How come Japan is into negative territory?

Rizal Philippines
April 24, 2016

Japan has again fallen intor recession

Japan has been into recession (contracting economy) for several years now.  The President IMF, LaGarde is worried not so much with less developing countries but with Japan. Japans public debt is 237% of its GDP, the highest among developed countries - WSJ  Although yen is now the darling of world currency, she was worried about too much debt of Japan, although mostly yen denominated (US has plenty of debt too - almost trillion dollars)

And its giants like Nissan, Toshiba, and Sharp have been taken over by foreign partners.  Of late, Mitsubishi is in trouble because of its alleged cheating on emission tests (like VW)  Because of the recent earthquake at Kyushu, giant car makers Toyota and Honda have ceased production because of disruption of supply chain.

From Japan Times - Sharp and Toshiba face dire prospects

The combination of  natural calamities, (earthquakes) aging population plus mistakes in fiscal and monetary policies have brought Japan into this challenges.  Let us add management complacency and smugness.  The Japan tiger of yore has become slow, and probably unmindful of world developments which included China.  The Japanese management and technological prowess on Kaizen, QFD, Gemba, TPM 5s was overcome by cheap and mass produced products from China. Everybody was caught unprepared.

Some say that loss of entrepreneurship fueled by conservative Japanese banks who favored large and and ongoing concerns, contributed to loss of innovation and change in Japan.  The likes of Akio Morita of Sony and Konosuke Matsushita who were for sound management and innovation was gone.