Former PBOC governor: China should learn from Japan's lost decade - Reuters

China needs to learn from Japan's lost decade to ensure the world's second-largest economy does not face similar problems, former central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. 

The lost decade refers to the period of economic stagnation in Japan that began in the 1990s.

Key quotes

Japan had very fast development and later then a so-called lost decade. The Chinese economy may have a similar over-leveraged problem, and we need to absorb the knowledge and lessons from what happened.

After so many years China is much more confident to have further reform and open-door policy, although the pace of reforms has been slow. 

Further overhauls needed to help develop capital markets and revamp the pension system.

We stand for free trade and investment and multilateralism.