Japan and Germany can learn from each other as two major industrialized economies that have faced similar structural problems since the 1990s and are now trying to overcome them with reforms, a leading German economic scholar told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
While there is a strong possibility of a change in government after the Sept. 18 parliamentary election, Germany is on the right track to implement reforms irrespective of the outcome, according to Peter Bofinger, professor of economics at the University of Wuerzburg and a member of the Council of Economic Advisers to the German government.
Bofinger was speaking at the symposium "Prospect of German economy -- its positioning in enlarged European Union and implication to Japan," jointly organized by the Keizai Koho Center and the German Embassy at Keidanren Kaikan on July 21.