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When I think of Abenomics,
the following words
always come to mind: "A politician thinks of the
next election; a statesman, of the next generation."
The American theologian and author James Freeman
Clarke came up with that
quote back in the 19th
century. Here in the present, I can't help but ask
myself: What will remain after Abenomics?
"the heaviest
public debt burden of any developed
nation, projected to rise to 2.5
times the size of the
economy by the end of this decade."
Abe is the first Japanese prime minister to raise the consumption tax
twice -- in April 2014 and
October 2019. But we should never forget that
he
also postponed the tax hike twice -- in November
2014 and June 2016 --
fearing a negative impact on
the next elections. How can Japan's
shrinking "next generation" pay off a debt 2.5 times as big as
the
country's GDP? It can't. It's too late. The next
generation will, I
fear, remember Abe as a great
"politician" who always thought
of the next election.
Our Asia Insight story this week focuses on a
to the
casino industry is one of the Abe government's headline policies for
stimulating local economies, but a bribery scandal has increasingly
soured the public
on the idea. A recent opinion poll found that nearly
60% of Japanese want the government to either rethink
or ditch the plan,
dealing Abe yet another blow.
The prime minister's handling of the coronavirus-
of the virus does not end there, though.
We have an excellent Industry in Focus feature on the outbreak's impact
on China's small and midsize
are its smaller companies, and the
virus hit them first.
Over 85% of the country's small businesses expect
to
run out of cash within three months. Visit our website
dictator's wife, who famously owned
3,000 pairs of
shoes. She is now 90 years old, but as suggested by
the
title of the documentary -- "The Kingmaker" -- still powerful.
It's an amazing story.
Shigesaburo Okumura
Editor-in-chief, Nikkei Asian Review
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