The idea that Japan was ever more technologically advanced than the US is a tough argument to make. Perhaps they had better consumer and transportation technologies, but the US led the world in nearly all other forms of technology (see silicon valley, NASA, US defense technology, etc). It’s cool the hate on the US but there’s a reason it was the world super power for decades. It’s too bad it’s turning into an anti-science christo-facist kelptocracy.
Eh, they seemed to have better access to new tech like phones, though most of that seems to have shifted to Korea these days.
Post nuke effect expired
Same thing that happens everywhere. Low cost innovation gets expensive as companies grow and salaries rise, profit seekers move to exploit cheaper labor elsewhere.
That still hasn’t happened in the US though. Hardware is produced overseas but a huge chunk of the most used software in the world is produced in the US. The chips are designed in the US, some produced here but most overseas. Does that only apply to manufacturing?
Still hasn’t happened in the US? You choose a single industry as an indicator to base a claim on the state of US industry vs vast manufacturing losses the US has faced over the last 50 years?
Japan has been living in the year 2000 since 1980.
The last good year. Truly they are the most intellectually advanced society.
intellectually advanced society.
How do you even measure that?
Except no one can get laid apparently
They have 2d waifus, who needs women?
Oh you can if you have money, just head to Soapland in Tokyo.
anime
Economics Explained has an interesting video on the topic. After WWII, Japan became the first country in Asia to undergo an industrial revolution and soon became the second largest economy after the US and was by many accounts set to match or even overtake the US. They then suffered an economic collapse due to unchecked growth and speculative markets and decided to never again speculate on the future and just stick to tried and true methods.
Since the 1990s, Japan’s economy has barely changed while other nations have seen huge growth. You’d assume that would mean Japan is now far behind, but they aren’t. They seem to have mastered keeping everything the same for decades without the normal decline that comes with it.
After WWII, Japan became the first country in Asia to undergo an industrial revolution
After WW2? Industrialization during the 20s/30s was the whole reason they attempted to conqueror the Oceanic island states and the Chinese/Korean/Indochinese mainland.
They then suffered an economic collapse due to unchecked growth and speculative markets and decided to never again speculate on the future and just stick to tried and true methods.
The Japanese Economy was undone by The Plaza Accord and The Louvre Accord, which western nations used to devalue their currency and undermine Japanese export prices. The downturn, followed by a financialized corporate consolidation and expropriation of revenues through foreign investment, permanently crippled the Japanese economy in the aftermath of the 90s Asian recession.
What sets countries like Japan, Korea, and the Philippines apart from China is the domestic control of their industries. Their markets are dominated by private equity and fixated on steady profit margins rather than long term public investments. Consequently, the capital cities are flooded with cash and industrial development while the rural areas are devoid of commerce. There’s no shortage of speculation, but its rooted in the private equity markets and focused largely on fictitious capital - debt instruments and their derivatives - rather than real capital or technology.
Chinese investment in the periphery and its rising tide of middle class wage earners is what propels them into the 21st century. They’re the ones building out new transit lines, new public housing projects, new universities, and blue sky research. The Xi Government is openly hostile to speculative investment, doesn’t bother to bail out failing financial institutions, and focuses primarily on expansion of utilities, trade corridors, and mixed us developments.
And that, actually, is a great thing. You don’t want explosive growth, you want stability. This is a lesson the US is learning right now
Honestly, sounds great to me. I know they’ve had “issues” (is it really an issue for me if my money becomes more valuable?) with deflation, but I’d be OK with that if it meant no more speculation.
I hate inflation based economics. So ngl, japan seems really nice in that regard
Japan is on the verge if major economic collapse if they do not increase the population
They’ll survive it, their markets and investments aren’t overvalued like ours are. They’ll crash, re-evaluate their societal priorities, and start to build again
That’s an incredibly optimistic outlook.
