In August 1998, Japan's Economic Planning Agency reported that seven of the country's ten regions were officially in a slump, and two others were stagnant. The agency surveyed 4,500 big Japanese companies, who reported that they plan to cut foreign direct investment by 57% this year to ·1.2 trillion ($8.3 billion). At its peak, in 1990, investment reached ·4.2 trillion. All these figure are being continually revised downwards.
The end of the Japanese miracle can be dated as far back as 1985. In that year the USA responded to its disastrous trade deficit with Japan by imposing the Plaza Accord. This forced the Japanese government to raise the value of the Yen against the US dollar. By 1990, this had led to a 40% reflation of the Yen against
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