The next few months put Japan in line for a series of anniversaries it would probably prefer to forget. But these are dates which the leadership in China may be wise to mark: the detonation of timebombs with counters set ticking by a property bubble.For these are, some would argue, distinctly echoey times. New research suggests that, if it is not careful, China may be on track for a new wave of Japanification.

Back in 2003, Japan could no longer fool itself that all was well. The 1990s had pitched the country off a trajectory on which it once seemed capable of overtaking the US. Its subsequent mishandling of the bad loan mountain built during its 1980s vainglory days put paid to the notion that the country could easily recover.

Vast banking mergers, encouraged by Tokyo over the previous three years, were not enough to disguise a collection of interlocking and unresolved crises. In March 2003, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group conducted a panicky reverse merger with a subsidiary amid huge losses. In April, the first signs began to emerge that one of the country’s largest lenders, Resona, was flailing. By May, taxpayers had rescued it with a $17bn nationalisation programme. Later that year and with the emergency klaxons sounding, a once top-tier regional lender, Ashikaga, went bankrupt. All of these events were deferred explosions which might have done far less damage, had they gone off earlier.