Japanese experience a good lesson for Chinese regulators

Chinese regulators are turning to Japan for lessons on economic history, determined to keep the world's second-biggest economy from taking the same path of recession and deflation that has blighted its neighbor for the past 20 years.

China views Japan's handling of the liberalization of capital flows and the yen more than 30 years ago as key factors that led to the creation and subsequent bust of the asset bubble in the island nation in the early 1990s, according to Japanese government and other sources who are in direct contact with Chinese regulators.

"They aren't a single bit interested in Japan's successes. Their biggest interest is in Japan's mistakes," one China-based source who is directly in touch with Chinese regulators told media on condition of anonymity.