«started from a higher base where you would expect growth to be more difficult» This is an incorrect intuition. Compare to a few other similar (ie. developed)

«started from a higher base where you would expect growth to be more difficult» This is an incorrect intuition. Compare to a few other similar (ie. developed) countries of different sizes like Germany, Canada, South Korea, the growth per capita is roughly the same: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?end=2017&locations=JP-US-CA-KR-DE&start=2003 https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?end=2... «GDP per capita is growing on par with the U.S» That's exactly my point. Japan is not "declining".