japan’s economy is now the world’s fourth-largest after it contracted in the last quarter of 2023 and fell behind germany. the government reported the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.4% in october to december, according to cabinet office data on real gdp, though it grew 1.9% for all of 2023. it contracted 2.9% in july-september. two straight quarters of contraction are considered an indicator an economy is in a technical recession. japan’s economy was the second largest until 2010, when it was overtak