Please wait http://xvedio.in.net/ xvedio What’s more, because Japan built its economy on export earnings, the emergence of cheap manufacturing rivals like South Korea, China, India and Vietnam destroyed the model. Its once-mighty trade surplus has fallen into deficit. As the Japanese got older on average, their pensions, health care and other costs eventually led to a world-beating national debt, now standing at some 230 percent of GDP. (For comparison, the US debt-to-GDP level that has Washington so exercised is about 104 percent.)