Discussion On Regulatory Reform In Contemporary Japan

The modern system of regulation in Japan, which has been gradually set up after World WarⅡ, made remarkable contribution to the rapid development of Japanese economy. However, as the situations both home and abroad have changed greatly and the aim of catching up with the US and Western Europe has been finished, the surplus on regulation is now becoming a barrier to Japanese economy. For the sake of adapting to the new situation, the reform on regulation started to be conducted by Tokyo from 1980, and after the introduction of the Action Plan of Progressive Reform on Regulations in the middle 1990s the reform enter a new stage named as regulation reform. Since then, the Japanese Government is dedicated to putting forward the reform by establishing a "third organ" and enacting successive Plan of Reform. This was followed by a series of new initiatives of Japanese Government in the 21st century marked by "Special Region of Reform" and "Market-orient tests". Stimulated by these efforts, the strength of Japanese regulation has been reduced to 60% ever since 1995. Apart from its significant economic achievements, reform on regulation in Japan inevitably brings about some profound social issues. For example,growing income gap and social inequality has aroused increasing attention ,which is the focus of masses' discussions upon the new comprehensive criteria to judge the regulation reform .