@Don, another quick question, do you know South Korea is eating Japan now? hahaha. This won't be a quick answer either.
Well, for me it will be, relatively speaking. South Korea's economy is growing at a much healthier rate than Japan's, but Japan has been in the doldrums economically for the past two decades or more. Toss in the tsunami/earthquake disaster, just barely over a year ago, and they're not recovering any time soon. I doubt that the Japanese government has been willing to accept and face the true level of damage at Fukushima - practically speaking, that area will remain uninhabitable for many, many years, and cancer rates of anyone living too close will skyrocket.
I recall part of the problem being described to me as stagflation - prices don't move, salaries don't move. Interest rate remain ridiculously low for loans, but even lower for savings, so people hold back on their desire to spend out of fear for the future. The economy becomes stagnant, and they've been trying since the early '90s to get it going again without success.
That's how I see it - whether this is accurate remains to be seen!
