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.
It’s ridiculous. My friend married a Japanese woman and they had a boy. If the boy wasn’t born in Japan, he wouldn’t be a Japanese citizen in the future. Meanwhile, his Mexican father can’t aspire to be a Japanese, even if his whole family is and they have been married for years.
Is even more ridiculous for people like this boy, since their double nationality rules are kind of weird to me. Whatever, it’s just nuts.