China’s economy, likely became the world’s second largest, behind the US and overtaking Japan, after weak economic data from Tokyo on Monday confirmed the symbolic economic power shift underway in Asia and around the world.

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Japan’s GDP in the second quarter grew at a mere 0.1% q-o-q, driven down by weaknesses in both exports and domestic consumption, Standard Chartered regional economist Simon Wong noted. Japan’s economic output for the quarter was estimated at $1.28, marginally below China’s $1.33 trillion; if confirmed, this would put China’s on course to edge past Japan’s by the end of the year.

But analysts cautioned against reading too much into the statistical milestone. “China overtaking Japan is just symbolic,” said Barclays Capital economist Kyohei Morita. In his opinion, per-capita GDP was more illustrative of economic strength.

China’s per-capita GDP (of about $3,600 last year) places it at a lowly 127th in the world, behind much smaller economies like Azerbaijan and Angola — and way below Japan ($37,800) and the US ($42,240).  “China is still a developing country, and has a lot of room to grow,” said UBS economist Wang Tao.

Other commentators noted that China had crossed this landmark long ago. “Measured by purchasing power parity — a measure that assigns the same price to goods and services regardless of where they are produced — China has long been the world’s second-largest economy,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research.    In fact, he adds, China is already more than twice as large as Japan’s economy.

According to Baker, economists generally use the PPP measure for most purposes as it better reflects the relative productive capacity of different countries’ economies.

In China’s case, an undervalued currency understates China’s economic strength, and if China had allowed its currency to rise by 20% against the US dollar, it would have passed Japan in GDP by the exchange rate measure, he said.

But Monday’s data confirmed that the economic sun was setting on Japan, “the land of the rising sun”, given its ageing population and two decades of sub-par growth, from which it appears unable to rebound.

Japan’s weak GDP growth in the second quarter was “a disappointment,” noted Societe Generale economist Takuji Okubo. “But the fact that the weakness came mostly from inventory is a consolation to bulls.”