In 1990–2003, Japan experienced a prolonged economic stagnation and downturn. Many call this Japanese economic situation the Great Recession making an allusion to the Great Depression of the 1930s in the U. S. In both cases, a deflationary crisis followed the bursting of an asset bubble, but the American malaise was acute, and the Japanese was mitigated. Origins of Japan’s slump and policy responses to it were debated worldwide in academic publications and in the press.