Lost Decade (Japan) Decade. However, several Japanese policymakers have attempted reforms to address the malaise in the Japanese economy. After Shinzo Abe was elected as Japanese prime minister in December 2012, Abe introduced a reform program known as Abenomics which sought to address many of the issues raised by Japan's Lost Decade. His "three arrows" of reform intend to address Japan's chronically low inflation, decreasing worker productivity relative to other developed nations, and demographic issues raised by an aging population. Investor response to the announced reform was strong, and the Nikkei 225 rallied to 20,000 in May 2015 from a low of around
Shinzō Abe now pending in the United States Congress, for an official apology. America isn't the only country interested in seeing Japan belatedly accept full responsibility. [South] Korea and China are also infuriated by years of Japanese equivocations over the issue. A 2007 "Washington Post" editorial, "Shinzo Abe's Double Talk" also criticized him: "he's passionate about Japanese victims of North Korea—and blind to Japan's own war crimes". In "The New York Times" in 2014, an editorial called Abe a "nationalist" who is a profound threat to American–Japanese relations, and an opinion piece labeled Abe's position on the subject of comfort women a