The mass media in Japan have played up the news of China's gross domestic product exceeding, in U.S. dollar terms, Japan's to become the second largest economy in the world after the United States.
The Chinese figure would be twice as large, far exceeding Japan and coming close to the the U.S. if converted by purchasing power parity instead of by the current exchange rate, which largely undervalues the renminbi.
As there are roughly 10 times more people in China than in Japan, China's per capita GDP is 10 percent of Japan's if figured by the exchange rate and a mere 20 percent by purchasing power parity.