An article written by my go-to economist, Kevin Short, is not about Kumamoto specifically but about Japan in general. He provides a few graphs which neatly do away with the doom-and-gloomers re: the Japanese economy from a macroeconomic perspective. One quibble: he did not mention median income, which seems to me to have stagnated considerably and is a major source of sourness. The article is at the link. - William
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/02/enduring-mystery-japans-economy