Why does Japan trip over its own two feet? In many things, Japan undermines its own progress.

3 Comments

1. 

   @daveintokyojp 12 months ago

   I know what you are saying Mike. I teach English in Japan and other parts of Asia. In Japan it seems no one is taught the correct way to give a speech. They just give it without any structure. All of the meetings I have been to in Japan have been boring and way too long! Another thing that bothers me about Japan is the banking system and how it discriminates against foreigners. I have to wait 6 months before I'm allowed to open an account. Then 6 months later when my visa ends, they block my account and I can never use it again. I come and go from China and Japan, and China allows me to have a bank account with a debit card for 10 years, which I can renew in 10 years. Japan will not give me a real bank card and never a debit card.

2. 

   @azharidris7092 12 months ago

   Japan was way ahead in the 80s and early 90s.. it was due to overtake the US.. then the big bully made Japan sign the plaza accord to open up.. the massive bubble it creates eventually became the downfall of Japan.. to even begin to recover.. Japan needs to ditch the big bully Al Capone USA the collapsing Ponzi scheme economy and side with the rising multipolarity world of a growing new power.. surely this is not difficult.. Japan needs to gain its sovereignty..

3. 

   @idontsquare 12 months ago

   I agree with a lot of what’s stated here.

   Growing up in Hawai’i, I’ve thought a lot about the differences between Hawai’i, the West-US and E. Asia-Japan.

   I can’t help but think the U.S. has the luxury of attracting talent from across the globe, leveraging its vast land, resources, and wealth to afford the costs of diversity. Historically, the land and resources of the U.S. were obtained relatively easily, whether through revolt against the British Crown or at the expense of Native Americans.

   In a way, Americans can sell something that they didn’t labor to obtain in the same way human populations would otherwise be required to naturally take tens of thousands of years to expand and develop. Had the U.S. evolved naturally over such a span, its demographic structure, history, notions of freedom, diversity, and ethnicity would look very different—perhaps resulting in a more stratified society with deep historical roots. The rapid acquisition of land and resources has led to ideas of freedom that are less bound by the long, organic processes that typically shape civilizations over millennia.

   The U.S. benefits from an extraordinary combination of natural advantages: navigable waterways stretch from the Great Lakes and web through vast unpopulated fertile flat lands, immense tracts of farmland, food security, a stable climate, oil reserves, and rich deposits of metal ore. Additionally, the land is largely tectonically stable. Even if the worst predictions about climate change come to pass—farmland could naturally shift north and expand into Canada. It could even be a boom to US-Canada as it may open vast new territories and trade routes to the north – And perhaps allow the US access to the vast wealth of North Eurasia.
   These factors give the U.S. a significant margin for error. An abundance of resources and energy allows America to tolerate inefficiencies that would be far costlier in less resource-rich nations. It can adopt a more liberal approach to culture, science, and industry, while experimenting with new ways of living (Protestant cults, Mormonism, the Amish, Californian hippie cults and lifestyles). The society can absorb the costs of corruption, individualism, parasitism, free-riding, and the erosion of metaphysical commons like the violation of social trust and the family unit (i.e. accepting foreigners. Or, expanding one’s own group identity to include the potential damages that an out group might incur on your own kin.). These inefficiencies, which would cripple less well-endowed countries, are manageable in the U.S. due to its substantial resource base.

   In contrast, countries with fewer natural resources, like Japan, cannot afford this luxury. Without abundant space, oil, or metal, nations like Japan have to be more accountable for their actions. There's less room for error, and parasitic behaviors—those that don’t contribute to the survival of the whole—are perceived as a serious burden.

   Hawai'i is a case study of what happens when a resource-poor nation encounters a powerful one. It lacked the raw materials, energy sources, and cultural infrastructure to resist U.S. influence, Genetically, the upper class in Hawai'i has left the islands, or miscegenated to the point of no longer self-identifying with the remaining Kanaka population (which is often homeless, drugged, inbred, dependant on an occupying military for employment and protection, performance clowns in the tourism industry, or real estate agents selling their own people’s land.) Without the ability to harness resources and project physical force, Hawai'i’s people and culture were unable to sustain themselves against external pressures.

   Growing up in Hawai’i, I appreciate diversity in my personal life. But I wouldn’t wish it on another population. I’ve never really understood why people in Hawai’i don’t understand this. Perhaps being reliant on federal aid, military, and tourism money, and having poi-dog mentality corrupts one’s intuition and leads one away from a philosophical understanding of ‘nature’. Well, there's a lot to be explored here.

   For any country to emerge as a global leader, it needs to secure sovereignty, resources, and advanced technology—For Japan, this is a challenge reminiscent of its struggles during the world wars. The only way to achieve these goals without adopting an aggressive stance toward other nations is through obtaining these resources in unclaimed territory. Deep-sea mining or space mining, while farfetched, are really the only options. To succeed at this, Japan will need to leverage robotics, automation, and AI.

   As the world stands on the brink of a technological revolution a large portion of the global population will be useless and require something like UBI to survive.

   No matter how I look at it, I don’t see how notions of diversity or ideas about freedom from a place like the U.S. or the west are really useful for Japan or any resource poor island country. The world is about to change so much and, personally, I can’t help but think Japan’s animistic roots might be more effective in navigating through this new future than american or abrahamic ways of thinking.