At 4:13, we made an error regarding depreciation and appreciation. The Plaza Accords were designed to weaken the American dollar relative to the Yen, boosting demand for U.S. exports. We are dumb and somehow didn't catch the visual error, and we are sorry!
I was just wondering - going from 239¥ per $ to 128¥ per $ means that the Yen has appreciated in strength, meaning it becomes less attractive for US companies to import Japanese goods as they receive less Japanese goods per $ spent.
Why did Japan agree to these accords when they would clearly hurt their economy? Did the US threaten them with sanctions or tariffs? Surely eating a 10 or 20% tariff would have had less of an impact than allowing the yen to appreciate that much.
@@jt92Japan would never be allowed to continue its economic boom since it was allies with the US. China doesn't have this problem. That's the difference.
I’m Japanese and living in Japan. I see so many videos / articles on how the economy is collapsing. However, I’ve never had to worry about finding a job because there are just so many. You don’t need degrees for it either - most companies will teach you from scratch. Housing is cheap because they don’t increase in value. Getting a mortgage is easy and the interest rate is lower than 1%. Cars are cheap so I don’t need loans to get them, but I don’t even need one because I can use public transportation that’s cheap and reliable. The salary is lower than other developed countries, but it has never been an issue because the cost of living is much cheaper. There are all these countries in the west with ‘high GDP’ and ‘flourishing economy’ but what is the point when housing prices are unaffordable and people are struggling so much financially? Are we doing economically based on a set of metrics? Maybe not. But think the true metrics of a good economy is if people are able to afford to live comfortably.
japan has incredible value for investors and is a great economy. People who say japan economy is weak are literal armchair economist with wikipedia depth of the issuse, i mean like this video they all just regurgitate talking points.
Agreed but I also think Japanese citizens on average are worse off (financially) than US citizens because US citizens can still travel around the world with better “spending power” compared to the average Japanese citizen. Almost anyone in the US can afford to take an international trip, but the same can’t be said in many other countries. But then again most of the younger population in the US will not be able to afford a house anytime soon so pros and cons.
@@StarPlatinum9 as an investor looking to find value in Japanese companies is different than these Japanese companies making sure their employees are well paid. if anything a healthy company not paying their employees means that more capital is going to shareholders, just like in the USA walmart stock is at a all time high does not mean that walmart employees are compensated or receiving fat bonuses.
Yes, the West said that, out of hubris. Now the West is flooded with debt, mass migration and zero hopes for tomorrow while Japan is slowly adapting and developing.
@@contactluke80I want to move there after visiting in January but definitely not working for a Japanese company 😭 I’m good off their working culture. Foreign company or my own business is the way to go
I live in Japan. Their reluctance to think outside the box is extraordinary. And they never discuss the crushing public debt on the news because their media doesn't want to offend the governing elite. The population doesn't seek information, so they linger in a state of inertia. They spend all their time at work, shuffling paper from one side of their desk to the other. For example, teachers need to go to work even during school holidays. And all of their software is clunky and buggy; they have no sense of intuition when building websites, etc. And they're hostile to foreigners when it comes to renting out apartments and a lot of that kind of stuff, even some low-budget car rental companies refuse to lease cars out to non-Japanese speakers -- I don't even think it's racism, it's simply because they have their way of doing things and they don't have the mental dexterity required to accommodate people with different expectations and ways of doing things. They're ossified. I don't know how they can snap out of this torpor.
With regards to car rentals, I think it's just that no staff speak english. It's not like many speak english at the higher end shops either, but they have some pieces of paper with english and those translate devices they speak into. I don't think most of it is malicious, they simply would rather not embarrass themselves or their customer, or their boss.
@@jole0 Thank you for highlighting this. That's why I was careful to state that I do not think it's due to racism. They lack the flexibility to change their systems and ways. In the West, we tend to think the customer is king (well, that's what we say), but they seem to prioritise The Process. Within The Process, there is a great deal of care shown to the customer, extreme politeness, and probably the best customer service available anywhere, but the customer must follow The Process. Individuals are subordinate to procedures, so it's almost impossible to change anything once it's in place. Add to this the ageing population and a Confucian culture that reveres the elderly, and you have a recipe for chronic economic stagnation and technological atrophy.
Most people there also avoid any discussions regarding politics or anything serious as they perceive it as annoying and a nuisance that is disturbing harmony. They just continue to shuffle their papers at work ( 99% of times a completely useless task that could be automated by software, not even talking about AI ) and after that dive into escapism of which there is a plethora of options in Japan. Nothing changes.
The biggest lesson to learn here is that America is no ones friend. Scared of the japanese technical prowess and literally bullying them into devaluing their currency, simply because they couldn't compete. That was the cause of th domino effect.
That was your take away??? Not the multitude of missteps taken? In any case, without USA. There isn't a peak for Japan to drop off from. The technology, manufacturing power all came from America. You would think Japan would know better, allying with USA even till today despite 2 atomic bombs dropped on by them. USA occupied Japan yet the Japanese are in general grateful to American. I don't think China is grateful to Japan for occupying them.
