Japan had a huge asset bubble in its property and stock market from 1986 to 1991. Its subsequent collapse has contributed greatly to Japan's lost decades in which she suffered sub-par economic growth, recurrent recessions and deflation.
Nobel Prize winner economist Paul Krugman believed that Japan is in a liquidity trap. US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke proposed that the Japanese Central Bank should drop cash from a helicopter to save her from the liquidity trap, earning him the moniker "Helicopter Ben". Full story
