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It's interesting. I'm Japanese (born and raised), and was sort of in the same situation as the guy in the video, as in I was starting to join the work-force around the time the bubble burst (around the year 1992). Except that I was a recent high-school dropout, and wanted to work as a computer programmer. I was extremely lucky that the computer-programming industry was a bit of a rebel industry back in the days in Japan that many programming positions didn't require a formal degree, as long as you could prove that you could program. I was able to make a decent money as a high-school drop-out computer-programmer. I count myself very lucky that I had an interest and skills in programming. BTW, I'm loving the old footage of Japan in the video (I'm feeling very nostalgic as I have not lived in Japan for many years). A great job.
@Garrus Vakarian You had some good points but I disagree that demographics cause decline before the population actually shrinks. It takes a while more for the decline to sink in. Plus we should pay taxes to support old people. Leaving some of the most vulnerable people in society to fend for themselves is very dystopian.
@Garrus Vakarian People stop having babies when they’re worried and pessimistic about the future. Canceling benefits for seniors would only make them more so
@Garrus Vakarian That's when the government tries to get in more immigrants, the problem is birth rates are dropping even with foreigners, so really, it is just trying to use a band aid on an open wound.
Japan in the 80's became the richest country in the world, 35% of the world's money was inside Japan. At that time, they made a lot of investments in the United States, buying streets in New York, buildings, film production companies that were not worth the price they paid, they paid a lot for all of this. In Japan, the Japanese threw money in the trash, in rivers because they thought the money would never end. Anyway today everything is changing, Japan is impoverishing years after years, because the per capita GDP of the Japanese was formerly greater than that of the Americans, today the per capita GDP of the Americans is 70,000 dollars per year, and the Japanese now is 39,000 dollars per year .
Japan was never the richest, it is merely in par w US.. Which makes many ppl greedy & exuberant. Recession is nothing more than a healthy correction & wake up call to those who are unrealistic in their finances. Its quite normal & happen to all capitalist countries. To advance further just like S Korea, Taiwan & any countries w 40k gdp, is to rid of conservative culture & adopt more liberal/progressive ones..
the Japanese electronics producers completely missed the invention of the Smartphone. SonyEricsson went down, just like Siemens cellphones and Nokia went down in Europe. Taiwan and South Korea made all the high innovation - high profit products from the early 2000s on.
I was in NYC living in Manhattan and going to grad school starting in 1989. There were mobs of groups of Japanese tourists everywhere in NYC; particularly around the usual places of Wall Street and the Twin Towers and Times Square and the usual spots in Midtown. When I finished my grad work in 1991 the huge groups of Japanese tourists were still all over Manhattan. But after finishing grad school I went to work for a financial services firm in Lower Manhattan and was working some extremely long ungawdly hours so I didn't have much time for anything else. Then sometime in around middling 1990s/latter 1990s, it dawned on me that the mobs of groups of Japanese tourists had, more or less, completely disappeared from NYC.
I was still a child a this time but I remember the time when Marty McFly said all cool things come from Japan. Then there's that human like android in RoboCop made by the Japanese 🇯🇵 conglomerate. I'm from Asia but even I felt the fear of Japan at that time 😂
Hahaha...I was living in my home city, San Francisco, working for US Immigration (1991-1994)....."konko, konko, konko, konko, konko, konko, send this yakuza back for further inspection, konko, konko, konko..." Yes, yakuza just "felt" different, "acted" different and Secondary Inspection usually verified it...and they went home.....but 98% of hundreds per planes....I zipped them right through.
I was in Paris in 1990, waiting in line to get into LV’s Champs-Élysées store. I was the only non Japanese. Salesperson would speak to me in Japanese. I was living in London at that time. High streets, Harrods, upscale hotels, and high tea places Japanese tourists (young females especially) were all over the place. I remember being in awe of their financial affluence. Everyone carries multiple shopping bags, mostly from high end stores.
Sounds like the Chinese now. New money, tacky, wanting disposable shite. And, just like Japan, China has peaked and will soon collapse. It's going to be more enjoyable though, because Japanese people are lovely, whereas...
I’m in an American, who arrived in Japan in 1991, and was impressed with the vitality of the economy. For example, in an ice cream shop in Tokyo, Disneyland, I saw something like 14 employees busily wiping down the counters, despite there being only two customers inside. Of course, things changed very quickly. I had the good luck to start an anime export business in 1996, so Japan’s problems worked in my favor a lot of the time. I specifically remember, saying to my employees, whenever the economy falls, further, companies that wouldn’t take a risk on doing business with us are happy suddenly to talk with us. So it opened a lot of doors.
That's an interesting story mate, we're very grateful if you can elaborate more of the details. I'm instantly tickled with alternative economic scenario during the times of uncertainty. When some of the Japanese companies feels that their economy are runs out of luck, they began to open their products for the foreign investor at a wholesale price in order to keep the managerial ranks (also it's ordinary workers) under the payroll. In the times of uncertainty, the Japanese company maximizing their output by amassing more and more distributor for their products, which is a sign of healthy credit in the Japanese local banks perspective.
I was born in 1965, started studying Japanese at university in January 1985, arrived in Tōkyō in January 1987, struggled to survive on minimal savings as a volunteer Mormon missionary, started working as a temp staff copyeditor/copywriter/translator/proofreader at the head office of Toppan Printing in Akihabara in April 1990 or 1991, and finally left Japan in March 2002. Therefore, I witnessed all of this. Japan was just starting to get ISDN in some forward-looking homes as I was leaving, so I had no Internet as a connection to the English-speaking world throughout my time in Japan. People romanticize this era, but we were working until the last train home and thus had no life outside the office.
@@konichivalue Yes, it helped to be immersed in the environment of the language and not associate with native English speakers. I also was quite obsessed with kanji, so it took me six months to learn 2,500 characters with all of their various readings and major meanings. Therefore, I was able to look up full words easily in the dictionary while watching Japanese TV with the Japanese subtitles turned on so that I could improve my listening comprehension considerably. The 1990s were the golden era of Japanese TV dramas and variety shows as well as great game shows like なるほど!ザ・ワールド and 世界まるごとHOWマッチ. I used that foundation in reading and writing kanji early to later quickly become able to read Chinese newspapers as I continued my studies in Mandarin. The 1990s were a good time in many ways, despite the loneliness of a total lack of a social life outside the office.
7:20 "Most Japanese people were forced to eat Thai rice" - how awful, I am surprised the Japanese government did not declare a national emergency at this point.
I read that because housewives refused to buy Thai rice, grocery stores would bundle one bag of Thai rice with each bag of Japanese rice (tied together with string). Shoppers would buy the bundle, but leave the Thai rice behind at the store.
I lived in Japan for 6 years at the end of the bubble in 1991-1997. You are right, in 1991, everyone still felt the economy was strong and Japan was BOOMING!! The economy continued to grow strongly until 1993 as you pointed out. That was the year my English school, like many, collapsed as it had overexpanded like so many others. However, I ended up making double the money for several years afterwards when I became a private teacher so the end of the Bubble didn't affect me at all. I am now back in Japan 30 years later and actually, Japan is a better place now - the quality of life is better because people aren't working as hard and everyone still has a lot of cash. Don't be fooled - Japan is still a very rich country. Everything here is better than it was 30 years ago, especially in terms of public infrastructure like parks and bike paths, etc. Furthermore, the cost of living is so much lower, it's now a very affordable place to take a vacation and in fact it is North America which is way too expensive now! Funny how things change.
Yep, it is hard for me to believe as well! I was just in Japan last week and seriously, hotels cost 75% less than they did 30 years ago!! Meanwhile in LA I had to pay $150 for just an airbnb room near the airport!! Food and drink is also much cheaper in Japan@@RobertLutece909
From a South American point of view, it's interesting to see that the appreciation of the Yen was a real problem for the Japanese economy at the time. Brazil and other South American and Latin American countries had struggled for a long time during the previous decades because of currency devaluation (for example, Brazil changed currencies six times between 1967 and 1994, Argentina changed currencies four times between 1968 and 1992). My father still remembers the news saying that Japan had deflation and how outlandish this reality was for Brazilians who were used to quick buying shortly after payday because of rising prices.
@@sotch2271 that quote refers to the South American economies in general, most of them had suffered high inflations for very long periods, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela,
@@Mexa2105 Venezuelan here, I often send a stock among of money to be traded for the local currency (if they can) and to spend all of that money instantly since there the devaluation works hourly and some companies change prices by the day. It's culturaly common to ask price and not relies on post prices on the internet/store.
Deflacao foi pintada como um verdadeiro demonio na cabeça das pessoas, como se fosse a pior coisa do mundo, pior até que inflaçao, mas a verdade é que isso é uma grande mentira! o problema da deflacao é quando temos um cenário como o atual onde está todo mundo alavancado graças ao perverso sistema FIAT de moedas em que os governos e bancos imprimem dinheiro do rabo deles, aí se tiver deflaçao eles quebram e levam a economia junto em espiral, ou seja um problema que eles mesmo criaram emprestando dinehiro que eles nao tinham! em um cenario onde as pessoas só emprestam o que podem , deflacao é extremamente bom para economia! tanto que o periodo em que a economia americana mais cresceu, algumas decadas antes da primeira guerra, foi um periodo deflacionário, ainda noa existiam os bancos FDPs em conluio com governo imprimindo dinheiro e roubando nossa riqueza pelo imposto inflacionario!
I lived in Japan for three years during the lost decade. I knew nothing about it at the time but looking back the signs of economic decline were definitely there.
I often forget that Japan had it's own version of the Roaring 20's then Depression of the 30's. The Roaring 80's if you will, followed by a very depressing 90's.
Every now and then, about once a month, the TH-cam algorithm gets it right and sends me to a channel with a handful of videos and a handful of subscribers, but the videos are great. Subscribed!
Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s I worked in luxury high end merchandise. A close friend worked as a personal shopper, and reported Japanese clients who’d come in and buy entire wardrobes from all the top designers. It wasn’t uncommon for a woman to buy a head-to-toe ‘look’ from a designer costing ¥1500000 ($15,000 USD). Japanese ladies would buy designer handbags by the 3’s and 4’s, bespoke shoes at $1000/pair. It was a heady time that was over as suddenly as it started, as if someone flipped a switch. It went literally from Hermés having Japanese clients 5 deep at the counters to deserted stores. I started going to Japan in ‘17. I’ve been several times, and love the people and their amazing culture and aesthetic. Thank you for an excellent video and your deep insights.
There's always a lag time of a few years between when bubbles start bursting and the effect on the real economy. A more recent example was the Great Financial Crisis/Second Great Depression in America. The bubble actually burst in mid 2006, but it wasn't until 2009 that it hit the real economy.
