In the wee hours of Oct. 11 Tokyo time, finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of Seven industrialized countries met in Washington to discuss how to resolve the global financial crisis and agreed to protect all depositors and inject public funds to rescue financial institutions.

The accord was welcomed by stock exchanges worldwide and share prices soared, but this trend proved short-lived as market volatility continues.

When Japan was hit hard by a serious downturn after the economic bubble burst in 1990, Yoshikazu Miyazaki, economist and professor emeritus of Kyoto University, stated that the nation was not facing a simple recession that could be cured by inventory adjustments, but rather a "compound recession" that required the disposal of assets deemed "nonperforming" following the sharp declines in land and stock prices.