The Rise and Fall of Modern Japan

[jay gw]

Dogs and Demons : Tales form the Dark Side of Modern Japan
Alex Kerr

Kerr (Lost Japan), a 35-year resident of Japan and the first foreigner to win that country's Shincho literary prize, contends that the Japanese miracle has become a Japanese mess.

Once admired, and perhaps feared, for its spectacular economic successes, Japan, Kerr claims, has become a land of "ravaged mountains and rivers, endemic pollution, tenement cities, and skyrocketing debts." What happened? He says that ideology and bureaucracy are to blame.

Japan is in effect managed by an autonomous and corrupt government bureaucracy, driven by an ethos of economic growth at any cost and a mania for control. Everywhere Japan's natural beauty is being destroyed by useless construction projects, as nature must be controlled and construction companies rewarded.

The great ancient cities too representative of old, underdeveloped Japan are being replaced by monuments and hotels that are concrete monstrosities. Japan's banking system has failed, yet no one really knows the extent of the damage, as the bureaucracy keeps accurate information hidden.

Meanwhile, the bureaucracy continues to pour money into older industries, while Japan falls dangerously behind in the development of new information technologies. There is popular discontent, but protest is hard to come by, because the bureaucratically controlled educational system emphasizes obedience above all else.

Japan is stuck, concludes Kerr, and he sees no easy way out. While perhaps alarmist in his message, Kerr fascinates with detailed descriptions of Japan's dilemma and offers a surprising, if controversial, vision of a land in trouble.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809095211/104-2926533-9661548
____

I saw this book in the store and read about 100 pages just standing there, it was so interesting. Japan's benefits in another era have proven to be a major problem in the present day. They have paid an extremely high price for development.

Japanese banks used to be envied, for example, but today they are almost all nearly broke. Japan spends more on construction than the United States does, and has paved over ancient forests that lent to the beauty of the country.

China seems to be heading in the same direction.

[crimresearch]

Kenichi Ohmae offers some equally interesting insights on Japan's fall from prominence.

[balrog666]

Like some other stagnant nations, Japan's educational system is geared towards entry into the most prestigious universities. Once there, students are free to party like it was California or Florida. Scholarship, critical thinking, and pursuing curiosity with abandon are assumed to be ingrained and definitely not taught, encouraged, or, in some extreme cases, even tolerated.



A typical Japanese saying translates to "the nail that stands up gets hammered down." A typical attitude toward (displaying) excellence.



Contrast that with the Russian saying that "the greased wheel turns both ways." A much more "entrepreneurial" (and sneaky) outlook.



Of course, the American version might be "build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door."



Now consider which society you would want to be living in.

[TragicMonkey]

Originally posted by balrog666
Now consider which society you would want to be living in.

I'd pick the one with greasy nailed mice, turning.

[jay gw]

I wonder if the age of a country and it's traditions work against it in the modern age of rapid changes?

It seems like the older nations like Europeans, Russians, Japanese, Chinese with ancient cultures and traditions seem to have the greatest trouble with transitioning from the old to the modern age.

The reverse is true of newer nations like America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia - they seem to be the best positioned nations in the world economically and socially, and take advantage of opportunities easily.

The author Alex Kerr says Japan's primary problem lies in it's cultural traditions and customs, and how they just can't seem to give them up even when they are clearly self destructive. They worked in the 19th century and back in time X hundreds of years, but today they are a block of stone hanging around their necks.

Another example of this is the severe birth rate problem they have no solution to. Turns out, Japanese culture does not take kindly to any immigrants. So, immigration as a way of dealing with too many old people and no workers is out of the question. I guess the robots will do the work :rolleyes:

[Tony]

Originally posted by jay gw
I wonder if the age of a country and it's traditions work against it in the modern age of rapid changes?

It seems like the older nations like Europeans, Russians, Japanese, Chinese with ancient cultures and traditions seem to have the greatest trouble with transitioning from the old to the modern age.

The reverse is true of newer nations like America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia - they seem to be the best positioned nations in the world economically and socially, and take advantage of opportunities easily.

The author Alex Kerr says Japan's primary problem lies in it's cultural traditions and customs, and how they just can't seem to give them up even when they are clearly self destructive. They worked in the 19th century and back in time X hundreds of years, but today they are a block of stone hanging around their necks.


What specific Japanese cultural traditions are holding them back?

[Ziggurat]

Originally posted by jay gw
Once admired, and perhaps feared, for its spectacular economic successes, Japan, Kerr claims, has become a land of "ravaged mountains and rivers, endemic pollution, tenement cities, and skyrocketing debts." What happened? He says that ideology and bureaucracy are to blame.

Funny thing, but China faces MUCH worse problems with environmental damage and bad debt, but you were recently writing about how it's on track to overtake the US soon. So which is it?

Japan's biggest problem, and ironically the one you left out, is population. They've got too small a birthrate. THAT is the only one that poses a serious threat to their long-term stability.

