of the rest. This development was a result of the change in the regime of accumulation from a growth regime to a distribution regime where the rentier class took control of distribution and the project of national economic development was replaced by the monopolistic competition of global corporations. For Japan, both traditionalism and neo-liberalism are dysfunctional. In the short run, Japan as a society needs to focus on survival and the maintenance of peoples living standards under the new rules of the accumulation game imposed by the US. In the medium run, Japan needs to challenge US dollar hegemony ushered in by the new rules. In the long run, the Japanese need to examine whether they should keep engaging in the game of capitalist accumulation.
 
Publisher University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
 
Date 2004-08-26
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
—
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/303
10.5195/jwsr.2004.303
 
Source Journal of World-Systems Research; Volume 10, Issue 2, 2004; 363-394
1076-156X
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://jwsr.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/jwsr/article/view/303/315
 
Rights Copyright (c) 2015 Satoshi Ikeda
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0