Going by the preliminary data released on Monday, the Japanese economy expanded at a better-than-expected pace of 1.1 percent during the last quarter of 2009; thereby retaining its position as the second-largest economy in the world, marginally ahead of China.

Noting that Japan had been hit hard by the devastating recession which vastly narrowed the gap between the country and China, in terms of market dollars, Roland Buerk reported from Tokyo that most Japanese businesses have started perceiving China’s expanded influence as an opportunity rather than a threat.

The rise in fourth quarter gross domestic product (GDP) essentially came after a second downward revision of reported growth for 2009 third quarter – initially, Japan had projected its seasonally-adjusted growth for the July-September quarter to be 1.2 percent quarter-on-quarter; which was revised in December to merely 0.3 percent.

The reported last-quarter GDP expansion – in which net exports that comprised 0.5 percentage points - amounts to 4.6 percent annual growth; raising Japan’s hopes sustaining its still-fragile recovery from the global economic downturn.

The new Democratic party-led government in Japan has initiated some notable changes this year; among which it has launched a wide-ranging review of the way in which the economic output of the country is measured and reported; so as to help the analysts in better monitoring the economic conditions of one of the world’s most important economies.