1.0<Tab/>Introduction:
It is one of the great ironies of the Twentieth Century. The greatest economic success story of the century, Japan, has faltered in the century's final decade. But we should not forget that Japan was the first non-Western nation to industrialize, the first country to graduate from developing to developed status in this century, and the fastest ever to rise to economic power. Japan charted a new and distinctive model of economic growth.
Many commentators suggest, however, that Japan's economic model is now obsolete. For its own good, Japan must aba…