LETTER
FROM JAPAN
Every country hit by the global
financial crisis is going through
it in different ways — or, to borrow from Tolstoy, every unhappy
country is unhappy in its own way.
Japan spent much of 2012 in recession before a small uptick of .2 percent growth for the fourth quarter.
The country has a much lower unemployment rate than we do — 4.1
percent — but that obscures other
problems, like falling wages, deflation and low growth.
Also, according to the World
Economic Forum, Japan ranks 101st
in the “gender gap index” — women
constitute only 12 percent of new
hires in career-track jobs.
But numbers don’t tell the whole
story. There’s a widespread sense
that Japan’s idea of itself as a country on the cutting edge of technology is slowly becoming outdated.
Japanese tech giants are having
a hard time keeping up in a globally competitive environment. And
a report in the To