Last month, Japan's central bank raised interest rates for the first time in 17 years. That is a really big deal, because it means that one of the spookiest stories in modern economics might finally have an ending. Back in the 1980s, Japan performed something of an economic miracle. It transformed itself into the number two economy in the world. From Walkmans to Toyotas, the U.S. was awash in Japanese imports. And Japanese companies went on a spending spree. Sony bought up Columbia Pictures. Mitsubishi became the new majority owners of Rockefeller Center. But in the early 1990s, it all came to a sudden halt. Japan went from being one of the fastest growing countries in the world to one of the slowest. And this economic stagnation went on and on and on. For decades. On this episode, the unnerving story of Japan's Lost Decades: How did one of the most advanced economies in the world just fall down one day — and not be able to get up? Japan's predicament changed our understanding of what can go wrong in a modern economy. And gave us some new tools to try and deal with it. This episode was hosted by Jeff Guo. It was produced by Emma Peaslee and engineered by Cena Loffredo. It was edited by Molly Messick. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer. Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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There was a time back in the 1980s when the future looked like it belonged to Japan.
Japanese imports were everywhere.
Japanese steel, japanese cars.
How could Corolla give you so much for so little?
It's just a Toyota tradition.
Japanese electronics, put on a Walkman and see the world in a whole new light had performed an economic miracle.
It had transformed itself into the number two economy in the world, second only to the US.
And it's hard to imagine now, but back then, people in the US were genuinely anxious.
They were like these big Hollywood movies that had Japan taking over the global economy.
Like this one from 1989 called Black rain.
We make some machines, we built a future now, music and movies that all America is good for.
There's also a lot of Japan bashing.
Like literally people would get together and smash japanese cars.
We've got Tim Donovan here taking his.