Seven years ago, prior to the global financial crisis, the overwhelming consensus among economists was that, in retrospect, Japan’s expected convergence in productivity levels to America’s Pacific coast was not in the cards. Japanese culture produced enormous blockages to employing half the population – women.
七年前，在全球金融危机爆发前，经济学家间压倒性的一致是，事后看来，预期中的日本生产率向美国太平洋沿岸趋同的现象并未发生。日本文化让人口的半壁江山——女性难以加入劳动力大军。日本政治中存在根深蒂固的农业和小企业利益，妨碍了出口导向型制造业的扩散。