The accumulated structural fragilities of the financial sector were revealed all at once. For its part, Japan endured a long recession for more than 10 years after the bubble burst in the early 1990s.
In East Asia, along with the brisk growth of the real economy, financial demand has also been increasing sharply, in connection with trade, foreign direct and indirect investment, and the operation of the foreign reserves. Looking only at trade, the volume between Japan, China and Korea built up rapidly from 96 billion dollars in 1990 to 378 billion dollars in 2002.