Really? So says an op-ed in the NYT. The writer presents some strong arguments to bolster his case, including:
The fallacy of the “lost decades” story is apparent to American visitors the moment they set foot in the country. Typically starting their journeys at such potent symbols of American infrastructural decay as Kennedy or Dulles airports, they land at Japanese airports that have been extensively expanded and modernized in recent years.
America’s growth in recent decades has been overstated by as much as 2 percentage points a year. ... This factor alone may put the United States behind Japan in per-capita performance.
The Japanese are consistently among the world’s earliest adopters [of expensive, new high-tech items]. If anything, it is Americans who have been lagging.
There are, I think, plenty of other facts he ignores, but this is still interesting to chew on. More: The Myth of Japan’s Failure
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