The country also expected to give up its dominance of industrial products and IT/telecoms sectors, with China taking first place in each case.

In the early 1960, Japan achieved spectacular growth to become the second largest economy in the world, with an annual growth rate averaging 10 per cent for four decades.

This ended in the mid-1990s when Japan suffered a major recession. Positive growth in the early twenty-first century has signaled a gradual recovery.

Image: Mount Fuji covered with snow is seen between skyscrapers in Tokyo. | Photograph: Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images.