Thank you for the great note on Abe. I'm wondering how Abenomics might have played out if COVID had not intervened. Very sad day. Writing from the U.S. (but perhaps for all western democracies), we need Japan more than ever right now.
Many thanks for your kind comment. Certainly, as in other advanced countries, COVID swamped all questions of deeper reform. And it may have accelerated his departure, as in addition to his health problems his approval rating had fallen pretty low thanks to perceived mistakes and slow responses to the pandemic. It is hard, however, to imagine that in the 7th or then 8th year of his second term in office he and his government would anyway have really started to fulfil the promises of transformational structural reform that had been made in 2012-13 as the "third arrow" of Abenomics. All along, Abenomics chiefly relied on the monetary "arrow", with useful but not transformative reforms to corporate governance and labour law. If it ever had reforming steam, that had run out by 2020, in my view.
Thank you for pulling this thoughtful piece together! Especially after such shocking news!
Thank you for the great note on Abe. I'm wondering how Abenomics might have played out if COVID had not intervened. Very sad day. Writing from the U.S. (but perhaps for all western democracies), we need Japan more than ever right now.
Many thanks for your kind comment. Certainly, as in other advanced countries, COVID swamped all questions of deeper reform. And it may have accelerated his departure, as in addition to his health problems his approval rating had fallen pretty low thanks to perceived mistakes and slow responses to the pandemic. It is hard, however, to imagine that in the 7th or then 8th year of his second term in office he and his government would anyway have really started to fulfil the promises of transformational structural reform that had been made in 2012-13 as the "third arrow" of Abenomics. All along, Abenomics chiefly relied on the monetary "arrow", with useful but not transformative reforms to corporate governance and labour law. If it ever had reforming steam, that had run out by 2020, in my view.