When the Uber went online last year in Fukuoka, the biggest city in Japan’s south, it was shut down within a matter of weeks by the government on the grounds that the vehicles used did not belong to Uber, which violated the nation’s Road Transportation Act. The company’s second attempt to break into the nation of 127 million has involved a different strategy: cooperating with taxi companies.
The combination of Japanese monetary policies, government spending policy, and structural reforms being carried out under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has sent the Japanese stock market up by about 60 percent and weakened the national currency to around ¥100 against the dollar, about a 20 percent decline. However, hurdles remain on the path to success.
