Editorial: Economic White Paper.

The Economic Planning Agency (EPA)'s 2000 White Paper on the Economy, subtitled "The Beginning of a New World," focuses on the impact that information technology (IT) and the fiscal deficit will have on the Japanese economy in the 21st century.

The annual report, the 54th issued in the postwar era, asserts that the Japanese economy bottomed out in the spring of 1999, and has experienced gradual improvement since then due to increased foreign demand, corporate restructuring, and investment in plants and equipment, including investment in IT. The report credits various economic policies and the recovery of the Asian economies for recent positive trends in the Japanese …