Abe must keep wind behind third arrow to crack Japan's old habits

OLD habits are hard to crack, and few are tougher than the long-entrenched incumbents at which Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched his third arrow of structural reforms.

The third leg of Mr Abe's strategy to revitalise the Japanese economy is limping along, and threatens to stall his promise and the country's hopes. Mr Abe may have earned praise for his aim when he launched his various reform policies over the past few years, but he must do more to ensure that his final arrow can maintain its speed and pierce its target when it arrives.

To be fair, the third arrow of "Abenomics" was always going to be the hardest to get right. The first arrow of fiscal stimulus and the second arrow of monetary stimulus are easily within Mr Abe's control since those are directly implemented by the government. Ensuring that companies pay more than lip service to corporate governance, changing a people's biases toward immigrants, improving gender equality at the workplace and pulling a population out of a deflationary mindset, however, require more subtle and intricate manoeuvrings than simply printing more money.