There's no way you can say Japan today has the same status it had in the 80s. It's nowhere near as powerful as what people thought it would be.
edit: If you want to see a really bearish outlook for Japan, see the issues with their population decline. If they don't figure out marriage, birth rates, or immigration, they will have a lot of problems in the future. They're already having problems. I think Japan will figure it out. But no way you can say that Japan currently looks like it has a good future.
And if immigration becomes the solution, Japan just becomes more of a cultural term, rather than an ethnic term. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but Japan already tried to do that before, and gave up.
Heh, it might, I guess we just have different goal posts of how to measure China's success in the world. I think most Chinese people would be disappointed if they end up like 2019 Japan, I think their own hopes are to be on equal footing with the US.
Did you get bull/bear mixed up, or do you not like Japan?