SINGAPORE – It seems providential that in a year when Japan and Asean are celebrating 50 years of their friendship and cooperation, the world’s third-largest economy is also shrugging off three decades of growth stagnation.

Wages, corporate profits and private consumption are on the rise. The Tokyo stock exchange is now trading around its highest level since the 1990s as both local and global investors sense a long-awaited shift in the Japanese economy, for which top Wall Street investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are predicting a new era of growth and prosperity.