In the mid eighties I recall small but good quality firms offering “sign up bonuses” to secure new “freshmen” employees. Fast forward to the start of the century, and “soon to be” graduates were spending hundreds of hours in their final year of university in a desperate bid to secure entry level jobs with those companies.
I remember that there were Japanese tourists everywhere before the bubble-burst. They had lots of money and were spending freely. Then almost overnight they disappeared and every one wondered what had happened. They still haven't returned. The same happened with the Chinese tourists. Pre-Covid, they were everywhere, and post-Covid, they still haven't returned. China's economy looks like a slow-motion replay of the Japanese decline.
I remember the news articles in the early 90s, when I was in secondary school. Japan was absolutely tearing the global eoconomic stage, the other countries were just sideshows. Never would have thought this amazing economy was about to fizzle to dormancy and what we were seeing was the brilliant burst of light from a dying star. I'm kind of scared that my own country Korea might be on that track now.
If korea shrinks, it could be bad, but they have made such a large global impact that not all progress would be undone unless the core finances were more screwed than weimar germany
This Because most East Asian countries (especially South Korea and Taiwan) developed by looking at Japan and what worked (even if most people in Korea would never like to admit it), the stagnation and even recession of the Japanese economy is definitely something that is worrying for these countries, or at least it should be because otherwise the same thing could easily happen again (and I personally think there's some good risk it might happen in the near future ....)
Japan and Korea are structurally similar. (low birthrate, aging population, social culture, and major industries). Like Japan, the ROK has already completed its growth period and its economic growth rate is beginning to slow down. It is unclear whether growth can be sustained from this state.
@@karurata2721 They do have one thing going for them. A very huge portion of their economy is run by a few very powerful companies. Samsung alone makes up 20% of South Koreas economy. And the best part is most of its profit comes from overseas so even if their population shrinks Samsung will be able to sustain itself. Other companies like Hyundai and LG are also very big and get most of their revenue overseas.
I have always loved all things Japanese and as a little girl thought that I would work for Sanrio! My mom introduced us to Japanese cuisine and all of our electronics at home were made by Sony, btw...they still work 30 plus years later! We finally bought a Japanese car that I refuse to give up after many years as it runs very well and I could go on. As a Westerner, I was told that the Japanese always took great pride in every thing they did, from the smallest of tasks to the largest. We can still learn from the Japanese. One day I hope to visit from Canada!
"We should learn to act like the Japanese" It won't work because Anglo-nations have an "atomized nuclear-family" society with a guilt based moral structure (most individualistic), While Japan has an "authoritarian-family" society with a 'shame' based moral structure (most conformist).
Hello. If you have a college degree, you can go there and get a job as a conversational English teacher. You don't have to know what a dangling participle is--they want foreign teachers for conversation, not grammar lectures. I did it for seven years and loved it.
@@sofigagas someone who lives in Japan, I hear that all the time.... Including my friend who have 10 year old half Japanese children. They still don't work Japanese.
I don't usually comment, but THIS is literally one of the BEST videos I've ever watched. I have nothing but a state of awe for your research and willingness to create a high quality, engaging video on top of it. Thank you, sincerely.
Yes same here,also back in early 2000s,these Japan Bubble Burst(Japan Lost Decades) was matter of discussion in our school most of times,mainly due to my country Look East policy two decades before.
As a fan of urban exploration, I’ve known about this event for some time, mainly through the many insane abandoned places it created (such as Sports World Izu, a water park that ran from 1988 to 1996, and sat abandoned for almost 15 years until it’s demolition in 2010). It was also briefly mentioned near the start of Spirited Away, when Sen and her parents find the park and at first think it’s a victim of the bubble. Even as an American, it’s always been an interesting story to me because of how long-lasting it’s effects have been.
Touché. The Rust-Belt is equally fascinating too. Places like Detroit, Michigan, and Youngstown, Ohio, are worth the visit. It felt like a post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi dystopia. Then you factor in all the people that still live there, most on drugs, with many dying from an overdose or crime, along with deaths of despair, aka suicide, and food banks scattered everywhere. It was, and still is, by far, the most eye-opening experience I’ve ever had, and I’ve been to Afghanistan mind you. At least there, it’s filled with life, with so many people around, and a massive youth bulge.
@@khalidalali186 The Rust Belt, especially Detroit, is so ubiquitous in the American conscience with urban decay that I think it’s lost meaning for a lot of Americans. Also, bit stereotypical to say most people there are OD-ing, joining gangs, and/or 0ffing themselves. Yes, there’s definitely much higher rates of those there, but it’s not like *most* people are doing it.
Of course, buddy. That goes without saying. That’s why I said “Most”, and it’s not like it’s their fault too. Don’t even get me started on the Sacklers dude. 😅
In 1988 I worked for a very large American company. We were all told that we had to be more like the Japanese. They were so much smarter than us, such good managers, such good workers, etc. And almost overnight all that propaganda disappeared. (Not that the people who promoted it were punished in any way.)
I believe Japan will make a full economic recovery. The people are uncomplaining and good workers. They can change things abruptly and everyone works together to bring about the change. When I went to Japan in 1970 the air was polluted and in the parks trash overflowed. Suddenly there was a change. Now everyone uses the trash cans and the garbage is picked up easily, the air is clean and the sky is blue. How was that change created. Pessimistic viewers will be surprised at the turn around. I am an American who appreciates the time she enjoyed in Japan and the many honest and kind people I met. They are the strength of Japan.
I'm a foreigner who started working in Japan in 1992. I remember in 1993 the company I worked for, Fujitsu, laid off contractors for the first time. I also remember the rice shortage. I joined Merrill Lynch in 1998. They bought Yamaichi shoken, that you mention, while LTCB merged with UBS. Many other retail banks at the time merged.
My friend Terry Suelzle was trading futures at Merrill Lynch in Tokyo at that time but moved back to Canada before I did in 2002, which means he might have left already by 1998. I kept meeting Westerners working at multinational banks in Tokyo around 1991, and I did have a chance to work at Bloomberg, but I had no confidence that I could work in finance. I still loved my translation job since I loved reading Japanese and writing English, so I was satisfied, though perpetually lonely. When I later saw the extraordinary expat lifestyle that Terry and other English-speaking ‘Mormons’ were enjoying, I finally begrudged my extremely meagre lifestyle, void of any social life. Now, ironically, I’m trading full-time and realize I could have done it after all. Many of those expats moved on to Singapore if they didn’t just return to North America and Europe.
I graduated high school in 2003, and had a solid job in marketing making 40k/yr by 2006. Seeing the recession on the horizon by the end of that year, I enlisted in the military in hopes of obtaining a college degree without going into debt. By the end of 2009 I was divorced with a newborn to care for on my own and ineligible for most military benefits. 14 years later, we're still barely scraping by and no real improvement is on the horizon. We're just hoping to keep enough roof over our head not to freeze to death. Edited to add: How did the US see what happened in Japan, and instead of learning anything at all...they did the very same? Short-sighted greed and shame are a very dangerous mix, and our nation is crumbling for it.
I find the lost decade so fascinating because I have an uncle who had a job with NASDA (a precursor to JAXA, the Japanese space agency) that he started in 1993 and he was so massively impressed by how prosperous the country was, because he had just come from Russia and lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union and the beginning of the wild 90s. Even today he frequently talks about his time in Japan and how great the economy was haha
A fascinating look at the Lost Decade of Japan! I really enjoyed this because I like looking at the realities of life in certain parts of the world, especially those countries we tend to romanticize. I also love that you took a deep dive into the financial issues and specific actions that caused and exacerbated the recession. I found chilling parallels between Japan's recession of the 90's, and the US's recession of 2008--bad loans and bank bailouts for too-big-to-fail institutions. One thing I'd love to see as a follow up, if you're interested in it, would be the social repercussions of the Lost Decade up to today. I know that many people just couldn't find jobs during the decade, and so the usual social structure of "get a corporate job right after college" was broken (you touched on it in the early part of the video)...but what has that led to today? Has there been a reform in the way that people find jobs in Japan? Has the society moved away from thinking that a freelance job is the mark of a dead beat? I'd love to see your take on it if you so choose. Either way, this video was great. Thank you for making it!
I did study the housing situation in Japan for a while. From what I can tell in Japan it isn't that difficult to find work mainly because things kinda sorted themselves out on their own as the population aged up because more people retired creating more openings in the market, and those ageing people required or requested services, so new jobs were created to accommodate them. But, homelessness is a pretty big thing, to the point where some of the solutions to housing that you wouldn't see in the west have been adopted. A big one is that people will rent karaoke booths, computer booths, and various other cubicle-like areas to sleep in for the night every single night. It resulted in a pretty severe rape culture in Japan that was hidden for a long time and only was revealed on some level pretty recently. Like, women who couldn't get a place to stay for the night after work would get abused and they wouldn't report it because that would mean saying "I'm homeless," and men would routinely take advantage of that. I don't know about freelance work in Japan, I might look into that. I know that in India the gig economy is thriving, but I never looked into how that kind of work is doing in China, Japan, or South Korea.
Whaaa!!! The previous comment!!! Never eared of that. The results and consequences… Culture didn’t change. If you have no money you just disqualify yourself for parenthood. Women only select the 20 % of fixe job guys or continue to work. The actual Japan is the result of the no risk culture. And either in Korea, Japan or else, stable workers just quit searching for a girl, no time, no energy for that. The non fixe job guys just quite trying also. The problem is the way to think work in Asia
One thing that’s changed is that most women are working now, and even fewer people are getting married or even dating. When I was in Japan (1986-2002), women were still expected to quit their jobs upon marriage, not waiting for pregnancy, and there was extraordinary pressure for them to get married before the age of 26. I haven’t seen the new Japan in which women continue to work into their 30s and later. Apartment rentals are really cheap in Tokyo now compared to Vancouver, Canada. Back in my time, you’d never find any English speakers anywhere, so if you didn’t know the language, as was the case when my family visited me, you’d truly be lost. Now, English speakers are all over the place because of exposure to the language on the Internet and to the enormous influx of foreigners, even though Japan continues to have the lowest proficiency in English than virtually any other country.
