Free market or protectionist?

[SwordoftheVistula]

If American companies had behaved that way they would have been breaking the law.

And things would also cost more here. This policy doesn't seem to have worked out too well for Japan, as their economy has been stagnant for the past couple decades.

[Maelstrom]

And things would also cost more here. This policy doesn't seem to have worked out too well for Japan, as their economy has been stagnant for the past couple decades.

Stagnant? I have always been under the impression that Japan was/is a great economic power that has only been going from strength to strength.

Sources would be very much appreciated

[Æmeric]

Japan is a great export economy. Their domestic economy is not doing so hot, much of which has to do with protectionism. Considering their GDP & PCI, their standard of living is not that great. It is a very expensive place to live. All of those trade surpluses caused an asset bubble in the late 80s leading to what is called the "Lost Decade", when asset prices & the domestic economy in Japan went into a slump. Though it is called the lost decade, it actually started around 1990 & Japan has never really come out of it.

The export driven economies of Asia are currently having a harder time at the moment with their econmies contracting at a much higher rate then the US, the result of their dependence on exports to the US.

[stormlord]

Stagnant? I have always been under the impression that Japan was/is a great economic power that has only been going from strength to strength.

Sources would be very much appreciated

You want sources for the fact that Japan has a stagnant economy? Umm; every newspaper and financial journal for the last two decades. It is, and has been for literally twenty years, the textbook example of economic stagnation.

That's like asking to see sources when someone says that Germany's been reunified.

[Skandi]

If you look at this graph you can see that the economy there has been growing for the past few years at a comparable rate to ours, but you can also see that it wasn't very long ago that they had negative growth in the "lost decade" personally I see their growth pattern as much more sustainable than ours, as you can't keep expanding all the time.