History has seen worse years than 2009. All the same, this Year of the Ox has been more than most of us born after World War II in the relatively privileged regions of the Earth were conditioned to cope with.

Think back to New Year's Day. You may have forgotten what you yourself were doing, but if you were in Japan you're sure to recall the temporary tent city set up in Tokyo's Hibiya Park for newly unemployed temp workers, many of them newly homeless into the bargain, their housing having vanished with their jobs. It is one of the enduring images of the year, the picture worth the proverbial thousand words.

At this time last year, we were living through a phenomenon quantified in late January in these terms: Japan's industrial output in December 2008 plummeted 9.6 percent, the fastest fall on record. Unemployment surged to 4.4 percent, prompting then-Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano to observe: "I am extremely worried. Probably such a sharp decline was never experienced in the past, and it is likely to continue." He was right; 4.4 percent now seems like the good old days. The latest figure, down from 5.7 percent in August, is 5.1 percent.