_'I found chilling parallels between Japan's recession of the 90's, and the US's recession of 2008--bad loans and bank bailouts for too-big-to-fail institutions.'_ Presumably you know little of TARP. The biggest part of the TARP was the bank rescue, which invested $236 billion in over 700 banks. Almost all of those investments have been resolved, most resulting in a profit for the government. One may argue the reward-to-risk ratio was poor, i.e. risky investments should get higher returns, but the bailout to banks was not a net loss to taxpayers. What was a net loss to taxpayers were subsidies (about $32.5 billion) that aren't required to be repaid. These were to homeowners. As of 30 September 2020, Treasury had disbursed $30.85 billion (95 percent) of the $32.56 billion TARP funds obligated to the three housing programs. The Making Home Affordable program allowed homeowners to apply for loan modifications to avoid foreclosure. The Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund for the Hardest Hit Housing Markets provided funds to 18 states and the District of Columbia to help struggling homeowners through programmes tailored to the state. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Short Refinance program allowed eligible homeowners to refinance into an FHA-insured loan. The bailout of Fannie and Freddie, however, is a different story. After the government essentially took over the two state-established companies to stabilise the housing market in 2008, the Treasury pumped in nearly $200 billion over the following years. While the two state-established companies haven’t yet repaid any of the principal, they have been making sizeable dividend payments every quarter. Fannie and Freddie, and US legislation requiring x% of mortgages written to 'underserved' communities regardess of credit worthiness, were the root of the problem. The Treasury realised large profits on its investments in the country’s largest banks and AIG (an insurance company), and those profits have balanced out the losses and subsidies to other sectors.
Remarkably detailed, well produced. Many of the factors that led up to this recession, is almost an exact blueprint for the same debacle that happened here in 2008 - 2009.
It's make risky maneuvers until failure. I don't study economics, but superficially the too-big-to-fail-bailouts like those a decade ago in the US and 30 years ago in Japan seem like a bad idea that only reinforces making these risky maneuvers.
It has to be said how impressive it is that, even after a "lost decade of stagnation", Japan is still the 3rd largest economy in the world with a colossal output of unique culture that the world is hungry to consume (manga, anime, movies etc) and - interrupted by Covid - has become a tourist hotspot for millions every year. Sure, Japan isn't at the heights it was in the late 1980s, but it's still doing well enough today.
It is definitely still a tourist hotspot. However, those culture exports which you speak of actually do not earn much. In fact, press industries over the world aren’t very profitable. And unless it’s gatekept by streaming services, anime cannot be sold. It’s simply an advertisement for comics. As for movies, tokyo dorifto has fallen largely out of favour of Broadway since 2 decades ago. Furthermore with the pressure on the government to keep outsiders out while the population tumbles, it’s actually already been dying for the last 30 years. There’s only so much export you can derive from tourism.
Yeeeeeeeees, this is just the best coverage about how Japan Inc. got to the state it is today. I've seen on other YT pages that the bubble burst due to a trade-war, but in fact, as Konichi-Value states, the Bubble was started and exacerbated by financial institutions with lose governance and government indifference to the situation due to its hand-in-hand connection with both the financial sector and the corporate world as well. Domestic financial mismanagement and entrenched government bureaucracy just made things worse and due to its inability to change in the past 30 years. Blame the LDP, the indifference by the public due to non-compulsory voting system and the deterioration of national innovation and research in universities and industry due to reduced funds, and Japan Inc's overseas trading also started to dry up. Well done Konichi-Value, it is absolutely brilliant to see a video by a Japanese national telling it as it was and still is. I live in Japan from 1993 to 2008 and have a financial degree. What he says is so, so true.
i work in a factory and i saw the new machine made in Japan. when i saw it i wept becos it was perfect. all the problems we encountered were addressed and resolved. it was a work of art to me and i don't think many nations would surpass that level of workmanship and dedication.
This video briefly mentioned it, but didn't really emphasize the effect of the Plaza Accords on the Japanese economy. Japan was in a trade war with the US in almost the same way China is in now. The Plaza Accords prevented Japan from adjusting its Yen exchange value. Adjusting this value made Japanese products cheaper and much more competitive abroad. Losing this ability was disastrous to Japan's predominantly export driven economy.
Yeah, the speed at which it happened was truly devastating for the Japanese economy. If the government and the BOJ was allowed more time to adjust its coupling to the USD I believe the bubble would have grown far slower and Japanese export oriented companies would have adopted far better...
Difference is, china is a sovereign country with nukes. And china just won the trade war and tech war. That why American officials are begging to meet xi? Biden, yellen, blinken, shumer,...all begging. Don't see that with Japs in the 90s.
I remember this time. It was hellacious hard to get a place as an artist at "The Zoo Fence" in Waikiki because you could make $1500 a day - big money in the mid-80s - from the Japanese tourists who'd buy anything. The land in Tokyo was reputed to be worth more than all the land in the US. Japan was the ne plus ultra. Tokyo supposed to be more expensive than anywhere. Now, it's all changed. Tokyo's about as expensive as Alabama and I'd retire there (Tokyo, not Alabama) if I could hack the language.
Land is still pricey in Tokyo, but certainly down from its highest point. Costs come up differently: Rent? Lower than most American cities. Purchasing land? Actually more than most American cities, weirdly enough Food? Not that different from an American Metro. Oddly, stuff like soda is cheaper while meat is expensive. Transportation? Cheaper overall due to phenomenal public transit but cars cost a lot more to run in Japan.
Princes of the yen documentary has some great comparisons of the price of the imperial gardens and the Tokyo Wards. I think one example was the imperial gardens were worth the entire state of California.
@@romannasuti25 meat probably costs the same overall. It's all heavily subsidized in the us. So the amount you pay might not be so different. I'm very certain eating meat in japan is still much more rare though
This was excellent, thanks for making it. The economic collapse closely mirrored the rise of J horror as a genre as the average Japanese citizen lost any hope in a better future
Japan's economic success as a whole community was real back in 80's and 90's. It was probably the first and biggest success of social capitalism in human history that has not been accomplished anywhere else on this planet. Despite today's deteriorated economic indices, Japan is still considered one of the best, in terms of the social infrastructure, safety level, accessibility to medical services. Let's see how this country will change in next 20-30 years.
I was working in Japan in the mid-1980s when the western banks set the decline and fall of Japan's post WW2 "economic miracle" in motion with 円高 (En-Da-Ka) or revaluing the Yen to make it strong. I personally profited, as when I left Japan the rate of exchange was in my favour. Back in the UK I worked for Japanese companies exporting (Strong Yen) capital and making risky investments in the UK. In Japan I had worked in manufacturing, exporting Japanese goods. A weak yen was good for exports. A strong yen was bad. We were told a year before En-Da-Ka really hit that we had "to double production and halve production costs" within a year! I just groaned that this sounded like some serious Western economic warfare against Japan. It was.
The lost decade was due to Government narrow-mindedness, yes the economy contracted after 1991... but that is only because it expanded at an unreasonable pace in the late 80s. More seasoned western economists would have let the pieces fall where they may. And then pick everything up again after 3 years. What Japan did is is akin to a cramped runner forcing his body to run more even after total exhaustion. By refusing to rest, he did his muscles real damage and tore some ligaments irrepairebly. Now Japan has exhausted its bond options and is too much in debt to stimulate its economy in any real sense. The government’s poor response made sure the damage of the 1991 bubble which was suppose to be temporary, a permanent sentence for Japan.
What a fantastic documentary. It's very well produced and the use of the old footage is amazing (the earthquake scene was especially eerie). Hearing about the lost decade from an expert who's actually from Japan is wonderful. Subscribed! The 1990s was a fantastic decade for the United States. 1) Japan fell into a recession and dropped out as a potential threat to US global economic dominance. 2) The USSR was destroyed by betrayal from within and huge new markets and resources for the West were opened (USSR competed directly with the US in far fewer areas, but did have some big market shares globally - for example 30% of world's civilian aviation manufacturing, and a massive space program). It's interesting in the historical perspective how US political and economic elites took this unprecedented twin golden opportunity and threw it all away by sending virtually all their manufacturing base to Asia and Mexico.
Spot on! I remember those times very well and couldn't quite believe how good it was looking to be... and then yes, the politicians gave away our manufacturing base, and the culture has imploded. How the mighty have fallen!
To be fair, the manufacturing bases were given away due to the extremely low cost of labor, at a rate which would have basically made it mandatory to produce in foreign countries, since otherwise the products created by pro America businesses would be sold at a far higher price than the products created by businesses manufacturing elsewhere. Be honest, most people would buy 1000 dollar iPhone made in China than a 2500 dollar iPhone in the US.
@@jacklion109the iPhone costs like 100$ to make. If it costed 200$ they could still sell it for 1000$. Also American labor is more productive per capita than Chinese labor is. We also just cost more
The ultimate reason behind this is not corruption or bad government, but demographics. With less and less young people the original growth model of Japan had to come to an end. With less young families with kids, there is also less demand on the housing market. And since Japan almost has no immigration at all, these demographic factors matter even more.
@@alice_agogo oh, yes, it did have the same demographic problem already in the 1990ies. West-Germany had exactly the same demographics like Japan, but Germany had huge immigration in the same decade: several million East Germans moved to West Germany, where all the factories were. Another 2 to 3 million ethnic Germans from the Soviet Union came, than "guest workers" from Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, refugees from Yugoslavia, etc. Japan had non of this.
You are joking. It was 100% due to corruption and bad government. Did you even understand the section with the biggest bank being run by (ex )finance ministers? The reason for the acquitals, was to stop it from going even higher than those who got acquitted. They also had laws on investing and bank lending to major companies.....so banks and companies made ways around them How do you think Japanese companies could accept 3, 4, 5 years of selling product below cost until the western companies lost their high% of market share....and became unable to compete? When you look at the BANK collapses and TRILLIONS in the bailouts, you know where the money came from earlier.
I wish so badly that Japan would truly recover and become the powerhouse it should be. Japan has most things right, while I don't agree that people should work so hard that they pass out during boardroom meetings, they aren't as uptight about some things as westerners. I really have a problem with Western thinking when it comes to certain things.
Excellently done. This is going into two of my playlists, the one on recent Japanese history and the one on finance. (I myself was at the University of Hokkaido 91-92, and my Mumbusho scholarship was deposited into Takushoku Ginko. Even after I graduated university and was looking for work in NYC in 96, I don't think the general sense of Japan's economic might had abated, even though the numbers and bank lending practices tell a very different story.)
Thanks for this! It's really helpful to see what my husband must've experienced while growing up and coming of age through the 80s and 90s. It's interesting to get an idea of the corruption behind it, too. I didn't know about the banks. You never seem to hear that part of the story, what with....other things (the US) being blamed for the burst most of the time... Just last week my husband got back an old elementary school yearbook from the mid 80s, and it was of the highest quality! I was like.....wow, you got a hardcover yearbook for 3rd grade? I mean...you got a yearbook at all? And the book was ONLY for the 3rd grade classes, so the school had printed separate yearbooks for each grade! - and they were FREE! I laughed as I told him I grew up in what was considered a fairly affluent midwestern American suburb back then, and the best we got was a single 8x10 of our whole class along with our picture day pack. Pretty interesting to see how the Japanese were swimming in it back then! He didn't even come from a rich place or grow up in one - this kind of stuff was just normal! Now I'm going to have to ask him more about it. He was front and center in the generation of graduates who had it tough trying to get into companies after the burst. Man, Gen X got cornholed worldwide, it seems! I'm glad we've made it this far in spite of all the bad economic times we've had to endure right out of the gate.
