Many of the cars people buy and electronics people use have a bit of Japan inside them, even if they are sold under other countries' brands, says Mr Allum.

ECONOMIST: The world economy

And as Jonathan Allum, a Japan strategist at KBC Financial Products, points out, it makes no sense for China to build much of this stuff since its competitive advantage is cheap labour, not cheap-to-run, depreciated blast furnaces like those in Japan.

ECONOMIST: Buttonwood