Well the text talks about Japan and it's with a positive connotation.
Here's the whole paragraph:
...Japan and Europe lie between those two extremes. Politicians in Tokyo tried stimulative policies and talked of structural reform, but proved notoriously ineffective at dealing with their investment bust. The economy fell into deflation and Japan, already the world's biggest exporter of savings, became an even bigger one. Its current-account surplus rose from 1.4% of GDP in 1996 to 3.7% last year.