While Asia in general may be slowing now that China’s epic debt creation machine is starting to break down, when it comes to trends within Asia not everyone is equal. And nowhere is this more visible than when comparing Japan, that dynamo of Asia in the 1980s and 1990s, and China, that other “New Normal” dynamo which carried the world across the Great Depression chasm. For the best representation of Japan’s epic fall from economic relevance and, inversely, China’s superpower ascendancy, here is one chart showing how vastly more relevant to Asia China now is compared to Japan just under 20 years ago.
