Prior to that they had an 'economic miracle' from WW2 till then which is probably more what people refer to. The lost decades are quite easy to understand with conventional economics - they had a property and stock bubble which got everyone left with huge debts when it collapsed.
You have a point, for sure; the _whole_ previous century (couple centuries, even) of Japan economical history is one-of-a-kind (as is Argentina’s).
However, wtr. “lost decades are quite easy to understand with conventional economics”: that’s more debatable. For example, stagflation is common(ly explained), but stag-deflation (as in Japan) is more unusual and has weirder effects. The US subprime crisis was also a real estate bubble (which, here also, rippled to the financial markets), but its burst had quite different fallouts.
Anyway, thanks for adding to the discussion, and disclaimer: IANAE (I Am Not An Economist — thanks God ^^)
