What kind of tax structure does Japan have, for them to have been in a slump for almost thirty years? It must be brutal. They were supply-siders for a short time, I think.
Supply-side tax policies always succumb to greed and envy. People just cannot tolerate low tax rates for “the rich.”
It’s not the direct taxes (e.g. income taxes and sales taxes) that are Japan’s problem.
Japan’s problem is: “the problem whose name shall never be mentioned.”
Over-regulation. Japan has near zero legal immigration and more than 200% over-regulation by a network of regulatory authorities, bureaucracies, agencies, as well as city and national governments.
Since speaking of “over-regulation” is prohibited, the pundits talk only of Japan’s poor demographics (e.g. declining birth rates) and its need for “Stimulus” as if the Stimulus in 1989 wasn’t enough so the Stimulus of 1990 was needed, but it wasn’t enough so they had to do a Stimulus in 1991...and in fact have pretty well done some form of government money-pumping on a massive scale every year since to date.
...but it’s their hidden tax of over-regulation that is killing them.
How can Japan innovate new 3D printers when it is illegal there to 3D print useful products such as firearms?
How can Japan innovate new crops when GM seeds are prohibited there?
Japan’s farming rules alone prevent japan from even *copying* the U.S. hyper-farming revolution, much less innovating such a thing there first.
Ever hear of much private aviation in Japan? Tough to innovate when you are regulated out of the industry.
That’s their hidden tax, and it’s an economy-killer.
They were NEVER supply-siders. The whole country is run on a mercantilist model. Favorite corporate structures, protected agriculture and all the rest are regulated for the good of the favored industries.
In short, everything today’s progressives believe in short of nationalization.