Japan, once dynamic, is disheartened by decline

[cowcommander]

Source: NY Times

OSAKA, Japan — Like many members of Japan’s middle class, Masato Y. enjoyed a level of affluence two decades ago that was the envy of the world. Masato, a small-business owner, bought a $500,000 condominium, vacationed in Hawaii and drove a late-model Mercedes. But his living standards slowly crumbled along with Japan’s overall economy. First, he was forced to reduce trips abroad and then eliminate them. Then he traded the Mercedes for a cheaper domestic model. Last year, he sold his condo — for a third of what he paid for it, and for less than what he still owed on the mortgage he took out 17 years ago.

"Japan used to be so flashy and upbeat, but now everyone must live in a dark and subdued way,” said Masato, 49, who asked that his full name not be used because he still cannot repay the $110,000 that he owes on the mortgage.

Few nations in recent history have seen such a striking reversal of economic fortune as Japan. The original Asian success story, Japan rode one of the great speculative stock and property bubbles of all time in the 1980s to become the first Asian country to challenge the long dominance of the West.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/world/asia/17japan.html?hp

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Kinda sad how far they've fallen. Especially considering how terrified we were of them back in the 80s and were making movies about Japanese corporations taking over our country.

[wuvuj]

1. The US is next?

...

[exboyfil]

2. It has been dwarfed by China's trade surplus with the U.S.

but Japan still has a significant surplus with us - they were just out Japaned by China. It was $50B when Bush puked on the Japanese Prime Minister, and it was $74B in 2008. It is probably on track to get back to the $70B figure this year.

[Art_from_Ark]

8. When bu$h Sr. puked on the Japanese prime minister,

the yen was trading at 130 to the dollar. Three years later, it had reached 78 to the dollar. After bouncing up and down for several years after that, it seemed to have leveled off at around 110-110, which was a figure that Japanese exporters could have lived with. But today, the yen is approaching its post-war high, and Japanese exporters are hurting big time. It is no wonder that China is unwilling to increase the value of the yuan, after seeing what happened to Japan and the yen.

[exboyfil]

9. Germany is already whining about their

trade deficit with China, and it is nothing when compared to our own deficit. When an exporter like Germany starts to whine, I think protectionism is on the way.

I think a few simple things could be done to start shifting the balance a little bit. One thing could be emission requirements for imported goods. Raising the cost of the fuel used by the cargo ships. Japan pulls all sorts of these tricks to close their markets. We don't appear to do anything of the sort.

[xchrom]

3. Very interesting read. Nt

[Demeter]

4. But, All Their Too-Big-To-Fail Banks Are Still There

Take a good look at our future--actually, it is America's story since St. Ronnie tore the guts out of the economy.

[No Elephants]

5. Reagan and his successors.

[JCMach1]

6. It was Bush Sr. who opened the business door to China

One more thing to be pissed about concerning the Bush's

[Kolesar]

7. Their economy was based on stealing the electronics industry from the US by dumping TVs &semiconduct

-ors at below-market prices. Japanese consumers paid the price with more expensive entertainment electronics and applicances. An economy based on a "distortion in the market" cannot prevail ultimately.

In no uncertain terms, Japan stole a lot of our jobs in electronics.

[The2ndWheel]

10. About the same size as Germany, with 40+ million more people

And it's an island. And it imports most of its resources. And it's a developed country with an aging population. And it's an aging population because it's a developed country. Plus its currency isn't the primary one in our global economic system.

This is why we can't grow the economy and deal with our environmental issues. One exists within the other, and it's not the one that we want. Because it limits what we can do.

That's really the conflict of the 21st century. It'll still involve people vs. people, no question about that. But the larger picture, is really civilization vs. the planet. It's humans vs. existence. We have no other natural predators left. Any diseases and viruses, we want to eradicate them. We want to mold the planet into what a single species wants it to be.

Japan might be showing us that we can't do that(not necessarily by choice, and not necessarily by fate, but by some complex combination of countless variables), but only time will tell, since we're only going to intensify our attempts to try to do it.

[bhikkhu]

11. Tragic when you have to give up global travel and your Mercedes...

I don't look at giving up artificial affluence as taking a "fall", nor do I feel sorry for people who find themselves having to live sensibly within their means. If anything, the stable non-growth in both population and economy that Japan has enjoyed may have them well set up for a sustainable future which we in the US are mostly completely unprepared for. An example of how completely unprepared we are is stories spun like this one, and the involuntary shudder many feel at the notion of an end to economic growth and phony wealth.