Ask Japanese why their economy plunged in 2008 and most will blame the "Lehman shock".

A year from now, the "Dubai shock" may crop up in discussions about why Japan is shrinking anew. Dubai's debt crisis accelerated an export-killing yen surge and showed that the world economy remains sick without an easy cure.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and Dubai World's bust bookend Japan's recent experience quite neatly. If Lehman's fall pulled the rug out from under Japan, Dubai's coincided with a day of reckoning many in Tokyo have yet to discern.