Sad to hear of Japan's suffering. I live in a tourist area in South East Asia. Before the Japanese bubble bust MOST tourists were Japanese. In fact Japanese writing was everywhere and the youth loved Japanese pop-culture. People were trying to learn the Japanese language. After the bubble burst we hardly ever see any Japanese tourists - very rare. Then came the Chinese in many many huge groups but now they have disappeared. But all those years tourists from South Korea and America remain consistent even till today.
It is extremely interesting to see the many parallels between what Japan had gone through in the 90's and what China is going through now. Thanks for the well researched, detailed and amazing video.
Like the old footage of Japan reminds me when I visited in the 80s - 90s. What you haven't mentioned is the Plaza Accord in 1985 that played a crucial role in Japan's decline.
Thank you! Yeah, to be honest, the Plaza Accord and its consequences is a whole beast to cover. I'll probably make a video, or link to my favorite video about it, soon
Intriguing video explained thoroughly and understandably. I feel that it is important to study this issue as similar financial troubles are a-brewing in many parts of the world today.
Pragmatic individuals knew that the bubble was nothing but an epiphenomenon that wouldn't last forever. You may say anything you want about Japanese economy, but even as today, Japanese have kept a higher standard of living, compared to other developed nations. I came to Japan in 1987 with a working visa, and have now Japanese nationality. Japanese are amazing at adaptating to situations and conditions, I would advise anyone who pretends that Japan is done, to research Japanese socio-economic history. Japanese are extremely resilient, they may surprise you again....
I lived in Japan from 1989 to 1993, a cushy ex-pat assignment, just in time to watch the bubble burst. As mentioned in the video, the sense of optimism didn’t diminish until about ‘93. I continued to travel to Japan on business for years after that, as the country began sobering up to face their new reality. Some twenty years later, a time-travel comedy movie called Bubble Fiction came out, which faithfully recreated the look and feel on 1990 Tokyo. Watch it if you ever have the chance. You might recognize the lead as the actor who played the gangster in Tampopo.
It says this video is uploaded 3 weeks ago and like many other similar comments, Why did youtube decide to bring it up on my random scrolling? Anyway! I am glad it did and enjoyed it very much. Thanks
This video as a whole and the Kobe Earthquake section in particular are fascinating. No wonder it's the most replayed one on that video, I've sent it to someone else myself just now. Having watched away hours of documentaries on Japanese economy (due to currently fansubbing into English an anime documentary on Japanese economy), I'd go ahead and say yours has the most interesting findings and the best BGM of them all. Ganbatte!
I remember the huge job fairs in Japan.. where new college graduates could easily get a job. This was every single year throughout the 80's and early 90's. Then it stopped. I mean, it completely stopped for many years. They are still the "lost generation". Man, they got screwed royally.
UK citizen here, I remember the fancy high end Sony Shops springing up in town centers mid 1980s, Japanese absolutely dominating all tech for sale in the UK. Sony & all Japanese tech died here very quickly as made in Korea took over.
Sad we were never taught any of this in middle or high school. Thirty years and I just am now finding out about all of this! Thank you for assembling this informative video!👍
This was worth watching simply for the great background footage, but the education it provides on the lost decade is wonderful. Thank you. I will be sharing this with friends.
Excellent documentary! Alot of people have forgotten what happened. It is good to see that someone has kept up with these issues, maybe Japan will not have to go through that severe of a downturn again.
Australian Opal miners had it so good in the late 80s, early 90s. Japanese Opal buyers would travel to the Australian outback to buy gems from the miners.. The buyers would stand at the top of the mining shafts, waiting for thd miners to emerge and show what they had found that day, the Japanese had bags of cash and would buy your "rough" gems, right there in the middle of nowhere. Hundreds of thousands of dollars changed hands in those days... The Japanese were getting rid of as much cash as possible.
Back in the 80s Chinese high schools (which just started its reforms) used to provide Japanese in lieu of English as your foreign language requirements. In fact my dad took Japanese in high school and only learned English in college. By the mid 90s nobody in China studies Japanese anymore as everyone changed their foreign language to English
Somehow this bubble time had a beauty of its own, the fashion, the cars etc etc I think the whole world not just Japan was better off and more optimistic in the 85-91 years. Now in 2023 nothing makes sense.
Still, Japan will stand up. Just as in the past, an island nation in the Far East became the first Asian nation to become a major power, and just as it took nearly 20 years to rebuild its tattered economy after the war, Japan will continue to shine in the world like an unsinkable ship that will never sink.
Great video! I especially appreciate the use of 1997-1999 as a single year. I was in junior high school during this period. I was a junior high school student during this time, and the world around me was filled with adults who wielded the term "shakaijin" against teenagers and bullied the kids. The concept of "shakaijin," which is completely different from citizens, would be incomprehensible to non-Japanese. Nevertheless, these " shakaijin" did not know how to solve problems on their own. That era must never be repeated. 1997年から99年にかけて、私は中学生でした。 周りを見ても、子供に対して「社会人たるもの」「社会人として」「お前はそろそろ社会人なのだからあれやれこれやれ」と説教する能無しの大人が跋扈していました。結局彼らは怯えていたに過ぎず、あの閉塞感を自力で打破することもできない連中でした。 大人たちが情けなかった時代、それが1997年からの3年間です。
8:03 I really wish I could study this from a Austrian School of Economics perspective. Usually any Keynesian would say that "yeah, sell some bounds this will solve it", while Austrian Economists would say "yeah, you are digging your own grave even deeper."
America has had near zero interest rates for nearly 2 decades, umm yeah that source of inflation I don't think has fully hit the USA economy yet and its harmed people's bank savings too. Now we have enormous sized 4x4 pickup trucks that cost more than a townhouse did in 1999.
The US had a lost decade. The 2010s. From 2008-2016 almost nothing good happened economically. 2017-2019 we’re getting better but post covid has been rough
Great Video! I have no head for economics or finance but I still find it fascinating, especially the historical context. Thank you! I hope you do more videos like it.
Help me decode Japan's economy - one newsletter at a time. Subscribe for free at www.konichivalue.com/! You're the wind beneath my financial wings. Thanks!
It's interesting. I'm Japanese (born and raised), and was sort of in the same situation as the guy in the video, as in I was starting to join the work-force around the time the bubble burst (around the year 1992). Except that I was a recent high-school dropout, and wanted to work as a computer programmer. I was extremely lucky that the computer-programming industry was a bit of a rebel industry back in the days in Japan that many programming positions didn't require a formal degree, as long as you could prove that you could program. I was able to make a decent money as a high-school drop-out computer-programmer. I count myself very lucky that I had an interest and skills in programming. BTW, I'm loving the old footage of Japan in the video (I'm feeling very nostalgic as I have not lived in Japan for many years). A great job.
Nice life story. Where are you living now?
@Garrus Vakarian You had some good points but I disagree that demographics cause decline before the population actually shrinks. It takes a while more for the decline to sink in. Plus we should pay taxes to support old people. Leaving some of the most vulnerable people in society to fend for themselves is very dystopian.
@Garrus Vakarian People stop having babies when they’re worried and pessimistic about the future. Canceling benefits for seniors would only make them more so
@Garrus Vakarian That's when the government tries to get in more immigrants, the problem is birth rates are dropping even with foreigners, so really, it is just trying to use a band aid on an open wound.
Japan has founded it self into stealing and cheating what europeans invent. This scam can not go for ever. Soon or later it will crash
Japan in the 80's became the richest country in the world, 35% of the world's money was inside Japan. At that time, they made a lot of investments in the United States, buying streets in New York, buildings, film production companies that were not worth the price they paid, they paid a lot for all of this. In Japan, the Japanese threw money in the trash, in rivers because they thought the money would never end. Anyway today everything is changing, Japan is impoverishing years after years, because the per capita GDP of the Japanese was formerly greater than that of the Americans, today the per capita GDP of the Americans is 70,000 dollars per year, and the Japanese now is 39,000 dollars per year .
Japan was never the richest, it is merely in par w US.. Which makes many ppl greedy & exuberant. Recession is nothing more than a healthy correction & wake up call to those who are unrealistic in their finances. Its quite normal & happen to all capitalist countries.
To advance further just like S Korea, Taiwan & any countries w 40k gdp, is to rid of conservative culture & adopt more liberal/progressive ones..
Yeah Japan's GDP in the 90s was 5 trillion with a population of only 126 million. USA 🇺🇸 7 trillion pop. 260-280 million
the Japanese electronics producers completely missed the invention of the Smartphone. SonyEricsson went down, just like Siemens cellphones and Nokia went down in Europe. Taiwan and South Korea made all the high innovation - high profit products from the early 2000s on.
Still is
umm it is close to 50 thousand, and that is without huge disparity unlike the US
I was in NYC living in Manhattan and going to grad school starting in 1989.
There were mobs of groups of Japanese tourists everywhere in NYC; particularly around the usual places of Wall Street and the Twin Towers and Times Square and the usual spots in Midtown.
When I finished my grad work in 1991 the huge groups of Japanese tourists were still all over Manhattan. But after finishing grad school I went to work for a financial services firm in Lower Manhattan and was working some extremely long ungawdly hours so I didn't have much time for anything else.
Then sometime in around middling 1990s/latter 1990s, it dawned on me that the mobs of groups of Japanese tourists had, more or less, completely disappeared from NYC.
I seem to remember reading this exact same comment in another video about the end of Japanese bubble years.
Was it also you in that other video?
I was still a child a this time but I remember the time when Marty McFly said all cool things come from Japan. Then there's that human like android in RoboCop made by the Japanese 🇯🇵 conglomerate. I'm from Asia but even I felt the fear of Japan at that time 😂
Those »mobs of groups of Japanese tourists« were legendary .. basically a living meme.
Hahaha...I was living in my home city, San Francisco, working for US Immigration (1991-1994)....."konko, konko, konko, konko, konko, konko, send this yakuza back for further inspection, konko, konko, konko..."
Yes, yakuza just "felt" different, "acted" different and Secondary Inspection usually verified it...and they went home.....but 98% of hundreds per planes....I zipped them right through.
There still is mobs of them elsewhere
I was in Paris in 1990, waiting in line to get into LV’s Champs-Élysées store. I was the only non Japanese. Salesperson would speak to me in Japanese. I was living in London at that time. High streets, Harrods, upscale hotels, and high tea places Japanese tourists (young females especially) were all over the place. I remember being in awe of their financial affluence. Everyone carries multiple shopping bags, mostly from high end stores.
