Europe’s economy is decaying. Some economists are comparing this to the situation in Japan of two decades ago. In the most current news forecasts for development and inflation in 2015 were cut by the European Central Bank, with the possibility of considering quantitative easing to counter deflation.
But how does Europe feel about this comparison? Does it want to be the next Japan? There are a lot of attractive features in Japan such as: enhanced living standards, caring for the aging, low crime rate, and more.
Either way Europe would do well to look at Japan’s experiences and learn from them. Indeed, according to head of the Economic Policy Unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Cinzia Alcidi, Japan has already gone through what Europe is likely to encounter. People are concerned in Europe about its economic situation being “Japanized,” in other words, the economic bubble bursting. So the first thing Europe needs to focus on is cleaning its banks balance sheets. This is something Japan did at the time.
Still, on the other side of the coin, Japan is finding work for its youth (which Europe doesn’t seem to manage to do) possibly due to its better culture of work. Indeed, youth unemployment in Japan is even lower than it is in Germany. Young Europeans emigrate to find work, but the Japanese do not do this.
So while there are negatives in Europe becoming the new Japan, there are also positives – both culturally and ideologically.