After staying as the world's second largest economy for close to 42 years, Japan finally lost the position to China last year. This happened because the Japanese economy continued to contract and that weak consumer spending coupled with stronger yen made the situation worse.

It is expected that there is going to be no change this year as well as the current fourth quarter data shows that the matters become worse.

There is a continued state of burden because of deflation on one hand and softening of domestic demand on the other. Pressure of debt is too much as well. The economists believe that having self-sustained growth now seems impossible for Japan as of now.

The experts also say that while on one hand, the growth of Chinese economy is a sign of transformation that it has gone through and has moved over from just a poverty-stricken economy to a growth driven one, on the other it signifies the kind of re-energizing that Japan has to go though now.

Since both are global heavyweights, it is also a sign of the changing economic dynamics.