The Japanese standard line

For a break from American politics, let's talk about Japanese politics. In this article in the Economist, the author notes that:

Money was misallocated during the great stock and property bubble of the 1980s, but then even more was wasted in the next decade, as banks kept “zombie” companies alive and politicians raided the biggest pork barrel in history.

However, even respected economics professors in Japan, such as the one I work for, routinely refer to Japan's economic stagnation in the 90s as the understandable result of the "bursting of the bubble economy." Why?

Basically, they say this because the government tells them to say it. Basically, the people running the show in Japan went and spent a few trillion dollars on pork, and then told all the academics to make apologies for this behavior and essentially cover it up. And the academics of Japan, basically displaying East Asia's typical hideous obedience to authority, have done so and continue to do so. Maybe that's one reason the Economist says that "Japanese universities need to be revamped."

Note to America: If our country ever allows its universities to become tools of the government, as some basically think they should, then we may follow in the foosteps of hideously obedient authority's-boot-licking countries like poor Japan.