Is GDP Growth the best measure? Or Japan?

http://jacquelinemhadel.com/2014/06/24/space-invader-maneki-neko/

Among an insightful series of articles in Foreign Affairs on getting to grips with a slow growth world, I enjoyed Karabell's perspective on Japan. The crux of the argument is that "GDP growth is no longer an especially useful way of measuring the health of modern economies." (Why Growth Isn't Everything | Foreign Affairs)

Many of the articles make the argument that with slowing population growth and increasing industrial and digital efficiencies, quality of life can in fact increase while GDP stagnates. "Consider solar panels: their installation boosts GDP initially, but thereafter the savings in oil or gas will reduce GDP".
Karabell makes the point that a misunderstanding of this drives the wrong policies and investment decisions. Japan is often cited as having "lost" a decade or two, and yet it is one of the richest and most stable countries in the world. "If there are no straightforward ways of measuring the gains from lower costs and only ways of measuring the harms of lower growth, then the world's governments and economic institutions will continue to emphasize an unduly pessimistic view of the global economy..."

Case in point, in the US "inequality and income stagnation rank among voters' most pressing concern". Unfortunately though the political campaigning tends to focus on that for the gain of the candidates rather seriously address the underlying issue. For instance, trade is under fire as a reason jobs have been lost and wages of many have been stagnant, when trade likely has made their stagnant dollars stretch considerably further than in the past. "The consumer gains from trade disproportionally accrue to America’s poor and middle class." (Trade & Jobs: Is Free Trade Hurting the American Economy?)