system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How did it come that japanese economy is smaller than it was 5 and 25 years ago and it seems noone cares and does anything?

I looked for the dynamics of Japanese nominal GDP. It was $4,9 trillion in 1994, and now it's 4,8$ trillion, not speaking about 6,2$ trillion in 2012. Though, throughout the last 25 years the trend seems linear and horizontal, because it fluctuates a lot. This year it grew by 600 billion and after that it fell by 700. How Japanese and everyone kinda okay with that and doesn't pay much attention? I mean their economy is smaller than it was more than 20 years ago and they don't seem accomplishing much in tackling that.

Don't the Japanese react? Change policy? Elect other party and government? Social protests? Though it's only nominal GDP, and PPP grows, I guess it's really a sign that not only indicates current situation but also shows that there's going to be something worse in the long term, if they don't solve it.  


...or maybe Japan has reached it's slowly growing potential GDP and just fluctuates around it?
gpt
You should not be using nominal GDP in dollars in your comparison, as the exchange rate fluctuations with respect to the dollar and inflation will have disproportionate effects on the numbers you quote. Importantly, Japan experienced deflation throughout the 90s and 2000s and even in the early 10s, making the comparison flawed since a lower nominal GDP would not necessarily mean a smaller economy but rather one in which things get nominally cheaper.

When you look at real values in local currency (chained 2011 yen), Japan’s GDP was 425 trillion yen in 1994, 511 trillion yen in 2014 and 536 trillion yen in 2019, indicating positive, if mild, growth. In fact, Japan has experienced positive real growth rates pretty much every year since the 80s, except for the years of the Asian Financial Crisis (1998-1999) and the Great Financial Crisis (2008-2010).