They got overtaken by Germany a country with 50% lower population and the gap is widening. Their gdp per capita is below some Eastern European countries and way below other developed countries that used to have similar gdp per capita. Yen’s devaluation is getting faster so in the future I don’t think Japan can even be called a first world country anymore. What exactly caused this? I know Japan has been in recession since the early 90s but this last few years seem to be extra harsh on Japan
In: Economics
Japan is a very special case. It is the only non-Judeo-Christian country in the world that went through an industrial revolution on its own. They had a very particular social structure until WW2 and afterwards they simply copied (or were imposed) the US model – and in the beginning it was an incredibly successful cultural fusion. Do as the Americans they said, and everything will be all right. However, socially, they never evolved and you can copy only so much. Once you start copying, you lose your own ability to invent. They also remained incredibly conservative.
A typical example – despite having one of most developed electronics industries in the world, Japan has not produced a successful innovative technological startup for the last 40 years or so. Japanese are incredibly averse to business risk taking. They take failure very personally. It is a cultural problem – their society relies heavily on shame as primary driver.
They used to be quite successful in the video games market – both technologically and artistically – owning to a very unique cultural heritage – but they slowly lost even this. Large companies are always slow to adapt and unless you constantly produce new companies, your efficiency goes down the drain. I think they will eventually recover, but it won’t come easily, there is a lot that needs to change.
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