I mean every society has to rebuild after a crash, I’m just optimistic that they’ll do it faster
You might want to look into the population studies on Japan. They are pretty bleak
Got a summary? I know the onus is on me, but I’m not likely to dig much further
Within 50 years the population will shrink to 70% of current levels with 40ish percent of the total population being elderly.
No, they’re absolutely not. Their GDP will majorly decline, but their QOL will stay the same or even improve and their GDP per capita also won’t see much change.
Birtherism is bullshit.
Their nation needs tax revenue. That depends on having people to tax. If the population declines too much they cannot afford to maintain social services and QoL will decline.
None of this is particularly controversial or surprising.
The services’ costs are dependent on the number of recipients. They’re already in the slump of elderly being a drain on the system, it can only get better not worse.
The only concern of the population decline that I can see is the decrease in funding available for Military Expenses.
And, if things get really bad, all they have to do is open up for immigration and able bodied workers will magically appear.
You are the only person I have seen claiming the elder population of Japan is decreasing or that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
https://www.ipss.go.jp/pp-zenkoku/e/zenkoku_e2023/pp2023e_PressRelease.pdf
Japan might not get the right immigrants at the right time. They shouldn’t count on skilled labor appearing when they need it.
If Generation A has a higher number of people than Generation B then when Generation A dies off there will be a lower number of elderly. It’s a temporary slump. It might last a decade or more, but it is temporary.
According to your source the Percentage of people aged over 65 peaks in 2042 or 2043 at about 38% if the government does nothing, compared to the 29.6% currently.
Right now a lot of skilled workers are fleeing to the EU, so Japan could totally capitalize on that. Or it can just educate its population to be skilled labor and give all the low skilled labor (if that even exists) to immigrants. Immigrants work hard for lower wages and are less prone to crime, there is no good faith argument against that.
The projected population of elderly people is projected to be 40% of the total population within 50 years unless substantial shifts happen. They are not replacing workers fast enough.
Japan has never wanted more immigrants and soon they will need a LOT of immigrants. Japan’s traditional xenophobia might prevent them for getting enough people.
That’d require significant societal change to an environment where having children is actually manageable
Which is why this is a problem
If AI is the chief innovation in the US, then the US is massively fucked.
I’d much rather have a fancy shinkansen.
llms and image generators alone are a tech that will change the world
That’s a high speed train for the non-weebs
Arigathankyou
Gesundheit
No, AI is one of the chief innovations which is a huge money maker. Don’t forget the US still dominates the enterprise server market which is worth trillions. Processors and GPUs are still designed and some manufactured here. Innovation comes in all shapes and sizes, AI is just the latest buzz.
The US isn’t innovating jack shit.
The US just created a massively polarized and unequal society so that when a country creates a new brilliant researcher or innovation, an American company can buy them out.
Basically, the insane poverty and lack of government services that the average American experiences gives them enough cash to buy up innovative people, companies, and competitors.
Also the post-WW2 world order heavily favours their economy.
Their allies buy their debt, and their weapons. They give access to theiir markets to US companies, and support US wars around the world. They invest in the US economy in an unbalanced way that favours the US economy.
And all of this was in exchange for US security.
Y’all are so jaded
No, we just don’t mislabel foreign brain drain as American exceptionalism.
Innovate people, companies, and competitors
And quickly turn them complacent. I work at a Japanese company, and the amount of times I see an amazing Japanese expat turn into a busybody is insane. We have crafted the perfect “fuck your idea just do your job” culture
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Sadly Japan may be a culture in decline.
Their culture is basically work yourself to the bone even more than the US. Young people study their ass off and get a job working long hours while still living at home because they still can’t afford their own place. And you have stuff like if the subway is a minute late they hand out apology slips to workers so they don’t get in trouble with their bosses for being 30 seconds late. Meanwhile there is a very strong ‘defer to elder authority’ note in their culture. And in many industries people are expected to work a 10-hour day and then go drinking with the bus until 2:00 a.m. only to be back at work the next day at 8:00 a.m.
