If you did not read the books, Japan was for America a bigger boogeyman than the Union, and Ben Ladin combined by late eighties.

It lead to an incredible economic, and political pressure US put on Japan, which culminated in US forcing Japan into Plaza accords, and the three Japanese lost decades which followed.

The Plaza Accords were a complete failure at their twin objectives of increasing US exports to Japan and decreasing Japanese exports to the US, neither of which happened.

They did trigger a wave of Japanese overseas investment and Japan's own asset bubble, leading to the Lost Decade when it burst, but these were hardly planned effects.

Yeah the current issues with Japan are more intrinsic than anything else (inability to innovate, etc)