Abe setting the stage for 'third arrow'

THE gaze of the world is fixed on Japan's skies, waiting for the "third arrow" of Abenomics to streak across the firmament, heralding the arrival of a new era of economic deregulation. But change is beginning to happen at a different level, in the undergrowth of the Japanese bureaucracy.

Abenomics is not only about having the will to reform the world's third largest economy, nor indeed just about possessing the political power to do so. Critically, it is also about being able to ensure that legislated reforms are not neutralised by the powerful bureaucracy. The biggest resistance factor to change in Japan is not the public - be it "cons…