After the earthquake disaster, Japan’s economy is faced with new difficulties, including the problems of electricity supply, in addition to the problem of the downtrend in economic growth rate due to the demographic vortex. Depending on responses to those problems, firms’ and households’ growth expectations could change and induce unexpected effects on future developments in economic activity.
In what follows, I will talk somewhat in detail about those problems, which relate to the topic of today’s seminar “Strategy for Revitalization of Japan’s Economy”. III. Japan’s medium- to long-term challenges and toward their resolution  Downtrend in growth rates After the burst of a bubble, Japan’s economy has often been referred to as a “lost decade” or “lost twenty years”.