Japanese Scholar: If China encounters setbacks, Japan will be the one to cause trouble.

Kenichi Ohmae [Japan] (Internationally Renowned Management Scholar)

Compiled by Hua Liu

The cliché "Japan is the world's second-largest economic power" can only be used for at most three more years, or perhaps just two.

Accurately Measuring China's "Sense of Scale"

Last year, the top three countries in terms of global GDP were the United States ($13.8 trillion), Japan ($4.3 trillion), and Germany ($3.3 trillion). China ($3.2 trillion) surpassed the United Kingdom ($2.8 trillion) to rank fourth in the world. Given the small gap between China and Germany, it can be considered that China has already taken the third position globally. The gap between China and Japan is $1.1 trillion, and if China continues to grow at an annual rate of 10%, then after three years, China will surpass a stagnant Japan and become the "world's second-largest economic power." If the renminbi appreciates significantly before then, it would take only two years for Japan to drop to the third position globally. Considering that in 1989, China's GDP was equivalent to that of Kyushu in Japan, one can truly appreciate the speed at which China has caught up in the past 20 years, as well as Japan's stagnation.