China Surpasses Japan To Become Second Largest Economy

Japan's economy has been stagnating for most of this decade, and this quarter it grew at just 0.4 percent, while China continued to grow at an enormous rate. After surpassing the economies of countries like Great Britain, France and Germany, China finally went past Japan to take 2nd place in the world economy, thus stamping itself as a world economic and political power. As we speak, Japan's economy is valued at $1.28 trillion, and that of China has a value of $1.33 trillion. Also for the full year's figures, China will easily surpass Japan for the first time ever in history.

Though, a noticeable difference is that unlike Japan, China is far from being a developed nation. The standard of living in China is much below as compared to Japan. And even though China is as big as the United States in terms of land mass, it has almost a fifth of the world's population.

Nicholas R. Lardy, economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics commented, "This has enormous significance. It reconfirms what's been happening for the better part of a decade: China has been eclipsing Japan economically. For everyone in China's region, they're now the biggest trading partner rather than the U.S. or Japan." Eswar S. Prasad, Professor - Trade Policy - Cornell, said, "They're exerting a lot of influence on the global economy and becoming dominant in Asia. A lot of other economies in the region are essentially riding on China's coat tails, and this is remarkable for an economy with a low per capita income."

Japan has held the 2nd spot for the last 4 decades, according to the World Bank, and has always been an economic superpower. Around 3 decades back, the thought of Japan overtaking the United States someday seemed a real possibility. But now, it is predicted that with the current growth rate, China can surpass the United States economy as early as the year 2030, that is just 20 years away. This was something actually unimaginable a few years ago. Although, a point to note is that China's per capita income is just $3,600, and that of the US is $46,000.