The end result is young people have neither the time nor the money to have kids. So they don’t.Their population is literally aging and shrinking. They are facing a very serious problem in wondering who is going to take care of their elderly. Their birth to death ratio is 0.44, meaning that for every baby born in a year more than two people die. In a nation of about 125 million, the population is shrinking by just under a million every year. That’s not good.
And while the Japanese people are highly educated and very capable, the ‘defer to authority’ culture prevents the sort of entrepreneurship you see in the US. An example of this, Japanese companies have a stamp called the hanko, when a paper memo is circulated around the office each employee stamps it with their personal hanko stamp to signify that they have read it. Many Japanese companies stayed in person during COVID simply because there was no digital equivalent to the hanko and managers refused to give it up.
If you wants an example, look at Toyota Motors. It’s been obvious to everyone with eyes that electric vehicles are the future, and it has been obvious for probably 8 or 10 years. Every major automaker is investing in EV technology. Except Toyota, which up until recently was still betting the farm on hybrids and hydrogen. But that’s because the good Mr Toyoda didn’t like EVs, and unlike in an American company no one would dare challenge him on that.
It is really too bad. Japan is a wonderful place with an amazing culture and rich history. But if they are going to survive they need to make very serious changes to their society and they need to do it soon. That is going to involve dumping most of what currently qualifies as Japanese business culture, an instituting some real work-life balance laws with teeth. I don’t know if they’re going to do it.
Sound like they have to drop capitalism like everyone else
The most fascinating thing about their extreme “defer to authority” attitute, is the appearance of the “angry american” phenomenon, which is just a japanese-speaking white dude employee, which is literally there to voice the staff grievances and suggestions to the boss, without anyone japanese having to lose face. Literally the reinvention of the court jester in modern times!
This is a good summary, but I think it misses another big point. The country is super racist. They don’t allow enough immigration to offset demographic issues. They also don’t get any other benefits of immigration like cultural changes that could actually help companies be more adaptable, or maybe trying something different than the exact same thing for 100 years is a good idea.
i think with digital technology manufacturing quality not matter as much so everyone get cheap chinese shit
They have no groundbreaking AI software
Neither does the US
Huh? What countries have more advanced AI than the US?
Japan is living in the year 2000, since 50 years.
what does that even mean?
I think it means that they were ahead of the curve prior to the year 2000, which is when they started to fall behind the curve.
Not going to comment on the accuracy, but it makes sense to me.
Are they still using fax?
Largest market for fax machines…
and floppy discs
Not true. Their goverment stopped requiring floppy disks… *checks notes* …last year!
im sure its still the biggest market.
On God.
There are some things where fax still makes sense. Maybe I’m old, but I’m not a fan of “digital signatures” and “digital seals” for professional licenses. In cases where a document needs to be signed and/or sealed, I would much prefer a fax to a PDF with a “digital seal”. But that’s just me and I’m a weird dude.
There are some things where fax still makes sense
Nope.
Fax is insecure, you’d be better off signing w/o a “digital seal” or whatever and emailing it in. You can also print, sign, scan, and send, just like w/ a fax, but send as a PDF instead of insecurely over the telephone wires. I’ve done both digital signatures and scanned regular signatures, both work and are better than fax.
Modern PDF signing creates a digital fingerprint showing the device it was used on, whose credentials were used, a timestamp, and even a location if location services are turned on.
But yea, I guess all that just can’t compete with the ironclad security of a fucking ink pen. Oh, sorry. A copy of an ink pen. So much more secure and traceable.
I actually find this interesting, part of me wonders if there technological advancement meant they didn’t need to make changes/innovation, which led to others having issues having to innovate beyond what Japan did.
Hence why they are still stuck in 2000s
Looking back, I think we can say that the year 2000 was a much better time than 2025
Maybe Japan is so advanced it already moved past the overhyped generative “AI” and that’s why we haven’t heard anything about it
Hentai happened
Anon probably thinks the gundam statues are just statues
