5
MEMORIES ARE SHORT
The Japan of 1999 was a country largely drained of its confidence.
Every year since 1957, the Bank of Japan (BOJ)—the country’s central bank—has carried out the quarterly Tankan survey to gauge corporate sentiment in the country. The Tankan is so highly regarded by Japanese companies that 99 percent of those surveyed send back a response to the confidential questionnaire. The most closely watched element of the survey is a Diffusion Index on the state of business that compares the number of positive viewpoints minus negative ones, so that a score of zero means that businesses overall have a neutral view of where the economy is heading.
The headline figure for major companies announced in December 1998 was negative 56. ...
Get Collision Course now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
