Ex-U.S. official urges 'true' reform> Japan must take the plunge and carry out true deregulation if the nation wants to revive its "half dead" economy and achieve healthier trade relations with the rest of the world, Clyde Prestowitz, a former senior official of the U.S. Commerce Department, said Oct. 27 in Tokyo.
Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, Prestowitz, who is now chairman of the Washington-based Economic Strategy Institute, warned that the two nations would enter another series of trade friction unless Japan acts decisively and turns itself into a domestic demand-led economy.
"We are at a juncture, it seems to me, in which the story is about to repeat itself except at a higher level of intensity and (with) fewer tools and fewer areas (in which to) maneuver," he said.