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Adam Tooze: Why Japan’s Economy Is Surging

COVID bounce back pushes second-quarter GDP to 6 percent, annualized.

By , a deputy editor at Foreign Policy.
People walk down a street in the Chinatown section of the city of Yokohama, south of Tokyo.
People walk down a street in the Chinatown section of the city of Yokohama, south of Tokyo.
People walk down a street in the Chinatown section of the city of Yokohama, south of Tokyo, on Jan. 7. Philip Fong/AFP via Getty Images

Japan’s economy achieved 6 percent annualized growth in the second quarter of this year. That came as a shock to many, not only for the magnitude of the growth—6 percent would be a success for many countries in the West—but also the place where it happened. Ever since the popping of its real estate bubble in the 1990s, Japan has become almost synonymous with the idea of economic stagnation, with the years since the 1990s often referred to as the country’s “lost decades.”

Cameron Abadi is a deputy editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @CameronAbadi

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