The Telling of Japan's "Lost Decade": A comparison with the narration of the U.S. and EU crises

         
Author Name Peter VON STADEN (KEDGE Business School) / KAWAMURA Satoshi (Fellow, RIETI)
Creation Date/NO. March 2016 16-E-042
Research Project Historical Study on Japan's Trade and Industrial Policy: From an international perspective
Download / Links

Abstract

Financial newspapers play a key role in forming the intersubjective understanding of what is an economic crisis. Recent crises in the United States and the European Union narrated by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and the Financial Times (FT) are contrasted with the Nikkei Shimbun's treatment of Japan's Lost Decade. We observe two forms. In all cases, narration responds to the immediate need to explain the facts of the matter and explain causality. Later, this preoccupation abates and space is given to reflection. Importantly, while all three newspapers do so, the timing and characteristics differ. In comparison to the Nikkei, the WSJ and FT not only respond to this need more quickly but also in a decidedly more open and confessorial way. We consider the importance of this.