[OC] The Japanese Economy Compared (1995 vs 2025)
Posted by midlife_cl
![[OC] The Japanese Economy Compared (1995 vs 2025)](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/in4is0c3rlfh1-1536x1186.png "[OC] The Japanese Economy Compared (1995 vs 2025)")
[OC] The Japanese Economy Compared (1995 vs 2025)
Posted by midlife_cl
22 Comments
Source: World Economic Outlook (April 2026). Tools: Excel.
What’s the difference between this pair of graphs and the version that was posted yesterday?
Yet the Japanese believe the solutions is to become even MORE xenophobic.
It’s insane to think that japan used to have a GDP per capita so much higher than the USA
There are several countries with significantly higher GDP per capita than the USA in Europe but they’re relatively small. Japan is pretty big, that’s quite a feat.
Note that GDP per capita can be incredibly misleading. See for example Ireland.
Also keep in mind that it includes all the money anyone in the country spends. In the case of the US, this includes health care spending.
You can’t look at a graph that is high because it includes people bankrupting themselves due to medical debt and conclude that must mean they are wealthy.
Japan’s economy was bigger than the US 30 years ago?
Very misleading as Japanese currency was overvalued since this was following the crash. Nominal GDP is a bad metric
Someone already posted this…
And again, this is useless data.
You might as well just post the exchange rates of these countries.
Barring the shit work life balance and stagnant wages, the QoL and social convenience in Japan is near or top of the world.
dude Yen devalued 50% since 2012, what’s the point
Tokyo city feels like 2050, clean, good food, utopian.
The history for the period that preceded this is pretty interesting.
During the Japanese economic boom in the 1970s and 80s, much of the media coverage from the West was similar to that you see nowadays for China – ‘Japan Bashing’.
Americans *hated* Japan. The case of [Vincent Chin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Vincent_Chin) is an example, who, funnily enough, was Chinese.
Someone once said Japans economy has been in the year 2000 since 1980 and it seems about right.
Japan in 1995 had ultra high living costs which inflate GDP: [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-price-levels-relative-to-the-us?country=USA~ITA~GBR~DEU~FRA~JPN](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-price-levels-relative-to-the-us?country=USA~ITA~GBR~DEU~FRA~JPN)
and better Currency rates, the USD/Yen rate was around 95.
https://preview.redd.it/dfjnioznzlfh1.png?width=788&format=png&auto=webp&s=43b6e4562737164f02345f9569286dca69c15dae
Most economic organisations don’t use Nominal GDP for economic size comparisons but GDP PPP, which removes these distortions: [https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/icp/brief/VC_Ch1_1](https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/icp/brief/VC_Ch1_1)
Not surprised since Japans working population has consistently decreased
Current US dollars doing a lot of work here
I mean for a population going extinct, that’s actually better than I thought.
Cool, now do the spread of wealth amongst the population.
Something’s off about this graph…
but anyway, OP should have done/should do 1985 Japan (or anytime during the bubble)
Japan is stuck in the year 2000 since 1980
You should show a chart by GDP PPP per capita. That way you can preempt all the responses that state it is because of a strong dollar.
as someone that actually lives in japan, people genuinely are starting to feel the pressure of increasing living cost and stagnant wages which is very much reflected in GDP per capita
not sure why people are in denial about it