Japan is now no longer world’s third-largest economy after it slips into recession

Japan has been eclipsed by Germany as the world’s third-biggest economy and has slipped into recession, according to data released Thursday, as the country battles a weak yen and an ageing, shrinking population.

Japan’s economy, now the world’s fourth-biggest, grew 1.9% in 2023 in nominal terms  meaning it is not adjusted for inflation but in dollar terms its gross domestic product (GDP) stood at $4.2tn compared with $4.5tn for Germany.

The shift, coming more than a decade after it ceded second place to China, has been attributed to the yen’s sharp falls against the dollar over the past two years. 

A weaker yen eats into profits on exports when earnings are repatriated. 

The Japanese currency dropped by almost a fifth against the US dollar in 2022 and 2023, including a 7% fall last year.

Like Japan, Germany is resource poor, has an ageing population and is heavily dependent on exports.

Europe’s biggest economy has also been shaken by rising energy prices caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine, rising interest rates in the eurozone and a chronic shortage of skilled labour.

While Japanese carmakers and other exporters have benefited from a weak yen  which makes their goods cheaper on the international market the country’s labour crunch is worse than Germany’s, and it is struggling to address a low birthrate.

The failure of government-led attempts to boost the birthrate means chronic labour shortages are expected to worsen, even as the country welcomes a record number of foreign workers.

The economy revitalisation minister, Yoshitaka Shindo, told reporters that Germany leapfrogging Japan showed it was “imperative” to promote structural reforms, including getting more women into full-time work and lowering the barriers to foreign investment.

Thursday’s data showed that real GDP the total value of goods and services shrank 0.1% in the last three months of 2023 compared to the previous quarter, due to weak spending by households and businesses, according to the cabinet office.

Private consumption, which accounts for more than half of all economic activity in Japan, fell 0.2% as households struggled with the rising cost of living and a fall in real wages.

Growth for the previous quarter was also revised downward to -0.8%, meaning that Japan is in technical recession – typically defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.

During the boom years of the 1970s and 80s, some predicted that Japan’s cheap, good-quality exports of autos and consumer electronics would see it overtake the US as the world’s biggest economy