"A look at the underlying accounting, however, suggests that, far from underperforming, Japan may have outperformed. For a start, in a little noticed change, Un

"A look at the underlying accounting, however, suggests that, far from underperforming, Japan may have outperformed. For a start, in a little noticed change, United States statisticians in the 1980s embarked on an increasingly aggressive use of the so-called hedonic method of adjusting for inflation, an approach that in the view of many experts artificially boosts a nation’s apparent growth rate. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/the-true-story-of-japans-economic-success.html http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/the-true-st... Japan was the "bad guy" in 1990, they had a lot incentive to downplay their position in subsequent years. [ dang, is that you? chill, dude ]