It is a common misconception to attribute japanese economic success and failure to some kind of special japanese character. It is mostly done by court economists when predictions of their theories do not work out.
Whiel national character doe have some effect on ecomomic activity, in case of japanese it's so miniscule that their behavior almost exactly followed the predictions of neo-classical /austrian schools of ecomnomics.
The japanese "miracle" of the 70s was due to Japain staying on the bottom part of the Laffer curve by indexing their tax brackets while the western world allowed money expansion (and resulting inflation) combined with steeply progressive tax structure to sharply increase real tax rates and drive the economy up the laffer curve and into stagflation - untill Reagan and Thatcher dumped Keynes and adopted Hayek/Mises on Jude Wannisky's advice.
Once Japanese stopped doing that and started taxing productive parts of the economy in order to support unproductive ones, rather than allow natural market rallocation of the resources, their miracle ended and stagnation began. And the $100 billion a year cost that japanese tax and spend their population in order to help their export industries = support dollar and depress yen = subcidise american consumpton does not help them either.
threedays ,
For a good explanation of japan recession check
Explaining Japan's Recession , jump to Austrian School though the views of Keynesians and Monetarists are also enlightening, if false.
miko
