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Did the government need to be

reinvented?

•YES

Reinvent the government?• The Liberal Democratic Party

ossified after 4 decades.

• LDP farmers rule the cities from "nuclear villages."

•Democratic Party of Japan new to tools of power.

•Campaign finance boosted power utilities' influence.

•Revolving door Prime Ministers resumed after Koizumi.

•Intra-party jockeying weakened DPJ leadership

•Amkudari (descent from heaven) created conflict for METI (nuclear utility regulators)

Reinventing Government continued

•Crisis communication between METI, Kan, TEPCO, & the public was horrendous.

•The DPJ agrees to limit the liability of TEPCO.

•The DJP adopts generous per child family stipends.

•Disaster costs (13T Yen) forced reducing the stipends.

•SDF is seen as the ONLY effective element of government.

•Advances LDP leader Abe's plan to re: article 9.

Kan resigned to arrange a shutdown

date

Deal broken.

In the year after 3-11 all functioning

nuclear plants were shut down for maintenance.

Local governments deny restarts. Noda pushes one reactor Abe promises an extension of all reactors' service lives to 60 years.

Were the disasters an opportunity for economic change?

•A possible sustainable energy program for Japan:

•no-Existing plants not yet paid for.

•no-Private Utilities profitable only on a cost plus basis.

•yes-Japan has weathered "energy shock" well.

•yes-Reduced demand--East Asian competition & investment in overseas plants.

•Sketchy corporate investment & LDP connections ballooned Japan's public debt.

•Inevitable population decline.

•Decline in real wages.

• Salary men no longer the norm.

• Talented young men & women face social precarity as freeta .

•Tom will address the issue female employment as a stimulus to substantial growth of GDP

Economic opportunity

•Japanese foreign manufacturing contributes to unsustainable levels of domestic unemployment.

•Expected decline in real estate values means, precarity for the aging population.

•Elder care workers in short supply with 1:1 ratio of aged to workers.

•Increasing chance for "my-homeism" and multigenerational housing.

Economic opportunity