2006 is the most important year in determining whether Japan can change in the next 20 years.The vast majority of people may not have noticed that because Japan was one step late in catching up with the "new economy" wave that started in 1985, the economy fell into a long-term recession as soon as it entered the 1990s.Is Japan continuing on a more recessionary path, or is it heading towards a "new avenue of prosperity"? The turning point came in 2006. Since the burst of the bubble economy, for a long time, "recession" has become the mantra of everyone. After entering 2005, this sentence was finally replaced by the sayings of "really recovering the economy" and "optimistic about the economy". .But these discussions were superficial and did not go deep into the essence of the problem, because no one saw the major structural changes that occurred in Japan during this period.

Under the new economic conditions, the existing economic models of the 20th century are almost useless.The best evidence is that the government has used increased fiscal expenditures, continued zero interest rates, and increased money supply as regulatory measures, but the economy has not grown at all.In other words, the current economic downturn is not a recession, but a long-term recession; the "deflation" that is usually considered to be the culprit of economic deterioration is actually nothing but the "price normalization" that accompanies the borderless and globalization of the economy. globalization, rather than true deflation.

After analyzing the reasons for the improvement of the Japanese economy in 2005, people will understand that most of them are related to the special needs industries related to China, and the growth of corporate revenue is the result of layoffs. The essence of the changes that occurred in Japan during this period is that the income class has been polarized in the long-term economic recession, and the society has transformed from the original middle-class society to an "M-shaped society".In other words, in terms of population distribution, the low-middle income class and the high-income class have become two social classes with a large number of people.With incomes falling since the late 1990s, "middle-class society" as we know it (the overwhelming majority of the population living in the middle class) collapsed.The middle and lower class with an annual income of less than 6 million yen has already accounted for 80% of the total population of Japan.

This structural change is of great significance to us. After the Second World War, Japan developed rapidly and moved towards the road of building a middle-class society.In Japan, although a person's starting salary is not high when he enters the company, the company will give him regular promotions and salary increases. If he goes all the way, he can be in the upper middle class when he retires.For a long time, this form of workplace life cycle has been "reasonable common sense" for the Japanese.Of course, the company's marketing strategies are all aimed at the middle class and are carried out in line with everyone's career life cycle.But when this "reasonable common sense" collapsed, many people began to feel that "if you don't do well, you may end your life in the middle and lower classes."Therefore, it is no coincidence that the economy has recovered but the quality of life of the people has not improved.

This change in consciousness not only affects the marketing strategies of enterprises and personal life, but also has a profound impact on the ideal state that a country should have. For example, the impact of the growth of the middle and lower classes on the market can be seen at a glance from the ups and downs of the retail industry.In response to structural change, companies are being forced to fundamentally rethink strategy.The same is true for individuals. In an era of continuous decline in annual income, if you can't completely abandon the "common sense" about the middle class (you can't get rid of your persistent cognition about the middle class), life will be extremely difficult.

In this case, it is the policies implemented by the government that should make the biggest changes.The biggest reason why countries fall into long-term recession is that governments get the wrong response strategy.The government only understands the old form of economy, and regards fiscal expenditures that have no practical effect as a countermeasure to improve the economy.As a result, the government issued more than 1,000 trillion yen in public bonds when the central and local debts and fiscal financing funds were combined. Aging has also increased social burdens, turning Japan into a "high burden society."This is the situation in 2005-2006.

In addition, under the trend of declining birth rate and aging population, both the number of births and deaths in Japan declined in 2005, making Japan an unprecedented society in the world with a truly sharp population decline. This book first points out the essential problems that Japan is facing in the prologue, and then summarizes various viewpoints that the middle and lower class society will think about.The first chapter overlooks the structural changes in Japan; after the second chapter, according to the order of enterprises, individuals, and governments, it proposes specific methods of how to deal with this structural change.

For enterprises, I think the key words remind everyone to focus on the market strategy of the middle and low class era. As for individuals, they should abandon their illusions about middle-class life, and even if they are in the middle and lower classes, they should think about how to make their lives more abundant.In addition, I will explain the management of the workplace life cycle and urge everyone to pursue "qualitative changes" in life. In addition, with regard to the policies that the government should adopt, I will point out more specific reform directions, so that Japan can get rid of the long-term recession and build "new prosperity".If you think about these suggestions from the extension line of previous value standards, you may think that these reforms are impossible.But these are all reforms that must be carried out in order for the economy to prosper and all citizens to live happily.

As for the income of the middle and lower class in Japan, if judged by world standards, it can still be regarded as the upper middle class, but this kind of income cannot make most Japanese people live affluently.So the reforms I propose in this book are aimed at promoting "qualitative change" in the lives of the lower and middle classes. If we cannot complete the "qualitative change" I proposed, we will not be able to get rid of the long-term recession after the advent of both the declining birthrate and aging trend and the high-burden society, and it will continue to decline for at least the next 20 years!Whether we can set foot on the "new road to prosperity", now is the last chance.

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