It might be worth mentioning that although the Nikkei has been pretty flat, after visiting Japan yearly for the past few years, I've noticed that the rate of de

It might be worth mentioning that although the Nikkei has been pretty flat, after visiting Japan yearly for the past few years, I've noticed that the rate of development and re-development there continues unabated. Employment is high, health care universal and prompt, bullet trains ever evolving, gleaming skyscrapers appearing in place of 30-year old structures deemed out-dated, shopping and commerce and business all zooming along, uniformed safety workers waving red glowing batons over temporary pot-holes which will be patched by morning. It all runs like a well oiled machine. House prices were surprisingly affordable - values haven't risen meteorically like before the 'bubble'. In short, the idea that Japan has flatlined for 20 years gets thrown around a lot in the west, but it only takes a visit there to see that in those 20 years, they've managed to do some amazing things while remaining under the radar in a supposedly enduring recession. Japan is still way ahead of the west in many areas, and it seems more like they've reached a kind of steady-state balance. It's a situation that I suspect many westerners would actually be impressed by, if not a bit envious of, if they witnessed it first hand.