It might be worth mentioning that although the Nikkei has been pretty flat, after visiting Japan yearly for the past few years, I've noticed that the rate of development and re-development there continues unabated. Employment is high, health care universal and prompt, bullet trains ever evolving, gleaming skyscrapers appearing in place of 30-year old structures deemed out-dated, shopping and commerce and business all zooming along, uniformed safety workers waving red glowing batons over temporary pot-holes which will be patched by morning. It all runs like a well oiled machine. House prices were surprisingly affordable - values haven't risen meteorically like before the 'bubble'. In short, the idea that Japan has flatlined for 20 years gets thrown around a lot in the west, but it only takes a visit there to see that in those 20 years, they've managed to do some amazing things while remaining under the radar in a supposedly enduring recession. Japan is still way ahead of the west in many areas, and it seems more like they've reached a kind of steady-state balance. It's a situation that I suspect many westerners would actually be impressed by, if not a bit envious of, if they witnessed it first hand.