"I don't know why people keep comparing China to Japan" Because they both went through hyper-growth periods after economic shock (war for Japan, and for China

"I don't know why people keep comparing China to Japan" Because they both went through hyper-growth periods after economic shock (war for Japan, and for China war then Mao). During that period of hubris they took on a lot of debt. They both had declining GDP growth and bad demographics. The negative momentum overwhelms the positive moment at some point. Your comment misses the bit were Real Estate is not a productive asset. Building new buildings on land is productive, but like Canada's housing bubble, when homes double in value quickly, it's just inflation. " They'll just need to make sure they can properly incentivize more population growth to keep the positive feedback loop humming along." I hope you realize the folly of this statement. Imagine if we all just did the 'body count for GDP strategy'.