Japan's Economic Journey from Miracle to Challenge

Riding a big wave of economic miracles (a role model of economic development for emerging countries), Japan surprisingly became the 2nd largest economy (GDP) in the world next to the USA in 1968. However, after the 21st century began, China surpassed Japan in 2011, and it is now predicted that Germany and India will surpass Japan in 2023 and 2025, respectively. When it comes to GDP per capita, Japan rose to the 2nd highest rank in the world in 2000, but since then, it has steadily declined to the 27th largest in 2022. Furthermore, concerning the number of unicorn companies, as an index of leading economic potential indicators, only 12 Japanese companies were listed in 2022, while those of the USA, China, and India were 539, 174, and 64 companies, respectively. From the perspective of this data, the role model of Japan, a mature country with a declining population, may become a thing of the past unless Japanese economic resurgence occurs.

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