Weird how this supposedly only casts doubt on the supply chain explanation, and not on another favorite culprit: stimulus. Japan has been doing stimulus too: https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/japan-eyes-record-stimulu...

Key issue is workforce participation. The workforce is missing 30M people. This cannot be fixed.

The case for japan is very aging society with no replacement or immigration. Hence there is far less demand.

Especially since the Bank of Japan has been trying deliberately to generate some inflation for a few decades now, and mostly failing. They did ZIRP, they ‘monetized’ their debt, they did all the things.