Sounds like the Chinese now. New money, tacky, wanting disposable shite. And, just like Japan, China has peaked and will soon collapse. It's going to be more enjoyable though, because Japanese people are lovely, whereas...
Time to learn Chinese!
@@Embargoman No, they're done.
@@anthonyreed480 Japan is spending on defense, yet their are bigger problems to happen after Chinese balloons.
@@anthonyreed480 the fact, EU is done not China. US will be next.
I’m in an American, who arrived in Japan in 1991, and was impressed with the vitality of the economy. For example, in an ice cream shop in Tokyo, Disneyland, I saw something like 14 employees busily wiping down the counters, despite there being only two customers inside. Of course, things changed very quickly. I had the good luck to start an anime export business in 1996, so Japan’s problems worked in my favor a lot of the time. I specifically remember, saying to my employees, whenever the economy falls, further, companies that wouldn’t take a risk on doing business with us are happy suddenly to talk with us. So it opened a lot of doors.
That sounds like an amazing story! I'd love to hear more if you want to share?
same, do tell details
That's an interesting story mate, we're very grateful if you can elaborate more of the details.
I'm instantly tickled with alternative economic scenario during the times of uncertainty. When some of the Japanese companies feels that their economy are runs out of luck, they began to open their products for the foreign investor at a wholesale price in order to keep the managerial ranks (also it's ordinary workers) under the payroll. In the times of uncertainty, the Japanese company maximizing their output by amassing more and more distributor for their products, which is a sign of healthy credit in the Japanese local banks perspective.
As a democratic country, as long as we maintain peace, we will continue to grow economically.
Read Yoichi Takahashi's paper!
Anime export in 96? That's when I was into anime deep! What was your company called?
I was born in 1965, started studying Japanese at university in January 1985, arrived in Tōkyō in January 1987, struggled to survive on minimal savings as a volunteer Mormon missionary, started working as a temp staff copyeditor/copywriter/translator/proofreader at the head office of Toppan Printing in Akihabara in April 1990 or 1991, and finally left Japan in March 2002. Therefore, I witnessed all of this. Japan was just starting to get ISDN in some forward-looking homes as I was leaving, so I had no Internet as a connection to the English-speaking world throughout my time in Japan. People romanticize this era, but we were working until the last train home and thus had no life outside the office.
Your story is fascinating, and your Japanese must have improved so fast!
@@konichivalue Yes, it helped to be immersed in the environment of the language and not associate with native English speakers. I also was quite obsessed with kanji, so it took me six months to learn 2,500 characters with all of their various readings and major meanings. Therefore, I was able to look up full words easily in the dictionary while watching Japanese TV with the Japanese subtitles turned on so that I could improve my listening comprehension considerably. The 1990s were the golden era of Japanese TV dramas and variety shows as well as great game shows like なるほど!ザ・ワールド and 世界まるごとHOWマッチ. I used that foundation in reading and writing kanji early to later quickly become able to read Chinese newspapers as I continued my studies in Mandarin. The 1990s were a good time in many ways, despite the loneliness of a total lack of a social life outside the office.
7:20 "Most Japanese people were forced to eat Thai rice" - how awful, I am surprised the Japanese government did not declare a national emergency at this point.
Great shame was brought upon the people. Truly the turning point which sealed the end
There were near riots over this in Japan.
I read that because housewives refused to buy Thai rice, grocery stores would bundle one bag of Thai rice with each bag of Japanese rice (tied together with string). Shoppers would buy the bundle, but leave the Thai rice behind at the store.
Thailand rice and Japanese rice are very different. This would be like Americans having to buy potatoes from the UK!
@@clarissagafoor5222 please no american processed potatoes
I lived in Japan for 6 years at the end of the bubble in 1991-1997. You are right, in 1991, everyone still felt the economy was strong and Japan was BOOMING!! The economy continued to grow strongly until 1993 as you pointed out. That was the year my English school, like many, collapsed as it had overexpanded like so many others. However, I ended up making double the money for several years afterwards when I became a private teacher so the end of the Bubble didn't affect me at all. I am now back in Japan 30 years later and actually, Japan is a better place now - the quality of life is better because people aren't working as hard and everyone still has a lot of cash. Don't be fooled - Japan is still a very rich country. Everything here is better than it was 30 years ago, especially in terms of public infrastructure like parks and bike paths, etc. Furthermore, the cost of living is so much lower, it's now a very affordable place to take a vacation and in fact it is North America which is way too expensive now! Funny how things change.
but japan is in a huge domestic property bubble ?
Not now - 30-35 years ago. Now North America is the property bubble - especially Canadian cities.@@888ssss
Yep, it is hard for me to believe as well! I was just in Japan last week and seriously, hotels cost 75% less than they did 30 years ago!! Meanwhile in LA I had to pay $150 for just an airbnb room near the airport!! Food and drink is also much cheaper in Japan@@RobertLutece909
Thanks for the interesting observation and for sharing your experience.
It didn't get cheaper, The US, UK and some parts of Europe just got EXTREMELY COSTY
From a South American point of view, it's interesting to see that the appreciation of the Yen was a real problem for the Japanese economy at the time. Brazil and other South American and Latin American countries had struggled for a long time during the previous decades because of currency devaluation (for example, Brazil changed currencies six times between 1967 and 1994, Argentina changed currencies four times between 1968 and 1992). My father still remembers the news saying that Japan had deflation and how outlandish this reality was for Brazilians who were used to quick buying shortly after payday because of rising prices.
"There are only three economies in the world Japan, Argentina and the world."
It's a fitting quote.
@@fullmetaltheorist yeah but he talk about brazil
@@sotch2271 that quote refers to the South American economies in general, most of them had suffered high inflations for very long periods, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela,
@@Mexa2105 Venezuelan here, I often send a stock among of money to be traded for the local currency (if they can) and to spend all of that money instantly since there the devaluation works hourly and some companies change prices by the day. It's culturaly common to ask price and not relies on post prices on the internet/store.
Deflacao foi pintada como um verdadeiro demonio na cabeça das pessoas, como se fosse a pior coisa do mundo, pior até que inflaçao, mas a verdade é que isso é uma grande mentira! o problema da deflacao é quando temos um cenário como o atual onde está todo mundo alavancado graças ao perverso sistema FIAT de moedas em que os governos e bancos imprimem dinheiro do rabo deles, aí se tiver deflaçao eles quebram e levam a economia junto em espiral, ou seja um problema que eles mesmo criaram emprestando dinehiro que eles nao tinham! em um cenario onde as pessoas só emprestam o que podem , deflacao é extremamente bom para economia! tanto que o periodo em que a economia americana mais cresceu, algumas decadas antes da primeira guerra, foi um periodo deflacionário, ainda noa existiam os bancos FDPs em conluio com governo imprimindo dinheiro e roubando nossa riqueza pelo imposto inflacionario!
I lived in Japan for three years during the lost decade. I knew nothing about it at the time but looking back the signs of economic decline were definitely there.
I often forget that Japan had it's own version of the Roaring 20's then Depression of the 30's.
The Roaring 80's if you will, followed by a very depressing 90's.
Every now and then, about once a month, the TH-cam algorithm gets it right and sends me to a channel with a handful of videos and a handful of subscribers, but the videos are great. Subscribed!
Amen!. I subbed too.
Yt algorithm is only excellent 1% of the time 😂
Same happened to me just now!
It happened to me w/ a channel called Not Just Bikes ! I recommend checking that out in case youtube didn't send it to you yet
Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s I worked in luxury high end merchandise. A close friend worked as a personal shopper, and reported Japanese clients who’d come in and buy entire wardrobes from all the top designers. It wasn’t uncommon for a woman to buy a head-to-toe ‘look’ from a designer costing ¥1500000 ($15,000 USD). Japanese ladies would buy designer handbags by the 3’s and 4’s, bespoke shoes at $1000/pair. It was a heady time that was over as suddenly as it started, as if someone flipped a switch. It went literally from Hermés having Japanese clients 5 deep at the counters to deserted stores.
I started going to Japan in ‘17. I’ve been several times, and love the people and their amazing culture and aesthetic. Thank you for an excellent video and your deep insights.
There's always a lag time of a few years between when bubbles start bursting and the effect on the real economy. A more recent example was the Great Financial Crisis/Second Great Depression in America. The bubble actually burst in mid 2006, but it wasn't until 2009 that it hit the real economy.
In the mid eighties I recall small but good quality firms offering “sign up bonuses” to secure new “freshmen” employees. Fast forward to the start of the century, and “soon to be” graduates were spending hundreds of hours in their final year of university in a desperate bid to secure entry level jobs with those companies.
Fast forward to 2020, and those 1980s freshmen are being offered financial incentives to retire early
@@bennri with who to replace them?
I remember that there were Japanese tourists everywhere before the bubble-burst. They had lots of money and were spending freely. Then almost overnight they disappeared and every one wondered what had happened. They still haven't returned. The same happened with the Chinese tourists. Pre-Covid, they were everywhere, and post-Covid, they still haven't returned. China's economy looks like a slow-motion replay of the Japanese decline.
I remember the news articles in the early 90s, when I was in secondary school. Japan was absolutely tearing the global eoconomic stage, the other countries were just sideshows. Never would have thought this amazing economy was about to fizzle to dormancy and what we were seeing was the brilliant burst of light from a dying star.
I'm kind of scared that my own country Korea might be on that track now.
If korea shrinks, it could be bad, but they have made such a large global impact that not all progress would be undone unless the core finances were more screwed than weimar germany
If North Korea could get absorbed by South Korea then the demographic problem uld be sorted out. Sadly political differences are to many.
This
Because most East Asian countries (especially South Korea and Taiwan) developed by looking at Japan and what worked (even if most people in Korea would never like to admit it), the stagnation and even recession of the Japanese economy is definitely something that is worrying for these countries, or at least it should be because otherwise the same thing could easily happen again (and I personally think there's some good risk it might happen in the near future ....)
Japan and Korea are structurally similar.
(low birthrate, aging population, social culture, and major industries).
Like Japan, the ROK has already completed its growth period and its economic growth rate is beginning to slow down.
It is unclear whether growth can be sustained from this state.
@@karurata2721 They do have one thing going for them. A very huge portion of their economy is run by a few very powerful companies. Samsung alone makes up 20% of South Koreas economy. And the best part is most of its profit comes from overseas so even if their population shrinks Samsung will be able to sustain itself. Other companies like Hyundai and LG are also very big and get most of their revenue overseas.