It seems that you forgot that they could refuse to sign the accord. They didn't get pressured into signing. At the time they thought it would be beneficial to them to aid their biggest trading partner which is the US. The real cause of the bubble is created by the Japanese policy makers.
This is such an incorrect statement. Due to the US, Japan was able to rise out of its destroyed empire (and before you tell me that USA attacked Japan, 1) Japan began the war, and 2) Japan colonized many countries which they exploited so many from, so not US fault for its destruction) due to the USA due to them providing loans which are way below market-rate at that time, allowing them to increase their GDP massively (similar to Marshall Plan in Europe). After these loans were granted, Japan could become the superpower that it is today, and all this tanks to US. When the US asked Japan for the $ to depreciate comparatively to 円, it could have said “no”. But… this would negatively affect their country even more, as this would hinder their economy (due to sanctions etc.) America is to thank for Japans wealth, not the fault for its fall now. It was living in a bubble, similar to S-Korea. Before you say “you don’t know about Japan” I live here and see everyday life, know the ins and outs etc.
I’ve worked in large Japanese and American companies here. Japanese companies enjoy the theatrics of being in an office and the focus on the processes. They don’t work hard, they work LONG. There is little care for the results and instead will just be there 12 hours a day to be in pointless meetings and going out to smoke every 10 minutes.
They also die from "karoshi"-- death from overwork and unpaid "voluntary" overtime. Just try leaving the office before the boss and you will see how much the "theatrics" of being in an office matter.
I am Japanese. As a matter of fact, Japanese people's productivity in terms of work is quite terrible among developed countries, and there are even statistics that show that if you are working the most, you are actually not working as long hours as in the United States. The main reasons for this end result are the seniority system and the system of regular employees. Japan cannot fire employees as easily as in the US. They have no problem sitting at their desks and dawdling. Also, the seniority system allows even such useless employees to be promoted over time. This worked well in the Showa period, but as people gradually began to think, "How can I get a raise with ease and with less effort on my part," the result was a mass of Japanese like you mentioned, and Japan lost its diligence and fell.
I think it depends on the company. When I worked for a Japanese financial institution, most staff left on time except for emergencies or busy periods, and there was always a cross-functional effort across departments from young staff to senior level to improve operational efficiency. Their work style was more flexible than in the US or Europe, and they were able to provide reliable service to their clients.
This video takes it as a given that record-breaking economic growth is a prerequisite for a high quality of life. Your average American has a bigger house, more cars, and a higher salary than their Japanese counterpart, but a lower life expectancy, more traffic, and less safe communities. So the data here was accurate, but the analysis was unnecessarily pessimistic. Japan’s a great, safe, wealthy place to live.
The higher QoL in Japan over the US can be solely attributed to their immigration policy. In the US, natives have to compete for jobs, houses, goods, and everything else against millions of immigrants.
Some of the other comments at the top are from people living in Japan and they make a similar point. Things are cheap, safe, and affordable for them and not so expensive and out of reach like in the United States for housing. The one thing I would say the U.S. has over Japan is that because the US is more immigration friendly, it makes up for the low birth rate with immigration, while Japan's population is unfortunately shrinking quite rapidly.
Japan has the lowest rate of violent crime in the world while America has a shooting every day. Japanese people are well educated and healthy. They do not look down on people who have simple jobs and simple lives, in some ways Japan reminds me of the good aspects of growing up in the 80s.
@@krishutch3d The collectivistic problem reminds to be a sore thumb in psychology, also the case with the rising of net but lack of prowess to refrain from overuse, global but devastating in japan cuz of well collectivism and the lost generation domino effect, its like gnome. But this is scarier its whole country, good hardware yes. Chip should grow horizontal or bigger tho otherwise itll reach quantum problem nearing planck length in tai wan even with their factory
Japan had overextended itself and suffered for it, but given it's demographic situation, Japan's current existence seems like the best case scenario for countries whose demographics are declining.
Really?? That's what you took from the video.?? Not the US forcing japan to artificially devalue it's currency to support american exports and bring down japanese exports??
@@yatarookayama8329 Is that even possible? Like even if Japan had the most efficient farms on the planet, would that even be enough to feed all of Japan comfortably without net food or fertilizer imports? Also in what world could Japan become energy independent? None of the materials needed for any mode of energy production exist in Japan in sufficient quantities without imports.
LOL, no. Ever tried to look to the misery of the West today? The 3rd world country levels of crime and the Zimbabwe levels of debt? Japan is lightyears ahead! Lightyears!
So i just checked Wikipedia, it said the Plaza accords were to make the American dollar depreciate relative to the Yen which made the US exports more attractive . This is the exact opposite of what this video claims at 4:13 so yeah ooops, slight mistake.
