Deloitte Monday Briefing: Keep an Eye on Japan

* Japan's fall from grace provides a cautionary tale of economic decline which long predates the global financial crisis.

* Japan went from economic powerhouse in the 1970s and 1980s to economic invalid. Over the last 20 years, it has grown by an average of 0.8% a year, a fraction of the growth rate seen in other industrialised economies. House prices have halved from their peaks in the late 1980s and are back to where they were in 1981.

* Japan's travails have haunted Western policymakers for almost a quarter of a century.

* But the standard view of Japan as a broken economy, hamstrung by an ageing population and risk-averse institutions, is being challenged by a revolution in economic polices unleashed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.