Neoliberalism and Market-Disciplining Policy in the Koizumi Reform in Japan

The Koizumi administration employed a policy to capitalize on the ambivalent feelings of the Japanese populace about globalization. Instead of emphasizing market-disciplining effects, his drastic deregulation policy was justified as an anti-development-oriented policy, which prevailed as a global standard. Because of the long-standing economic depression in Japan, resistance to globalism was weak, and his policy gained ardent public support. Since the developmental view of Japan lacked solid ground, however, the neoliberal reform doctrine based on the Washington Consensus was by and large rootless. Although Japan recovered, owing to the export boom, it is hard to find any definite evidence of a growth effect of the Koizumi reform.