Japan's economy is in a grave crisis. The financial and economic crisis in several East Asian NICs, which began a year ago and has still not been overcome, has certainly contributed, but Japan is by no means their "victim", even if its trade and financial ties with these countries are much closer than those of the USA or Western Europe. Rather, growth had already flattened out a lot since the beginning of this decade, especially due to "homemade" problems; national output has hardly risen at all, and unemployment has been increasing considerably for some time now.
Full article available only as PDF