Japanese policy and the East Asian currency crisis: abject defeat or quietvictory?

Authors
Citation
Cw. Hughes, Japanese policy and the East Asian currency crisis: abject defeat or quietvictory?, REV INT P E, 7(2), 2000, pp. 219-253
Citations number
37
Categorie Soggetti
Economics
Journal title
REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
ISSN journal
09692290 → ACNP
Volume
7
Issue
2
Year of publication
2000
Pages
219 - 253
Database
ISI
SICI code
0969-2290(200022)7:2<219:JPATEA>2.0.ZU;2-1
Abstract
Japan stands accused of purveying a defective developmental state model of growth to the East Asian states which was responsible for the onset of the currency crises from 1997 onwards, and then of failing to provide the neces sary leadership for the stabilization and recovery of the region. Japan's p osition of economic dominance and its nascent political leadership role in East Asia are now seen to be under attack. However, this article argues tha t over the longer term Japan is continuing to exercise considerable covert economic and political leadership in the region. Examination of Japanese po licy makers' perceptions of the East Asian crisis reveals that they see the region as hit above all by currency crises which have transmuted into econ omic ones, but that the model of export and DFI-powered growth in the regio n is still fundamentally sound. Japanese policy makers contend that Japan i s not responsible for the occurrence of the crises, nor are the USA- and IM F-prescribed solutions likely to hold the key to the restoration of growth in East Asia. Instead, they quietly lay the blame for the crises upon China for undercutting the competitiveness of East Asian exports and moving ahea d of the ASEAN-4 in the regional production cycle. Hence, Japanese policy, as manifested in the New Miyazawa Initiative, has concentrated upon regeari ng existing developmental models, and has gradually begun to restore a meas ure of confidence in Japanese economic leadership and to set the agendas of both the USA and multilateral institutions towards the crises.