Searching for Prescriptions for Countries in Economic Decline

Everyone can see that many innovations have spread to the rest of the world via the United States of America (USA). Meanwhile, declining Japan has refused immigration under the decreasing population, making it a social testing ground suitable for exploring the causes of economic decline. Although both countries have geopolitical advantages with few land borders that are prone to dispute, what factors cause this difference between growing and declining? In this research, the gross domestic product (GDP) factors for economic growth were identified using World Bank Open Data by means of quantitative analysis. The merit of this quantitative approach is that it gives clues quickly. As a key result, the growing GDP of the USA is associated with research and development, as proved in the Solow model. In contrast, the problem of the last mile of food in Japan was revealed from undernourishment as an unnoticed issue. The methodology and results will be useful to provide evidence for countries’ economic development policies.