Thanks to the generosity of the Japanese government I have just returned from two weeks in the land of the rising sun. A fascinating visit that gave me a week’s briefings with government officials, think tanks, academics and others, plus a few moving days in Hiroshima and about 5 days in Kyoto, all during the time that cherry blssom season was slowly gathering way.
I put some of my impressions in two columns published last week.
In the first, written for the Economy Lab feature in the Globe’s ROB, I wrote about my assessment of the chances of success of Abenomics. The summary: losing 250,000 people every year is a huge sheet anchor for the Japanese economy to drag along as the government tries to stimulate it into resurgence. And, well, Keynesianism on steroids is, after all, still just keynesianism, and its track record is dubious at the best of times.
In the second, written for the Ottawa Citizen and other Postmedia urban dailies, I struck a more positive note, delving into the arguments behind my conviction that Japan remains a better partner for Canada in Asia than China.
