 Japan's early industrial economy reached its height in World War II when it expanded its empire and became a major world power.After its defeat and economic collapse after the war, Japan's economy recovered in the 1950s with the post-war economic miracle in which ushered in three decades of unprecedented growth and propelled the country into the world's second-largest economy by the 1980s only to experience an economic slowdown during the 1990s, but Japan nonetheless continues to remain a global economic power.In 1853, an American fleet led by US Commodore Matthew C. Perry appeared off the Japanese coast.