Japan Escaped a 30-Year Economic Slump, But Crypto Could Pay the Price

Japan’s economy is finally growing again after 30 lost years, JPMorgan Asset Management strategist David Lebovitz says. The escape from the Lost Decades is real, and crypto may end up paying for it.

The Lost Decades were Japan’s long slump after its 1990 bubble burst, when prices fell and rates stayed near zero. That cheap money quietly funded risk bets around the world, including crypto.

Timeline chart of BOJ policy rates from 1990 to 2026 against USD/JPY, Source: BeInCrypto Japan’s Lost Decades Made the Yen the World’s Cheapest Money Japan’s slump had one global side effect. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) held rates near zero from 1999.

It even went negative in 2016 and stayed there until 2024. That made the yen the cheapest money on Earth. Investors borrowed it for almost nothing and bought assets that paid more, from US bonds to tech stocks. Traders call this the yen carry trade.