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INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION JAPAN
The big comeback?
Auch Japan leidet unter der globalen Wirtschaftskrise. Vicki Sussens informiert über
die gesellschaftliche Entwicklung des Landes und über wichtige unternehmerische
und kulturelle Aspekte zum Aufbau geschäftlicher Beziehungen.
W
hen Shinzo Abe became
Japan’s prime minister for the second time
in December 2012, he
promised to make the
country’s economy strong again. In
Japanese folklore, three sticks tied
together are harder to break than
one, and Abe borrowed this image.
The “three arrows” of his economic policy — increases in the money
supply to raise inflation, an expansionary fiscal policy to boost growth
and structural reforms to increase
productivity — are aimed at solving Japan’s long-standing problems
of falling prices, low growth and
high public debt. As in the past, the
land of the rising sun is once again
38 www.business-spotlight.de
faced with the challenge of making
a comeback. And, as is typical of the
country, the current prime minister is
going about it in a specifically Japanese way. Falling oil prices, turbulent
international financial markets and
slowing growth in Japan’s biggest
trading partner, China, are making
it hard for Abe’s arrows to hit their
targets, however.
Since the 17th century, which
brought European trade and cultural influences to the Far East, Japan
has been a master at absorbing the
world’s best ideas without losing
control over its development. Tokyo is a legacy of this. The streets of
the city centre look like New York’s
medium
Times Square, but its crowds are not
multicultural. Over 98 per cent of
Japan’s population is ethnically Japanese, and Japanese is the only significant language spoken. Japan has
discouraged waves of immigration
typical of other developed nations.4
arrow [(ÄrEU]Pfeil
boost sth. [bu:st]
etw. ankurbeln
challenge [(tSÄlIndZ]
schwierige Aufgabe
go about sth. etw. angehen
[)gEU E(baUt]
legacy [(legEsi]Vermächtnis;
hier: Beweis
long-standing schon lange bestehend
[)lQN (stÄndIN]
master: be a ~ at doing etw. meisterhaft tun
sth. [(mA:stE]
money supply Geldmenge
[(mVni sE)plaI]
public debt [)pVblIk (det]Staatsverschuldung
target [(tA:gIt]Ziel
3/2016
T. Peter/Reuters
3/2016
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Tokyo brokerage