In Japan, the government so meddled in the economy that they caused the economic malaise; the same situation is currently occurring in the USA.
The difference should be obvious. Deflation is too loaded a term to be used without qualification or context.
However, in the government skewed markets of today where interest rates are forced artificially low these signals are not allowed to operate correctly and savers are penalized.
There is no "excessive incentive". People save when an incentive exists sure, but this represents future spending. At the moment there is little or no benefit to simple savings; why save when your money will be worth less over time? This is a result of not allowing interest rates to float with the market. Again, interest rates are manipulated by the government.
In the case where competition causes prices to decrease due to higher efficiency and quality, the money in your pocket becomes more valuable. What part of this is a negative consequence?
The difference is in fact that deflation is not always a negative result, which was my point in the first place.
What it leads to is that workers are accepting discounted price for their work because of the deflationary growth expectation. That is how I work.