South Korea’s economy threatens to become like Japan’s
That could spell enormous trouble
IN 1989, AT the peak of Japan’s economic and financial heyday, few dared suggest the country might one day be supplanted as the richest large nation in Asia. Per person, South Korea was not even half as affluent. But then mighty stock and land bubbles popped in Tokyo, kick-starting several “lost” decades for the Land of the Rising Sun. Meanwhile South Korea’s economy boomed. By 2018 its GDP per person, adjusted for purchasing power, topped Japan’s.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Kindred Seoul”
Finance & economics March 5th 2022
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From the March 5th 2022 edition
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