No, it just implies Japan is still in a recession.

That's a self-fulfilling prophecy. You're essentially saying "the markets always rise over time" is a fundamental law that cannot be broken, and counterexamples are clearly just temporary recessions (no matter how long the recession).

When you take the logic to such extremes, it becomes a meaningless statement. It's literally impossible to disprove this assertion if you just ignore the evidence that says it's not true. Japan is absolutely a counterexample.