Lessons From Japan in Stemming a Crisis
In Japan’s Stagnant Decade, Cautionary Tales for America
By HIROKO TABUCHI
Published: February 12, 2009
TOKYO — The Obama administration is committing huge sums of money to rescuing banks, but the veterans of Japan’s banking crisis have three words for the Americans: more money, faster.
Heizo Takenaka, seen in 2002, headed the Japanese efforts that, though resisted, exposed the full extent of bad bank loans.
The Japanese have been here before. They endured a “lost decade” of economic stagnation in the 1990s as their banks labored under crippling debt, and successive governments wasted trillions of yen on half-measures