In contrast to the previous year, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the nation shrank by a more alarming 0.4% in the final three months of 2023.
It followed a 3.3% contraction of the economy in the preceding quarter.
Japan’s Cabinet Office numbers also show that Germany now leads the globe in terms of GDP, knocking Japan out of third place.
The fresh data was predicted by economists to demonstrate that Japan’s GDP increased by more than 1% during the fourth quarter of the previous year.
The most recent numbers could still be changed because they represented Japan’s economic growth for the first time during that time.
A technical recession is often defined as two consecutive quarters of economic downturn.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted in October that, when expressed in US dollars, Germany will probably surpass Japan to become the third-largest economy in the world.
The IMF will not announce a shift in its rankings until both nations have released their final estimates of their rates of economic growth. In 1980, it started releasing data that compared economies.
According to economist Neil Newman, Germany’s GDP was valued at $4.4 trillion in 2023, while Japan’s was estimated to be worth $4.2 trillion (£3.3 trillion) in 2023.
This resulted from the Japanese yen’s depreciation vs the dollar, and if it strengthens, the nation may move back up to the third rank.
