The team behind Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who aims to shake the dust off Japan's stagnant economy, has chosen a vintage broom with which to do it.
Breaking with the tradition of 10 unsuccessful years of "Keynesian" demand-side economics, they are now looking towards the blunt supply-side methods used by Ronald Reagan's government to beef up the US economy.
A program of structural reform unveiled last Thursday by State Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy Heizo Takenaka, drew obvious inspiration from the approach dubbed "Reaganomics" after the US fiscal policies followed during the double term of the former president.
This approach was characterised by rampant deregulation and tax reforms -- handing the baton of economic initiative to the private sector.
"We are going to implement explicit supply-side policies," professor Takenaka, an economist with the prestigious Keio University, told foreign reporters.
Since the 1990 collapse of the 80s speculative bubble, conservatives within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party had attempted to prop up the ailing Japanese economy with large, sustained doses of fiscal stimulation.
This strategy consisted of throwing unrestricted quantities of public cash into the backward economic and social sectors which traditionally support the LDP, delaying the major structural adjustments undertaken in the meantime in the US and Europe.
In addition, it led to the ruin of public finances, instilling in Japanese consumers a fear of tomorrow, subsequently reflected by an unchecked rise in savings rates.
"Japanese consumers are perfectly rational. They are considering their life cycle of income," Takenaka said.
"The only way to increase the life cycle income is through deregulation and supply-side reforms," he said.
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