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https://www.massline.org/Dictionary/J.htm#Japan_in_and_out_of_recessionhttps://www.massline.org/Dictionary/J.htm#Japan_in_and_out_of_recession >Around 1991 Japan entered a long period of intensified stagnation, a period of “in-and-out-of-recession” with only weak recoveries in between the recessions. (See: “Lost Decade” [Japan]) In this development, Japan pioneered what has become a more general phenomenon for almost the whole capitalist world (excepting China so far, though China’s rate of GDP growth is also seriously slowing). This increased stagnation amounts to an intensified stage in the current long-developing world overproduction crisis that first began around 1973. In the relatively near future there will undoubtedly be further stages of intensification of this crisis, even beyond the “in-and-out-of-recession” phase. >Why did Japan “lead the way” in entering this new period of “in-and-out-of-recession” which has now enveloped almost the whole world? Some of the plausible explanations include: 1) Japan has fewer economic resources than the U.S. and Europe, a smaller home market, and less imperialist penetration of the rest of the world; 2) Japan’s birth rate is falling faster than that of most advanced capitalist countries and its population is aging faster; and 3) Japan—for racist reasons primarily—refuses to allow more than a tiny token amount of immigration into the country. (Immigration, by increasing the population and economic activity, itself helps to promote the expansion of the economy.) But all these factors have only served to speed up the process of the development of the overproduction crisis in Japan. That process is continuing everywhere.