生まれてこのかた不景気しか経験したことがない身としては、バブル世代が心底羨ましい
@mira_aruma 確かにそんな感じはしない。給料で買えるものは、1年前より少なくなっている
@@konichivalue最近賃上げの兆しが見えてきました。
バブル前夜に私が某成長企業に就職した当時、社内預金利息が10%でした。勢いがある分荒っぽく、差別やセクハラパワハラも酷かった時代でした。女性の私は現代に生まれたかったなあ。
I have always loved all things Japanese and as a little girl thought that I would work for Sanrio! My mom introduced us to Japanese cuisine and all of our electronics at home were made by Sony, btw...they still work 30 plus years later! We finally bought a Japanese car that I refuse to give up after many years as it runs very well and I could go on. As a Westerner, I was told that the Japanese always took great pride in every thing they did, from the smallest of tasks to the largest. We can still learn from the Japanese. One day I hope to visit from Canada!
Japanese built Toyos are among the best. One great example. I love my Sony headphones. Way better than equal priced competitors in their range.
"We should learn to act like the Japanese"
It won't work because Anglo-nations have an "atomized nuclear-family" society with a guilt based moral structure (most individualistic), While Japan has an "authoritarian-family" society with a 'shame' based moral structure (most conformist).
Hello. If you have a college degree, you can go there and get a job as a conversational English teacher. You don't have to know what a dangling participle is--they want foreign teachers for conversation, not grammar lectures. I did it for seven years and loved it.
@@Jay-wz4sb I do have a college degree and would seriously consider doing that. I would make the effort to learn Japanese though.
@@sofigagas someone who lives in Japan, I hear that all the time.... Including my friend who have 10 year old half Japanese children. They still don't work Japanese.
I don't usually comment, but THIS is literally one of the BEST videos I've ever watched. I have nothing but a state of awe for your research and willingness to create a high quality, engaging video on top of it.
Thank you, sincerely.
Take it down a notch, man.
@@fshoapslet love into your heart man
Weiboo
Yes same here,also back in early 2000s,these Japan Bubble Burst(Japan Lost Decades) was matter of discussion in our school most of times,mainly due to my country Look East policy two decades before.
As a fan of urban exploration, I’ve known about this event for some time, mainly through the many insane abandoned places it created (such as Sports World Izu, a water park that ran from 1988 to 1996, and sat abandoned for almost 15 years until it’s demolition in 2010). It was also briefly mentioned near the start of Spirited Away, when Sen and her parents find the park and at first think it’s a victim of the bubble. Even as an American, it’s always been an interesting story to me because of how long-lasting it’s effects have been.
Touché. The Rust-Belt is equally fascinating too.
Places like Detroit, Michigan, and Youngstown, Ohio, are worth the visit. It felt like a post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi dystopia. Then you factor in all the people that still live there, most on drugs, with many dying from an overdose or crime, along with deaths of despair, aka suicide, and food banks scattered everywhere.
It was, and still is, by far, the most eye-opening experience I’ve ever had, and I’ve been to Afghanistan mind you. At least there, it’s filled with life, with so many people around, and a massive youth bulge.
Cool, you know Izu Sports World!!!
@@khalidalali186 The Rust Belt, especially Detroit, is so ubiquitous in the American conscience with urban decay that I think it’s lost meaning for a lot of Americans. Also, bit stereotypical to say most people there are OD-ing, joining gangs, and/or 0ffing themselves. Yes, there’s definitely much higher rates of those there, but it’s not like *most* people are doing it.
Of course, buddy. That goes without saying. That’s why I said “Most”, and it’s not like it’s their fault too. Don’t even get me started on the Sacklers dude. 😅
In 1988 I worked for a very large American company. We were all told that we had to be more like the Japanese. They were so much smarter than us, such good managers, such good workers, etc. And almost overnight all that propaganda disappeared. (Not that the people who promoted it were punished in any way.)
I believe Japan will make a full economic recovery. The people are uncomplaining and good workers. They can change things abruptly and everyone works together to bring about the change. When I went to Japan in 1970 the air was polluted and in the parks trash overflowed. Suddenly there was a change. Now everyone uses the trash cans and the garbage is picked up easily, the air is clean and the sky is blue. How was that change created. Pessimistic viewers will be surprised at the turn around. I am an American who appreciates the time she enjoyed in Japan and the many honest and kind people I met. They are the strength of Japan.
I'm a foreigner who started working in Japan in 1992. I remember in 1993 the company I worked for, Fujitsu, laid off contractors for the first time. I also remember the rice shortage. I joined Merrill Lynch in 1998. They bought Yamaichi shoken, that you mention, while LTCB merged with UBS. Many other retail banks at the time merged.
My friend Terry Suelzle was trading futures at Merrill Lynch in Tokyo at that time but moved back to Canada before I did in 2002, which means he might have left already by 1998. I kept meeting Westerners working at multinational banks in Tokyo around 1991, and I did have a chance to work at Bloomberg, but I had no confidence that I could work in finance. I still loved my translation job since I loved reading Japanese and writing English, so I was satisfied, though perpetually lonely. When I later saw the extraordinary expat lifestyle that Terry and other English-speaking ‘Mormons’ were enjoying, I finally begrudged my extremely meagre lifestyle, void of any social life. Now, ironically, I’m trading full-time and realize I could have done it after all. Many of those expats moved on to Singapore if they didn’t just return to North America and Europe.
I graduated high school in 2003, and had a solid job in marketing making 40k/yr by 2006. Seeing the recession on the horizon by the end of that year, I enlisted in the military in hopes of obtaining a college degree without going into debt. By the end of 2009 I was divorced with a newborn to care for on my own and ineligible for most military benefits. 14 years later, we're still barely scraping by and no real improvement is on the horizon. We're just hoping to keep enough roof over our head not to freeze to death. Edited to add: How did the US see what happened in Japan, and instead of learning anything at all...they did the very same? Short-sighted greed and shame are a very dangerous mix, and our nation is crumbling for it.
This is what happens when you allow foreign nationals and dual-nationals to control your banks, media and government
I find the lost decade so fascinating because I have an uncle who had a job with NASDA (a precursor to JAXA, the Japanese space agency) that he started in 1993 and he was so massively impressed by how prosperous the country was, because he had just come from Russia and lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union and the beginning of the wild 90s. Even today he frequently talks about his time in Japan and how great the economy was haha
A fascinating look at the Lost Decade of Japan! I really enjoyed this because I like looking at the realities of life in certain parts of the world, especially those countries we tend to romanticize. I also love that you took a deep dive into the financial issues and specific actions that caused and exacerbated the recession. I found chilling parallels between Japan's recession of the 90's, and the US's recession of 2008--bad loans and bank bailouts for too-big-to-fail institutions.
One thing I'd love to see as a follow up, if you're interested in it, would be the social repercussions of the Lost Decade up to today. I know that many people just couldn't find jobs during the decade, and so the usual social structure of "get a corporate job right after college" was broken (you touched on it in the early part of the video)...but what has that led to today? Has there been a reform in the way that people find jobs in Japan? Has the society moved away from thinking that a freelance job is the mark of a dead beat? I'd love to see your take on it if you so choose.
Either way, this video was great. Thank you for making it!
I did study the housing situation in Japan for a while. From what I can tell in Japan it isn't that difficult to find work mainly because things kinda sorted themselves out on their own as the population aged up because more people retired creating more openings in the market, and those ageing people required or requested services, so new jobs were created to accommodate them.
But, homelessness is a pretty big thing, to the point where some of the solutions to housing that you wouldn't see in the west have been adopted. A big one is that people will rent karaoke booths, computer booths, and various other cubicle-like areas to sleep in for the night every single night. It resulted in a pretty severe rape culture in Japan that was hidden for a long time and only was revealed on some level pretty recently. Like, women who couldn't get a place to stay for the night after work would get abused and they wouldn't report it because that would mean saying "I'm homeless," and men would routinely take advantage of that.
I don't know about freelance work in Japan, I might look into that. I know that in India the gig economy is thriving, but I never looked into how that kind of work is doing in China, Japan, or South Korea.
Whaaa!!! The previous comment!!! Never eared of that. The results and consequences…
Culture didn’t change. If you have no money you just disqualify yourself for parenthood. Women only select the 20 % of fixe job guys or continue to work. The actual Japan is the result of the no risk culture. And either in Korea, Japan or else, stable workers just quit searching for a girl, no time, no energy for that. The non fixe job guys just quite trying also. The problem is the way to think work in Asia
As a democratic country, as long as we maintain peace, we will continue to grow economically.
Read Yoichi Takahashi's paper!
One thing that’s changed is that most women are working now, and even fewer people are getting married or even dating. When I was in Japan (1986-2002), women were still expected to quit their jobs upon marriage, not waiting for pregnancy, and there was extraordinary pressure for them to get married before the age of 26. I haven’t seen the new Japan in which women continue to work into their 30s and later. Apartment rentals are really cheap in Tokyo now compared to Vancouver, Canada. Back in my time, you’d never find any English speakers anywhere, so if you didn’t know the language, as was the case when my family visited me, you’d truly be lost. Now, English speakers are all over the place because of exposure to the language on the Internet and to the enormous influx of foreigners, even though Japan continues to have the lowest proficiency in English than virtually any other country.
_'I found chilling parallels between Japan's recession of the 90's, and the US's recession of 2008--bad loans and bank bailouts for too-big-to-fail institutions.'_
Presumably you know little of TARP.
The biggest part of the TARP was the bank rescue, which invested $236 billion in over 700 banks. Almost all of those investments have been resolved, most resulting in a profit for the government. One may argue the reward-to-risk ratio was poor, i.e. risky investments should get higher returns, but the bailout to banks was not a net loss to taxpayers. What was a net loss to taxpayers were subsidies (about $32.5 billion) that aren't required to be repaid. These were to homeowners. As of 30 September 2020, Treasury had disbursed $30.85 billion (95 percent) of the $32.56 billion TARP funds obligated to the three housing programs. The Making Home Affordable program allowed homeowners to apply for loan modifications to avoid foreclosure. The Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund for the Hardest Hit Housing Markets provided funds to 18 states and the District of Columbia to help struggling homeowners through programmes tailored to the state. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Short Refinance program allowed eligible homeowners to refinance into an FHA-insured loan.
The bailout of Fannie and Freddie, however, is a different story. After the government essentially took over the two state-established companies to stabilise the housing market in 2008, the Treasury pumped in nearly $200 billion over the following years. While the two state-established companies haven’t yet repaid any of the principal, they have been making sizeable dividend payments every quarter. Fannie and Freddie, and US legislation requiring x% of mortgages written to 'underserved' communities regardess of credit worthiness, were the root of the problem.
The Treasury realised large profits on its investments in the country’s largest banks and AIG (an insurance company), and those profits have balanced out the losses and subsidies to other sectors.