[IllegalArgument]

Originally posted by Ziggurat
Funny thing, but China faces MUCH worse problems with environmental damage and bad debt, but you were recently writing about how it's on track to overtake the US soon. So which is it?

Japan's biggest problem, and ironically the one you left out, is population. They've got too small a birthrate. THAT is the only one that poses a serious threat to their long-term stability.

To my ears, all the talk I have been hearing from media about Chinia's inpending domination, sounds a lot like the media hype I was hearing about Japan's inpending domination in the 80s and 90s.

[crimresearch]

The near negative birthrate, and the insular nature of Japanese society are factors that will shape Japanese policies in the future...and China has an entirely different set of dynamics at work.

The rising generation of Japanese 'Little Emperors' is going to be interesting to watch in a future crisis...particularly given the militaristic traditions of their recent ancestors.

[jay gw]

What specific Japanese cultural traditions are holding them back?

A comparison of Japanese vs. Western culture:

In Japan

It is common for entire families to be living in the same house (including grandparents). Children live with their parents until they are married (no matter till what age). Children are guided towards dependency. They are fed, carried, and bathed with much longer than children in America. Privacy is not really possible in Japanese style homes. Children are also guided to do what the group is doing and not to be assertive.

Meaning you don't criticize and don't complain.

and

written in 1995:

No aspect of Japan's remarkable economy has been so consistently underestimated as its employment system. Because the system's three main principles--lifetime employment, company unions, and seniority pay--flout free-market ideals, Westerners consider it self-evidently incapable in the long run of withstanding global competition from the "more efficient" hire-and-fire labor system of the U.S. and Europe.

http://www.fingleton.net/BL_excerpt.php
____

Japanese companies couldn't fire workers no matter how incompetent they were.

And they were right to consider it incapable of withstanding competition. Japanese companies have started demanding they be able to fire workers whenever they need to because they can't compete anymore.

[CBL4]

This sounds like a good because it matches my preconcieved notions. ;)

The Japanese government and culture were great at transforming a poor country into a rich one but eventually started bogging it down.

They have a centralized bureaucracy which was effective at helping certain businesses grow. They have an education system that is good at producing well educated, cooperative employees.

Unfortunately, the bureaucracy became hopelessly corrupt as it got too entangled with companies and politicians. Their culture of cooperation worked great as long as the country was growing.

Once Japan reached a point where it needed to change, the combination of bureaucracy, politicians, education system and culture became a stifling obstacle. Bankruptcy and layoffs are a necessary evil in an effective economy but neither were possible.

The government and banks prevented money and people from going to small businesses with potential. Instead more and more money was spent on hopelessy bankrupt companies. This caused the bankrupcy of the banking system which only made everything that much worse.

Their central bank insisted on fighting inflation instead of helping growth. The government wasted money on stupid infrastructure projects instead of cleaning up the banks.

CBL

[RussDill]

Originally posted by Tony
What specific Japanese cultural traditions are holding them back?

There are lots of asian traditions that hold back modern commerce. There is the one where you can't be older than any of your superiors for instance. Also, there is a sense of necessary equality. For instance, it doesn't make sense to a korean that a senior, tenured professor gets to park closer and have a bigger office. Similar rules with apartments.

[kookbreaker]

A totally irrelevant anecdote:

When I worked for the Telescope Company (winkwink) we had to deal with both Japanese, Chinese, and Taiwanese manufacturers.

The Japanese companies, with one exception, were extremely inflexible. We make what we make. Nothing new is made, or if it is, it is little more than a variation on an older model.

By comparison, the Chinese and Taiwanese companies had a lot more flexibility. They came up with their own ideas (sometimes good, sometimes silly) but more importantly they often took suggestions. Not all of them, mind you, but many of them. When they did have an idea and we suggested some imporvements they usually agreed. Japanese companies would have said "that's how we do things, deal with it."

[jay gw]

The Japanese companies, with one exception, were extremely inflexible. We make what we make. Nothing new is made, or if it is, it is little more than a variation on an older model.

It's interesting that Japanese products have a reputation for quality. They have a tension between maintaining standards and adapting to circumstances, with extremely heavy weight on the former.

What's more interesting, and pathetic, is that American manufacturers have never been able to exploit any weaknesses in the Japanese way of making cars, electronics etc.

And American retailers still can't get into Japan very easily. I hear there are alot of "non barrier" barriers.

[crimresearch]

Originally posted by jay gw
It's interesting that Japanese products have a reputation for quality. They have a tension between maintaining standards and adapting to circumstances, with extremely heavy weight on the former.

What's more interesting, and pathetic, is that American manufacturers have never been able to exploit any weaknesses in the Japanese way of making cars, electronics etc.

And American retailers still can't get into Japan very easily. I hear there are alot of "non barrier" barriers.

