Its days have been numbered since the collapse of the Berlin Wall coincided with the bursting of Japan's bubble economy.

ECONOMIST: Japan's election

Tsuneo Iida, an economist at Chubu University, claims that the financial mess left after the bursting of Japan's bubble economy was the Americans' fault.

ECONOMIST: Japan

Greenspan mistakenly believes our once-exuberant stock market meant we were experiencing our version of Japan's 1980s bubble economy.

FORBES: Fact And Comment

Founded in 1875, Toshiba grew fat during Japan's 1980s bubble years, when the economy boomed on the back of land speculation and consumer spending reached dizzy heights.

CNN: ASIANOW - Asiaweek

But in doing so, Asian institutions need to maintain a cautious conservatism in the face of unfamiliar booms that could so easily go bust, as Japan's bubble-economy bankers have seen.

CNN: The Asiaweek Financial 500