Japan slips into recession, becoming the 4th-largest economy, behind the US, China and now Germany.

Japan’s economy is now the world’s fourth-largest after it contracted in the last quarter of 2023 and fell behind Germany.

The government reported the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.4% in October to December, according to Cabinet Office data on real GDP, though it grew 1.9% for all of 2023.

It contracted 2.9% in July-September. Two straight quarters of contraction are considered an indicator an economy is in a technical recession.

Japan’s economy was the second largest until 2010, when it was overtaken by China’s. Japan’s nominal GDP totaled $4.2 trillion last year, while Germany’s was $4.4 trillion, or $4.5 trillion, depending on the currency conversion.

  • Holzkohlen@feddit.de
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    5 months ago

    And yet they complain that our economy is in shambles. It’s never enough for these capitalist ghouls.

    • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 months ago

      My thoughts exactly. Why does this even matter?

      I bet being poor is a better life in Japan than being poor in any of the “top three” countries.

      • RealFknNito@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Hi, hello, this is a culture that once committed suicide to prevent being seen as low or dishonorable. Much of that same social family pressure still exists.

        While I have no evidence is wager some poor people in Japan end their own lives rather than be a burden on their country, family, etc. Due to cultural norms.

      • tiredofsametab@kbin.run
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        5 months ago

        That’s actually a really tough call between US and JP. I lived out of my car in the US for a while. I’ve not been homeless in Japan, but they do tend to have it rather rough from what I’ve seen.

        • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          In Japan you should not be seen if you’re homeless

          There’s a reason their streets look so clean and part of that is forcing the homeless away

          If you look up homelessness in Japan then you should be able to find “the unclean” parts of the cities

          • tiredofsametab@kbin.run
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            5 months ago

            There are some that sleep basically in cardboard boxes not far from the Scientology building in Shinjuku. I walked there many times and they never gave me any trouble. Sometimes they would all be gone which is maybe to do with law enforcement or something, but I don’t know.

            There are whole camps, apparently, in some areas on the edges of cities. I forget which youtuber did something on that. Maybe Life Where I’m From (or whatever it’s called).