China GDP Surpasses Japan, Capping Three-Decade Rise

China surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest economy last quarter, capping the nation’s three-decade rise from Communist isolation to emerging superpower.

Japan’s nominal gross domestic product for the second quarter totaled $1.288 trillion, less than China’s $1.337 trillion, the Japanese Cabinet Office said today. Japan remained bigger in the first half of 2010, the government agency said. Japan’s annual GDP is $5.07 trillion, while China’s is more than $4.9 trillion.