China should still set the pace, while Japan could see a rebound at last.

CNN: BUSINESS FORECAST '96

Japan still has numerous structural problems, most glaringly the inability of the government to set up a Resolution Trust Corp.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

Asia is still smarting after the United States squelched Japan's proposal early in the Crisis to set up a regional intervention fund, while the International Monetary Fund pressed excessively puritan fiscal regimes on stricken governments that caused deeper-than-necessary recessions.

CNN: FIXING THE WORLD

Leasing, Orix's original and still its main business, was unknown in Japan until a handful of trading companies and banks set up the firm in 1964.

FORBES: The sun also rises

If truth be told, today is Japan's golden age, despite being still mired in post-bubble detritus, plagued by political ineptitude and set more than ever in concrete.

ECONOMIST: Japan observed