Well, there are laws in the US that prevent automakers from taking advantage of some of the components of the 'Japanese Miracle'....like the burakumin.

But the Koreans have done a pretty good job of exploiting japanese weakeneses in the auto market...by initially beating them on cost.

[jay gw]

Japan's accounting system is a scam. It's Enron times 100, because the government doesn't prohibit hiding debts.

Moody's went to rate the biggest Japanese banks, and found they had so many hidden debts they actually had negative balances!

[digitalmcq]

I'd just like to point out that you really can't judge the effectiveness of an economic system based on how it looks at any particular moment. Every advanced economy cycles between periods of boom and bust. It wasn't that long ago that the situation was reversed and many Americans were wondering if we should make an effort to emulate the Japanese system.

No one should count the Japanese out. They are, and will likely to continue to be, an economic powerhouse.

[crimresearch]

Good point about the ebb and flow of economies.

And if the Japanese don't get an upswing soon, at least they have rebuilt their military, and restarted the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere...
:eek:

[CBL4]

I'd just like to point out that you really can't judge the effectiveness of an economic system based on how it looks at any particular moment. Every advanced economy cycles between periods of boom and bust. It wasn't that long ago that the situation was reversed and many Americans were wondering if we should make an effort to emulate the Japanese system. This is certainly true to some degree but the Japanese economy has stalled for about 15 years. They were in recessions from 1991-1993, 1997-1999, 2001 and 2004 to current. Five recessions in 15 years means that something is very wrong.

CBL

[CapelDodger]

Originally posted by jay gw
I wonder if the age of a country and it's traditions work against it in the modern age of rapid changes?

It seems like the older nations like Europeans, Russians, Japanese, Chinese with ancient cultures and traditions seem to have the greatest trouble with transitioning from the old to the modern age. It was Western Europe that brought in the modern world, breaking out from long-standing traditions based on land to embrace trade and merchandise. And regicide, just to make a point. Perhaps now they're leading the world into post-industrialism?

The reverse is true of newer nations like America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia - they seem to be the best positioned nations in the world economically and socially, and take advantage of opportunities easily. The great advantages of the recently-colonised were in the resources of lands that had not been picked-over for thousands of years (as Eurasia has been), and huge inputs of capital from the Old World chasing those resources. The resource advantage is rapidly dwindling. Let's see how they cope with that.

One advantage the Japanese have is that their society can be centrally directed towards a goal once the desire is there. Before the European arrival the goal was to emulate the Chinese, who looked down on trade and industry. When the Europeans started humiliating the Chinese the entire society swung into emulating European Imperialism. When the US put a stop to that they started to emulate the US. The odd thing is that these shifts were achieved without seeming to change the culture on the micro-level.

[Ziggurat]

Originally posted by CapelDodger
The odd thing is that these shifts were achieved without seeming to change the culture on the micro-level.

That's in no small part to the fact that their culture is appealing. Japan is one of the few countries with what I would call significant cultural exports TO the United States (movies, games, TV shows). Most countries recieve large cultural imports FROM the US, but export very little back to it. Few countries can compete with US cultural products, and some take silly steps to try to protect their domestic cultural markets (French requirements on the amount of non-French allowable on TV and the internet, for example or Saudi Arabia banning Barbie dolls). Japan can compete with us. They import lots of American culture, yet retain a very Japanese style without having to impose artificial barriers, and they export lots of stuff back to us and to the rest of the world. We shouldn't underestimate a country which can compete culturally with the US.

[jay gw]

The resource advantage is rapidly dwindling. Let's see how they cope with that.

A few decades ago this was more true. The 21st century economies are not going to depend on natural resources, they're going to depend on human ones.

Pretty soon, most of the energy powering the cities and cars will be 100 percent man made, or nearly so. Ceramics and plastics/polymers will replace iron and steel and food will be in the form of pills.

Natural resources are not crucial for national success - Japan has virtually none and became the 2nd biggest economy in the world.

[jay gw]

the Chinese the entire society swung into emulating European Imperialism. When the US put a stop to that they started to emulate the US.

The US had nothing to do with European Imperialism. The US has always had its own sphere, which was never Asia.

[CapelDodger]

Originally posted by jay gw
The US had nothing to do with European Imperialism.[/QUOTEAS I said, the Japanese dropped the Imperialist model and began to emulate the US model.[QUOTE] The US has always had its own sphere, which was never Asia. Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine, of course, but that changed in 1898. The Spanish-American War of 1898 was explicitly imperialist for the US. There was quite a row about it in Congress and the press. That was when the Philippines became a US possession.The strategic and economic importance of the Western Pacific was obvious, especially as West Coast developed. The Pacific was going to be as important as Latin America, and the US intended to have an influence there. Thus the conflict with Japan, support for the KMT in Taiwan, the Korean War and the Indo-Chinese imbroglio. None of it traditionally isolationist.