My mistake was only watching the final game live. Turned out to be a real snoozefest, with very, very few even mildly exciting moments.
How bad was it? Spain had 12 shots on net. Argentina had 0. Zero.
I think that any other game in the tournament would have been better to watch.
That expectation was never true for the whole Japanese economy (and referred to large corporations, not the small companies that did most of the work on contract), and is even less true now.