80s Japan were like never ending summer. Great choice to use 'Remember Summer Days' as an opening song
Remarkably detailed, well produced. Many of the factors that led up to this recession, is almost an exact blueprint for the same debacle that happened here in 2008 - 2009.
That’s what I immediately thought too. You’d think we’d learn from Japan’s lesson but no. You got a pulse? You get a loan. 🤦♀️
Except they eventually let their bad banks go bankrupt for their reckless mistakes.
It's make risky maneuvers until failure. I don't study economics, but superficially the too-big-to-fail-bailouts like those a decade ago in the US and 30 years ago in Japan seem like a bad idea that only reinforces making these risky maneuvers.
It has to be said how impressive it is that, even after a "lost decade of stagnation", Japan is still the 3rd largest economy in the world with a colossal output of unique culture that the world is hungry to consume (manga, anime, movies etc) and - interrupted by Covid - has become a tourist hotspot for millions every year. Sure, Japan isn't at the heights it was in the late 1980s, but it's still doing well enough today.
It is definitely still a tourist hotspot. However, those culture exports which you speak of actually do not earn much. In fact, press industries over the world aren’t very profitable. And unless it’s gatekept by streaming services, anime cannot be sold. It’s simply an advertisement for comics. As for movies, tokyo dorifto has fallen largely out of favour of Broadway since 2 decades ago.
Furthermore with the pressure on the government to keep outsiders out while the population tumbles, it’s actually already been dying for the last 30 years. There’s only so much export you can derive from tourism.
Train infrastructure is also one of the best in the world
Plus JAV and Hentai lol
America still has the largest economy in the world, ask the average American how that feels even compared to 10 years ago.
@@antcantcook960 That's a very good point.
Yeeeeeeeees, this is just the best coverage about how Japan Inc. got to the state it is today. I've seen on other YT pages that the bubble burst due to a trade-war, but in fact, as Konichi-Value states, the Bubble was started and exacerbated by financial institutions with lose governance and government indifference to the situation due to its hand-in-hand connection with both the financial sector and the corporate world as well. Domestic financial mismanagement and entrenched government bureaucracy just made things worse and due to its inability to change in the past 30 years. Blame the LDP, the indifference by the public due to non-compulsory voting system and the deterioration of national innovation and research in universities and industry due to reduced funds, and Japan Inc's overseas trading also started to dry up. Well done Konichi-Value, it is absolutely brilliant to see a video by a Japanese national telling it as it was and still is. I live in Japan from 1993 to 2008 and have a financial degree. What he says is so, so true.
i work in a factory and i saw the new machine made in Japan. when i saw it i wept becos it was perfect. all the problems we encountered were addressed and resolved. it was a work of art to me and i don't think many nations would surpass that level of workmanship and dedication.
This video briefly mentioned it, but didn't really emphasize the effect of the Plaza Accords on the Japanese economy. Japan was in a trade war with the US in almost the same way China is in now. The Plaza Accords prevented Japan from adjusting its Yen exchange value. Adjusting this value made Japanese products cheaper and much more competitive abroad. Losing this ability was disastrous to Japan's predominantly export driven economy.
Yes so true. This channel is hiding US evil hand in destroying japan.
Yeah, the speed at which it happened was truly devastating for the Japanese economy. If the government and the BOJ was allowed more time to adjust its coupling to the USD I believe the bubble would have grown far slower and Japanese export oriented companies would have adopted far better...
@@konichivalueAre you japanese? Oh man,I am from Pakistan,I grew up in the early 90s,we envied Japan for its Electronics and Cars etc!
This this actually the real reason, that for obvious reasons always gets omitted.
Difference is, china is a sovereign country with nukes. And china just won the trade war and tech war. That why American officials are begging to meet xi? Biden, yellen, blinken, shumer,...all begging. Don't see that with Japs in the 90s.
I remember this time. It was hellacious hard to get a place as an artist at "The Zoo Fence" in Waikiki because you could make $1500 a day - big money in the mid-80s - from the Japanese tourists who'd buy anything. The land in Tokyo was reputed to be worth more than all the land in the US. Japan was the ne plus ultra. Tokyo supposed to be more expensive than anywhere. Now, it's all changed. Tokyo's about as expensive as Alabama and I'd retire there (Tokyo, not Alabama) if I could hack the language.
Land is still pricey in Tokyo, but certainly down from its highest point. Costs come up differently:
Rent? Lower than most American cities.
Purchasing land? Actually more than most American cities, weirdly enough
Food? Not that different from an American Metro. Oddly, stuff like soda is cheaper while meat is expensive.
Transportation? Cheaper overall due to phenomenal public transit but cars cost a lot more to run in Japan.
Princes of the yen documentary has some great comparisons of the price of the imperial gardens and the Tokyo Wards. I think one example was the imperial gardens were worth the entire state of California.
@@romannasuti25 meat probably costs the same overall. It's all heavily subsidized in the us. So the amount you pay might not be so different. I'm very certain eating meat in japan is still much more rare though
This was excellent, thanks for making it. The economic collapse closely mirrored the rise of J horror as a genre as the average Japanese citizen lost any hope in a better future
Also anime was in the doldrums in the early 90s. Revitalized only by neon Genesis evangelion
This is what we have to look forward to as a best case scenario when the USA pops.
Welcome to American style lack of social mobility, insecurity, and despair!
Never happened
you can thank the usa for causing this collapse.
the bombing of nord stream 2, will be germany's version of the plaza accord.
I dunno why TH-cam suggested this video but I'm glad it did. Very insightful video.
Japan's economic success as a whole community was real back in 80's and 90's. It was probably the first and biggest success of social capitalism in human history that has not been accomplished anywhere else on this planet. Despite today's deteriorated economic indices, Japan is still considered one of the best, in terms of the social infrastructure, safety level, accessibility to medical services. Let's see how this country will change in next 20-30 years.
This has been on my watchlist for so long, but I finally got to it. Great documentary, I love learning about modern Japanese history like this.
I was working in Japan in the mid-1980s when the western banks set the decline and fall of Japan's post WW2 "economic miracle" in motion with 円高 (En-Da-Ka) or revaluing the Yen to make it strong. I personally profited, as when I left Japan the rate of exchange was in my favour. Back in the UK I worked for Japanese companies exporting (Strong Yen) capital and making risky investments in the UK. In Japan I had worked in manufacturing, exporting Japanese goods. A weak yen was good for exports. A strong yen was bad. We were told a year before En-Da-Ka really hit that we had "to double production and halve production costs" within a year! I just groaned that this sounded like some serious Western economic warfare against Japan. It was.
Japan was prosperous during 1980s due to their citizens hard work, good governance and avoided getting involved in wars.
Excellent research and great delivery. Everything was to the point. Thank you!
The lost decade was due to Government narrow-mindedness, yes the economy contracted after 1991... but that is only because it expanded at an unreasonable pace in the late 80s. More seasoned western economists would have let the pieces fall where they may. And then pick everything up again after 3 years.
What Japan did is is akin to a cramped runner forcing his body to run more even after total exhaustion. By refusing to rest, he did his muscles real damage and tore some ligaments irrepairebly. Now Japan has exhausted its bond options and is too much in debt to stimulate its economy in any real sense. The government’s poor response made sure the damage of the 1991 bubble which was suppose to be temporary, a permanent sentence for Japan.
Too broke to pay for the hospital bill type of mistake.
Well japanese stock market is back to bubble economy levels so something definitely happened
What a fantastic documentary. It's very well produced and the use of the old footage is amazing (the earthquake scene was especially eerie). Hearing about the lost decade from an expert who's actually from Japan is wonderful. Subscribed!
The 1990s was a fantastic decade for the United States. 1) Japan fell into a recession and dropped out as a potential threat to US global economic dominance. 2) The USSR was destroyed by betrayal from within and huge new markets and resources for the West were opened (USSR competed directly with the US in far fewer areas, but did have some big market shares globally - for example 30% of world's civilian aviation manufacturing, and a massive space program). It's interesting in the historical perspective how US political and economic elites took this unprecedented twin golden opportunity and threw it all away by sending virtually all their manufacturing base to Asia and Mexico.
Spot on! I remember those times very well and couldn't quite believe how good it was looking to be... and then yes, the politicians gave away our manufacturing base, and the culture has imploded.
How the mighty have fallen!
To be fair, the manufacturing bases were given away due to the extremely low cost of labor, at a rate which would have basically made it mandatory to produce in foreign countries, since otherwise the products created by pro America businesses would be sold at a far higher price than the products created by businesses manufacturing elsewhere. Be honest, most people would buy 1000 dollar iPhone made in China than a 2500 dollar iPhone in the US.
@@jacklion109the iPhone costs like 100$ to make. If it costed 200$ they could still sell it for 1000$. Also American labor is more productive per capita than Chinese labor is. We also just cost more
15:10 The graphical alert is so cool! It's like watching eva but in real life.
Thank you! Yes, it is the exact same alarm that is used today for earthquakes too, and every time I hear it I get the shivers...
The ultimate reason behind this is not corruption or bad government, but demographics. With less and less young people the original growth model of Japan had to come to an end. With less young families with kids, there is also less demand on the housing market. And since Japan almost has no immigration at all, these demographic factors matter even more.
China is next. And on a even larger scale. Just look at the average prices in tier one cities.
Japan didn't really have a demographics problem 30 years ago. It came a decade later
@@alice_agogo oh, yes, it did have the same demographic problem already in the 1990ies. West-Germany had exactly the same demographics like Japan, but Germany had huge immigration in the same decade: several million East Germans moved to West Germany, where all the factories were. Another 2 to 3 million ethnic Germans from the Soviet Union came, than "guest workers" from Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, refugees from Yugoslavia, etc. Japan had non of this.
You are joking. It was 100% due to corruption and bad government.
Did you even understand the section with the biggest bank being run by (ex )finance ministers?
The reason for the acquitals, was to stop it from going even higher than those who got acquitted.
They also had laws on investing and bank lending to major companies.....so banks and companies made ways around them
How do you think Japanese companies could accept 3, 4, 5 years of selling product below cost until the western companies lost their high% of market share....and became unable to compete?
When you look at the BANK collapses and TRILLIONS in the bailouts, you know where the money came from earlier.
lol no the biggest reason is simple, american, they always fear competition. look at plaza accord and you will understand.
Best video on the Japanese economic boom/bubble on TH-cam, with implications at the personal and business level included. Thank you
I wish so badly that Japan would truly recover and become the powerhouse it should be. Japan has most things right, while I don't agree that people should work so hard that they pass out during boardroom meetings, they aren't as uptight about some things as westerners. I really have a problem with Western thinking when it comes to certain things.
