Japan’s economy is still striving to construct a new system to accommodate the significant changes that have occurred since the late 1980s, such as globalization, innovations in information and communication technology, and societal aging and the declining birth rate. Given the various constraints involved, this is a formidable challenge.
Some commentators – among them the chair of the UK Financial Services Authority – have openly questioned the social usefulness of much of this activity. In essence people are asking whether the rising size and pace of transactions of the finance sector is actually a sign of higher economic prosperity, or of something wrong.