Japan’s Comeback: Why the “Lost Decades” May Finally Be Ending

We start with the story of a chopper crew. That's a Japanese term, meaning falling behind. In 1980, Japanese industry was the envy of the world in a variety of sectors, such as automotive, electronics and steel.As a result, asset values went up, particularly here in Tokyo, where real estate values went sky high, supported by patient capital that did not demand a lot of returns. The 1990s, though, saw that asset bubble burst and when the Japanese government and Japanese banks did not step in aggressively, th ...