Excellently done. This is going into two of my playlists, the one on recent Japanese history and the one on finance. (I myself was at the University of Hokkaido 91-92, and my Mumbusho scholarship was deposited into Takushoku Ginko. Even after I graduated university and was looking for work in NYC in 96, I don't think the general sense of Japan's economic might had abated, even though the numbers and bank lending practices tell a very different story.)
such an even handed and thoroughly researched piece on the lost decade. subscribed.
Spectacular and comprehensive. Stellar explanation.
Very well done. Love the old clips interspersed throughout the video as well!
The media clips you used here are amazing.
I have always heard of Japan's incredibly long hours work ethic. How were they able to maintain this during the lost decade and beyond?
Thanks for this! It's really helpful to see what my husband must've experienced while growing up and coming of age through the 80s and 90s. It's interesting to get an idea of the corruption behind it, too. I didn't know about the banks. You never seem to hear that part of the story, what with....other things (the US) being blamed for the burst most of the time...
Just last week my husband got back an old elementary school yearbook from the mid 80s, and it was of the highest quality! I was like.....wow, you got a hardcover yearbook for 3rd grade? I mean...you got a yearbook at all? And the book was ONLY for the 3rd grade classes, so the school had printed separate yearbooks for each grade! - and they were FREE! I laughed as I told him I grew up in what was considered a fairly affluent midwestern American suburb back then, and the best we got was a single 8x10 of our whole class along with our picture day pack. Pretty interesting to see how the Japanese were swimming in it back then! He didn't even come from a rich place or grow up in one - this kind of stuff was just normal! Now I'm going to have to ask him more about it. He was front and center in the generation of graduates who had it tough trying to get into companies after the burst. Man, Gen X got cornholed worldwide, it seems! I'm glad we've made it this far in spite of all the bad economic times we've had to endure right out of the gate.
that was long
Sad to hear of Japan's suffering. I live in a tourist area in South East Asia. Before the Japanese bubble bust MOST tourists were Japanese. In fact Japanese writing was everywhere and the youth loved Japanese pop-culture. People were trying to learn the Japanese language. After the bubble burst we hardly ever see any Japanese tourists - very rare. Then came the Chinese in many many huge groups but now they have disappeared. But all those years tourists from South Korea and America remain consistent even till today.
Loool Tomoko Aran's "Im in love" was perfectly placed with the narrative, peak irony. Great video.
It is extremely interesting to see the many parallels between what Japan had gone through in the 90's and what China is going through now. Thanks for the well researched, detailed and amazing video.
It's immensely interesting. History always repeats itself. Check out the rise & rise of India.
Gotta love any documentary that starts with vintage Anri!
Like the old footage of Japan reminds me when I visited in the 80s - 90s. What you haven't mentioned is the Plaza Accord in 1985 that played a crucial role in Japan's decline.
Thank you! Yeah, to be honest, the Plaza Accord and its consequences is a whole beast to cover. I'll probably make a video, or link to my favorite video about it, soon
@@konichivalue would be good.
@@konichivalue I'm looking forward it! very curious about plaza accord
Intriguing video explained thoroughly and understandably. I feel that it is important to study this issue as similar financial troubles are a-brewing in many parts of the world today.
Pragmatic individuals knew that the bubble was nothing but an epiphenomenon that wouldn't last forever. You may say anything you want about Japanese economy, but even as today, Japanese have kept a higher standard of living, compared to other developed nations. I came to Japan in 1987 with a working visa, and have now Japanese nationality. Japanese are amazing at adaptating to situations and conditions, I would advise anyone who pretends that Japan is done, to research Japanese socio-economic history. Japanese are extremely resilient, they may surprise you again....
I lived in Japan from 1989 to 1993, a cushy ex-pat assignment, just in time to watch the bubble burst. As mentioned in the video, the sense of optimism didn’t diminish until about ‘93. I continued to travel to Japan on business for years after that, as the country began sobering up to face their new reality. Some twenty years later, a time-travel comedy movie called Bubble Fiction came out, which faithfully recreated the look and feel on 1990 Tokyo. Watch it if you ever have the chance. You might recognize the lead as the actor who played the gangster in Tampopo.
An excellent presentation. Thank you for your hard work. It was very informative and I enjoyed watching this.
It says this video is uploaded 3 weeks ago and like many other similar comments, Why did youtube decide to bring it up on my random scrolling? Anyway! I am glad it did and enjoyed it very much. Thanks
Thank You... for your effort. There are huge lessons for all humanity in this presentation. 👍🏾🙏🏾👊🏾
This video as a whole and the Kobe Earthquake section in particular are fascinating. No wonder it's the most replayed one on that video, I've sent it to someone else myself just now. Having watched away hours of documentaries on Japanese economy (due to currently fansubbing into English an anime documentary on Japanese economy), I'd go ahead and say yours has the most interesting findings and the best BGM of them all. Ganbatte!
I remember the huge job fairs in Japan.. where new college graduates could easily get a job. This was every single year throughout the 80's and early 90's. Then it stopped. I mean, it completely stopped for many years. They are still the "lost generation". Man, they got screwed royally.
Great video and great footage. That earthquake part was very intense.
UK citizen here, I remember the fancy high end Sony Shops springing up in town centers mid 1980s, Japanese absolutely dominating all tech for sale in the UK. Sony & all Japanese tech died here very quickly as made in Korea took over.
samsung
Made in Korea didn't become popular until mid 2000s or so
ummm lmao korea DID NOT TAKE OVER LMAO! Japanese tech is still dominating, a long with their cars loof
@@alice_agogo Still isn't popular.. and I bet those so called kOrEaN rubbish is not even made there!!
@@smplfi9859 samJUNK
I was really moved by this video. Thank you for taking the time to produce it.
Sad we were never taught any of this in middle or high school. Thirty years and I just am now finding out about all of this! Thank you for assembling this informative video!👍
This is such a great insight into that time period. Thank you for sharing and making the video.
This is incredibly impressive, well done :)
Those tv broadcasts documented during the earthquake were really haunting.
子どもの頃の懐かしい映像を、有難うございます。
あの頃はまだ小さな子どもでしたので、バブルの崩壊を実感した事はございません。
しかし、
地元の街の賑やかな様子が少しづつ変わっていったのは記憶があります。
毎日、祭りの様に人が溢れて、デパートもいくつもありました。
今は、最後の一つになったデパートすら閉店するかどうかというところまで来てしまっています。
時代は変わってしまいました。
今や、日本人のほとんどが高齢になっても労働し、
若者は貧乏で結婚も出産もしなくなりました。
ネットの普及も一役買っていますね。
情報が溢れすぎている。
経済大国でなくても良い。
日本も本当の豊かさを取り戻せたら良いと思っています。
経済成長を諦めた国が幸せになれる訳ないでしょ
One of the best resumes I have seen about this topic. Congratulations.
This was worth watching simply for the great background footage, but the education it provides on the lost decade is wonderful. Thank you. I will be sharing this with friends.
Excellent documentary! Alot of people have forgotten what happened. It is good to see that someone has kept up with these issues, maybe Japan will not have to go through that severe of a downturn again.
Excellent video! Very fascinating case study for a foreigner (a Canadian) like me!
This is more than excellent quality. Keep up.
Australian Opal miners had it so good in the late 80s, early 90s. Japanese Opal buyers would travel to the Australian outback to buy gems from the miners..
The buyers would stand at the top of the mining shafts, waiting for thd miners to emerge and show what they had found that day, the Japanese had bags of cash and would buy your "rough" gems, right there in the middle of nowhere.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars changed hands in those days... The Japanese were getting rid of as much cash as possible.
This was super interesting. I really liked all the old 90's clips.
Back in the 80s Chinese high schools (which just started its reforms) used to provide Japanese in lieu of English as your foreign language requirements. In fact my dad took Japanese in high school and only learned English in college. By the mid 90s nobody in China studies Japanese anymore as everyone changed their foreign language to English
lost my father and his company around around 1998, was rough years for many people.
Sorry for your loss 😔
Somehow this bubble time had a beauty of its own, the fashion, the cars etc etc
I think the whole world not just Japan was better off and more optimistic in the 85-91 years. Now in 2023 nothing makes sense.
This was excellent.
Thank you for the hard work that went into this piece.
Still, Japan will stand up. Just as in the past, an island nation in the Far East became the first Asian nation to become a major power, and just as it took nearly 20 years to rebuild its tattered economy after the war, Japan will continue to shine in the world like an unsinkable ship that will never sink.
I wish it would , but Japan back then had a young and large working force to grow economically . The case now is totally different .
Merci beaucoup vous m'avait énormément aidé pour mon sujet de grand oral
if Kobe earthquake had such a huge impact, the Tsunami calamity must have impacted 100 folds by comparison. Excellent chronology !!
Damn! This happened during my time as a infant to toddler and during the golden age of Anime. You would think it would be wild as a kid that time.
Great video! I especially appreciate the use of 1997-1999 as a single year.
I was in junior high school during this period. I was a junior high school student during this time, and the world around me was filled with adults who wielded the term "shakaijin" against teenagers and bullied the kids. The concept of "shakaijin," which is completely different from citizens, would be incomprehensible to non-Japanese. Nevertheless, these " shakaijin" did not know how to solve problems on their own.
That era must never be repeated.
1997年から99年にかけて、私は中学生でした。
周りを見ても、子供に対して「社会人たるもの」「社会人として」「お前はそろそろ社会人なのだからあれやれこれやれ」と説教する能無しの大人が跋扈していました。結局彼らは怯えていたに過ぎず、あの閉塞感を自力で打破することもできない連中でした。
大人たちが情けなかった時代、それが1997年からの3年間です。
What a fantastic documentary! By the way, what is that song on the intro? It’s super catchy with such rich instrumentation.
Excellent overview. Interesting film clips. A helpful look at an important chapter in Japanese and global economic history. Thanks /Arigato
lots of Tampopo.
8:03 I really wish I could study this from a Austrian School of Economics perspective. Usually any Keynesian would say that "yeah, sell some bounds this will solve it", while Austrian Economists would say "yeah, you are digging your own grave even deeper."
I can't shake the feeling the USA will soon end up like japan in the 90's.
America has had near zero interest rates for nearly 2 decades, umm yeah that source of inflation I don't think has fully hit the USA economy yet and its harmed people's bank savings too. Now we have enormous sized 4x4 pickup trucks that cost more than a townhouse did in 1999.
The US had a lost decade. The 2010s. From 2008-2016 almost nothing good happened economically. 2017-2019 we’re getting better but post covid has been rough
@@LucasFernandez-fk8seso all the years democrats were in charge of the white house 😂
Cool video! I’m glad the algorithm showed me your channel
Great Video! I have no head for economics or finance but I still find it fascinating, especially the historical context. Thank you! I hope you do more videos like it.
awesome video! very insightful, easy to understand and engaging
Thank you so much man!
This is very interesting. Thank you.