The other day I caught an in-depth Japanese news show on the economic crisis in Spain, which was interesting because the problems that country is experiencing are very similar to what Japan went through after the bursting of its land bubble in 1991. During the Japan’s bubble period, the value of all land in Tokyo was higher than the entire United States on paper, and when things crashed in 1991, it resulted in a “lost decade” of economic hard times for Japan. The causes of both crashes were remarkably similar, including over-spending on municipal “if you build it they will come” projects, too much access to easy credit and a speculative bubble in land prices. One silver lining is that countries like Spain can learn a lot from the steps Japan took to solve its own economic problems and act on them sooner (Japan’s government took years to start to combat the crisis). As is common with Japanese news programs like the one I was watching, a male “announcer” (newscaster) stood beside an attractive female co-announcer, while a panel of distinguished guests looked on, ready to make comments. Naturally they needed a Japanese-bilingual foreigner to round out the group and give a foreign point of view, a role filled by model and “talent” Jessica Claros from Malaga, Spain.
Japan is uniquely qualified to understand Spain’s crisis.
