The curse of primary balance has been lost for ３０ years, and now is the time for fiscal spending.

Photo by kanesue (licensed under panoramio)

The curse of a primary balance surplus has become an excellent material for opposition parties to appeal to the government for fiscal austerity. Yoichi Takahashi has said that he does not mind fiscal stimulus, or printing money, up to the inflation target of ２%.

Both Prime Minister Abe and Policy Research Council Chairman Takaichi have set an inflation target of ２%. In the first place, the topic of primary balance became popular after the bubble burst.

As many large companies go bankrupt, the government repeatedly imposes fiscal stimulus, resulting in deficits and financial bankruptcy. The bursting of the bubble was a national economic crisis.

So when is the government going to do something about the national crisis without spending money? In １９８９, ３２ of the ５０ companies in the world by market capitalization were Japanese companies, but by ２０１９, there was only one Japanese company, and that number had disappeared. Ta.

During the bubble period, Japan was to America what China is today. It is true that growth was not based on illegal business like in China, but there is no doubt that it was a threat to the American economy.

The United States should have predicted Japan's bubble would burst. Or maybe it's a country that can play a role in triggering this.

If Japan had been able to implement bold fiscal stimulus after the bubble burst, it would have been possible to quickly overcome the aftereffects and return to a growth trajectory. Japan is among １１ countries subject to currency manipulation monitoring announced by the U.S. Treasury Department on December ３ of this year.

Even after the bursting of the bubble economy, Japanese companies have continued to innovate in a variety of ways. i-mode was the world's first mobile phone to connect to the Internet, the all-in-one concept of integrating a camera, calculator, memo pad, etc. in a bag into a mobile phone, and mixi was the original social network.

These ideas became the exclusive domain of American GAFA. Even though Japan was in the bud of creating a new industrial structure, it ran out of water and nutrients.

So why or who put a stop to it?

Internal pressure, external pressure, various things can be imagined. Japan's balance sheet shows that its finances are sound, and fiscal stimulus will not cause a national fiscal collapse. This is exactly what was at issue in the last presidential election. There are two points: fiscal spending and national defense.

Councilor Takaichi was the only one who clearly answered that question, and I had no idea what the other candidates were saying.