How Does Japan's Economic Performance Look When We Take into Account its Shrinking Working-Age Population?
8 Pages Posted: 4 Dec 2022 Last revised: 29 Nov 2023
Date Written: November 2, 2022
Abstract
This working paper addresses the matter of Japan's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth from 1990 on (and in particular the slowness of its growth relative to other advanced industrial states). Taking into account the sharp contraction of its working-age population, it presents calculations of GDP growth relative to the size of the working-age population alongside aggregate and more conventional per capita GDP figures. In the process the author finds that when one measures growth not "per capita" but "per member of the working-age population" Japan ceases to appear a laggard and instead appears to have grown as rapidly as the U.S. and Britain over the period (and indeed, bested their performance in the 2001-2019 period, with a 1.5 percent a year average growth rate to their 1.2 percent).
Keywords: Economic Growth, Gross Domestic Product, Gross Domestic Product Growth Rate, Demographics, Working-Age Population, Aging Populations, Japan's Population, Japan, U.S., Britain, Germany, 1990s, Japan's "Lost Decade," Great Recession, Tech Boom, Tech Bubble
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation