How the Shock Therapy of ‘Abenomics’ Worked in Japan

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had a bold strategy: shock therapy for an economy that had been stagnant for 20 years and was overtaken by China as the world’s second-largest in 2010. Launched three years later, Abenomics, as the doctrine is known, departed from the piecemeal measures of previous leaders and antagonized powerful political constituencies. Abe told voters that the strong economic medicine was Japan’s last chance to remain a world power, framing his policies as a matter of nation