The Japanese government's recent pledge to encourage a doubling in foreign direct investment from overseas is a welcome and appropriate step to help resuscitate the flagging economy, according to the new president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.
"Japanese investment in the United States in the 1980s was a major contributor to returning the American economy to economic growth in the 1990s," observed ACCJ President Lance E. Lee in a recent interview with The Japan Times. "Investment from the U.S. and other countries can do the same for Japan today."
Lee, who assumed the top ACCJ post last month, recounted when stepped-up Japanese direct investment in the U.S. in the 1980s brought employment, tax revenues, new technologies and management techniques to the stagnant economy and industry.