6 In his recent book, former Bank of Japan Governor Shirakawa argues that the immediate response of many major Japanese firms to the large demand shock brought about by the bursting of the bubble and the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008 was to reduce graduate recruitment and increase non-regular employment.
There was a massive rise in risk aversion, reflected in a variety of indicators, including a rise in risk premiums, the rising cost of credit default swaps, and steep falls in global stock markets. Activity in interbank markets virtually ceased. The shortage of global liquidity had an impact even here in the Gulf.