Infrastructure  The third critical area for reforms, to my mind, is infrastructure. The problems in most infrastructure sectors are well-known and can be summarized in a couple of sentences. Rapid growth has raised demand for infrastructure services far in excess of available capacity.
Developments in Japan’s economy  Japan’s economy is still at a pause due to such factors as the ongoing adjustment in the production and inventory of IT-related goods. The underlying mechanism for economic recovery, however, continues to operate steadily and production, which was somewhat weak some time ago, has been more or less flat recently.