What are the main reasons for Japan's long-term economic depression since the 1990s?

199 1 After the "bubble economy" burst, Japan's economic growth fell into a long-term depression. Although the Japanese government has made great efforts to stimulate the economy by financial means many times and implemented "zero interest rate" in monetary policy, it has had little effect and the economy is difficult to get rid of the depression. There are many factors that have caused Japan's economy to get into trouble since the 1990s. Changes in fixed capital investment and net exports have played an important leading role. Specifically: (1) investment has shrunk. In 1980s, Japan did not seize the favorable opportunity of yen appreciation to adjust and upgrade its industrial structure, but invested a lot of surplus capital in real estate market and stock market, resulting in serious over-investment and bubble economy. 199 1 after the bubble economy burst, the production of traditional industries in Japan has tended to be surplus and saturated, thus entering the digestion stage of excess investment; At the same time, although Japan has developed and supported the information technology industry, due to strategic and policy problems, Japan is obviously backward in the process of informatization. Over-investment in traditional industries and the unfavorable development of information technology industry have made Japan no longer have a large-scale investment boom after the 1990s. The depression of fixed capital investment can be said to be one of the most important reasons for the long-term depression of Japan's economy in the 1990s.

(2) Insufficient demand. Although the Japanese government began to implement the strategy of changing to the "domestic demand-led" economic growth structure in the mid-1980s, the external demand situation still plays an important role in the development and evolution of Japan's economic cycle, and the "domestic demand-led" economic growth structure has never been established. From the perspective of market and resources, external demand is still an indispensable factor for Japan to maintain its status as a world super economic power. However, since 1980s, especially since 1990s, the rise of emerging market economy countries and regions has posed a strong competition for the export of Japanese traditional manufacturing products. At the same time, deflation and insufficient demand in the world, especially the economic crisis in some parts of East Asia, which have close trade relations with Japan, also make it difficult for Japan to expand external demand. In the 1990s, the decline in the contribution rate of net exports and the lack of domestic demand became important factors restricting Japan's economic recovery.