GDP per Person, Historical (Maddison): Japan

## What this measures

Real GDP per person in Japan, in 2011 international dollars, from the Maddison Project Database 2023: the long-run record of average living standards, here back to the year 730.

## Why it matters

It is the standard measure of how rich a society is across centuries, and the only one that lets you compare the Roman Empire, Song China and today's economies on one scale.

## How to read it

Dollars are 2011 international dollars: adjusted for inflation and for price differences between countries, so a higher number means more goods and services per person. Each point is a calendar year, dated December 31. Before about 1820 most countries have only scattered benchmark years, so a line drawn between them hides everything in between.

## What it does not say

Early figures are reconstructions from wages, prices, output and population records, with wide margins of error. It is an average: it says nothing about how income was shared. Purchasing-power comparisons across very different economies are approximate.

## Source

Maddison Project Database 2023 (Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen). Cite as: Bolt, Jutta and Jan Luiten van Zanden (2024), "Maddison style estimates of the evolution of the world economy: A new 2023 update", Journal of Economic Surveys, 1–41. DOI: 10.1111/joes.12618. Licence: Maddison Project Database, version 2023 by Jutta Bolt and Jan Luiten van Zanden, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/releases/maddison-project-database-2023 The database asks that all original papers be cited when its data is shown in graphical form. The original sources for Japan, as the database lists them: Sources added since MPD 2013: - 724-1874: Bassino, Jean-Pascal & Broadberry, Stephen & Fukao, Kyoji & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Takashima, Masanori, (2018). "Japan and the Great Divergence, 730-1874," CEI Working Paper Series 2018-13, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University - 1874-1940: Fukao, K., Bassino, J.-P., Makino, T., Paprzycki, R., Settsu, T., Takashima, M., and Tokui, J. (2015) Regional Inequality and Industrial Structure in Japan: 1874-2008, Tokyo: Maruzen Publishing. - GDP pc: 2008 - 2022: Total Economy Database the Conference Board for all countries included in TED. Otherwise UN national accounts statistics This is a one-off release; Palanor will load the next version when the Maddison Project publishes one.