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.
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.
excuse me? I’d argue that being poor in Germany is a better life than being “working class” in Japan
Germany?
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.
Fair point. I stand corrected.
The Japanese have universal health care so the homeless get help including mental health help. They have housing programs for the homeless, job training for the homeless, direct food care, the government pays businesses to hire people so their wages are subsidized.
https://www.studycountry.com/wiki/does-japan-have-a-homeless-problem
My dude that sounds very ideal and humane.
It’s not
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.
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
Damn, I didn’t know that. That’s fucked up for sure.
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).