It has been argued that the productivity gap of the nonmanufacturing sector vis-à-vis manufacturing was partly responsible for pushing up services prices (according to  4  For details, see Fumio Hayashi and Edward Prescott, “The 1990s in Japan: A Lost Decade,” Review of Economic Dynamics, 5, pp. 206–235, 2002.
5  See Yoshikazu Morimoto, Wataru Hirata, and Ryo Kato, “Global Disinflation,” research paper released by the Bank of Japan in June 2003 (available on the Bank’s website). 6  See Masaaki Shirakawa, “Japan’s Economy and Innovation,” speech given at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on May 31, 2010 (available on the Bank’s website).