As the economies of Australasia move on out--enjoying a world-beating pace of growth that now again includes the integral economy of Japan--the bar for such a select list gets higher.
Embracing Defeat includes chapters on the Tokyo war crimes trials and the rekindling of the Japanese economy with the birth of Japan Inc.
Instead, the key factor behind export growth is the general health of the global economy, which determines how many units of Japan's competitively but not cannibalistically priced exports the world buys.
Few doubt that the weak yen is the inevitable result of rock-bottom interest rates, which were necessary to pull the economy out of the dumps and to save Japan's troubled banks.
By joining the U.S. Federal Reserve and other major central banks in flooding the economy with cash, the Bank of Japan hopes to get corporations and consumers to begin spending more and end a long malaise.
On the plus side, the presence of the state has lent a stability and long-term perspective to the investment and growth of the Chinese economy, which is not just reminiscent of the keiretsu in Japan but also the family holdings in the chaebols in Korea.
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Finance ministers from the G-20 on Friday expressed agreement that Japan needs to support its sluggish economy, and that the Bank of Japan's new monetary policy was aimed at defeating inflation, not weakening the yen.
Its days have been numbered since the collapse of the Berlin Wall coincided with the bursting of Japan's bubble economy.
The U.S. became the world's powerhouse economy because the economies of Europe and Japan were wrecked by the war.
The yen's slump across a range of currencies has occurred as a new government has pledged to revive the deflation-dogged Japanese economy and has pressured the Bank of Japan to aggressively ease monetary policy.
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To reflate its sick economy, the Bank of Japan needs to print massive quantities of money.
However, in the longer term the strength of Japan's economy is more important for the region than the strength of the yen.
Tsuneo Iida, an economist at Chubu University, claims that the financial mess left after the bursting of Japan's bubble economy was the Americans' fault.
Confidence in the Japanese economy soared in the 1980s on the strength of Japan's business sociology.
To help the economy back on to its feet, the Bank of Japan has been trying to run a super-loose monetary policy.
So whether you see the blossoms or the vomit, a half full cup of sake or a half empty can of beer, the future of Japan is in the hands of the Japanese, not the New Economy gurus we read about in TIME, Newsweek and Fortune.
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Its goal of prompting growth in the underachieving domestic side of Japan's economy is a fine one, and certainly there is room for huge productivity improvements in some areas, particularly agriculture.
That is unfortunate, to say the least, given that Japan's economy is currently the weakest of them all.
The effort to "reflate" the economy has pushed share prices sharply higher, while the value of Japan's currency has fallen by 25 percent against the U.S. dollar since late last year.
Renewed pessimism about the state of Japan's economy is a big reason.
But there is growing concern that a still weaker yen would reduce the political pressure to push ahead with the deregulation of Japan's economy.
"If U.S. economy improves, and the Bank of Japan's aggressive easing continues ... that will lead to further dollar strength and yen weakness, " said Kanda, who predicts the dollar will rise to 110 yen this year.
Shares in banks and real-estate firms, which tend to perform better when the economy strengthens, have picked up, reflecting expectations that the Bank of Japan will loosen policy more aggressively to halt the general decline in prices that has crippled domestic demand.
Instead, we expect rates to remain elevated for many quarters, perhaps years, as the excess liquidity provided by the U.S. and Japan works its way out of the global economy.
Richard Katz of the Oriental Economist, a newsletter, emphasises the continued importance of exports to Japan's economy.
In their different ways, the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan have all made clear that will continue to offer massive support for the economy in the form of cheap money - even if and when the recovery finally starts to gather some steam.
Ben Bernanke, a governor at America's Federal Reserve, has argued that, to kick-start Japan's economy, tax cuts should be financed directly by the Bank of Japan.
And, although China admires the industrial history of Japan, its economy is very different.
Shares in companies that stand to benefit from the continued reflation of Japan's economy have been climbing at a rate best described as vertiginous.
All three were nominated by new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who came into office on the promise of bringing Japan's economy out of its prolonged slump.
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