I’m afraid issues like debt and macroeconomics are outside my expertise. I can only describe my own personal experience: I worked as a freelance translator and copywriter in Japan from 1986 to 2005, and almost all of my clients were Japanese companies. While that period saw the rise and bursting of the bubble economy and what has since been called the Lost Decade (or Decades), I personally felt no effect. My income grew steadily throughout that period, and I experienced no impact from the bursting of the bubble. Superficially, the Tokyo and Yokohama areas where I have lived never looked like they were suffering from economic stagnation. Just yesterday, on the train from Tokyo to Yokohama, I was struck by several large new office buildings going up just north of Shinagawa and the many construction cranes visible elsewhere.