Well, it&#x27;s hard to argue that this is non-growth rather than negative-growth masquerading as non-growth. There is a very strong argument that many corps in Japan should&#x27;ve given way to market forces and died out, but they are instead kept on life-support as a form of social welfare.<p>One has to wonder what the rationale for all of this is -- what are they afraid of? If they are suddenly left to their own devices, are these people going to starve to death? Has no-one ever been faced with the prospect of having to find a new job?<p>Many nations on Earth are being confronted with the notion that larger and larger sections of their society are now unemployable, and they are all handling it differently. Japan seems to have been confronted with this sooner than anybody else and they are choosing to keep their businesses afloat under the assumption that they will not institute deep and painful budget cuts, specifically slashing the employment workforce. And it looks like Japanese corps are cooperating.