I show this content and creator itself only copy paste naration without proper depth analysis and proof reading.. Shame on you for misleading by rack up money from adsense and viewers
Section on the plaza accords was entirely incorrect and most people are misinterpreting it. If not for the US Japan likely never would have recovered from WWII. Even today (older) Japanese people are very friendly to Americans because of it.
You seriously misunderstand Japan! I'm telling you this as a westerner who has lived / worked in Japan for about 20 years in business, and owns 2 companies here. Japan is not competing with the US or any other economy. It lives its own life and has found a perfect balance, a perfect way to survive despite any global economic crisis. There is nothing wrong with wages in Japan, they perfectly fit into the lifestyle and cost of living, and even these days Japan is basically immune to the economic problems both Europe and North America (and other western countries/regions) are now facing. It has lived and will live its own life, and will only interact with the outside world, just like it did for centuries. It's a nation of survivors, and it survives on its own terms in its own unique balanced way.
I mostly agree with you. Japan has picked a different economic dynamic. I mentioned something along this line of thought in another comment: Japanese companies have focused less on growth, and more on long term sustained profits (reflected in a consistently flat GDP) to create a consistent and more or less level standard of living. This is in contrast to more western style economies fixated on growth and enrichment. My other counter argument to this video; Japanese companies do adapt and innovate, but differently than companies in the US. Does this comment align with your observations and experience? if not, any additional insight? (I lived in Japan in the 1980s and worked with major Japanese companies on product development from the late 1990s to 2008).
After living there for 9 years, I'd agree with this. Wages don't really increase, but neither do prices. I'd like to settle in an akiya someday. I just hope they don't open the border to whomever wants to come in. I don't know if it's good in the long-run, but overall, it's a gem as it is. I hope they don't get caught up in the never-ending, ever-expanding capitalist economy mindset. I didn't even feel good about teaching English because it promotes western ideas/culture being embedded in the minds of the locals.
@@akinoshimo Japanese companies "innovate" in a systematic way, and it's not innovation that we, westerners, think of. In simplified terms, they try to UNDERSTAND how things work, and then either (a) leave them as is, (b) improve them or (c) redo within their understanding. The improvement and re-doing part are often perceived as "Japanese innovation", but it's hardly innovation. The risk aversion is a part of the mentality from early age, when from elementary school you have to write kanji as perfect as possible and a mistake is perceived almost like crime and a personal failure. It develops the mindset of "improvers", not "innovators" or risk-takers. Continuous practice and "muscle-memory" are prioritized. So you are right when describing the long-haul strategy of Japanese companies that focuses on staying afloat, business sustainability and stability, instead of making some bold moves.
@@vincentgranier3126 Exactly, Japan needs to open its borders wider and simplify the visa requirements. It desperately needs both highly qualified labor and workers for service industry. It's changing, but not fast enough.
To be fair, Zaibatsu as shown here is not very accurate. What made Zaibatsu (and now Keiretsu) different from a big comglomerate company is the bank inside the subsidiaries. For instance Mitsubishi has Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Mitsui and Sumitomo have Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. The bank inside the Holding is the core of the links. Plus, these 3 Keiretsu account already for 30% of Japan GDP. No other country (maybe Korea ?) shows this level of dependancy on so few companies.
@@ShigixSamsung alone is 20-25% of the Korean GDP lol, and that’s one conglomerate without taking into account Hyundai SK LG Lotte etc which are all massive in their own ways
I’m an American office worker living in Japan. The corporate environment commentary is spot on. We the US workers on the project have many more years delivering much larger projects but the JP side constantly insists on doing things their way. They constantly do things in outdated and inefficient ways, not listening to our recommendations, and they wonder why the project is going so poorly lol. That being said, this country in 90% of aspects is better than America, and probably the same when compared to most other countries also. Maybe they have figured out to be great it’s actually not all about the numbers.
Counterintuitively efficiency isn't always all good. Japan's consistently low unemployment rate can be attributed in part to widespread "overemployment" practices. It's not the greatest for business, but it's good for societal stability.
That's just corporations in general don't pretend that doesn't happen in the US. You gave Japan a high score yet want it to be like the US. Next you'll want guns too.
While the japanese economy in gdp terms fell alot, for most people in Japan this is not so bad. The focus on GDP growth ignores the good parts of Japan as a country. Today there is quite affordable housing on most cities, excellent public transport and cheap high quality food. While the Japanese working culture is a bit too much, for many people in Asia, being able to work in Japan is seen as a great opportunity. With some modifications I think the Japanese economy is showing how a country can have high standards of living without having a constantly growing GDP.
@@blackbelt2000 Oh no! They aren't making the next new gadget every 6 months to a year that we can put in a landfill. IPHoNE 25 cOmInG sOon. Better get that Cobolt & lithium poor Africans. 🙄
@blackbelt2000 Yeah, they could more than you think; Nintendo, Sony, Toyota (make legit more money than Tesla, not all hype stock), etc..., aren't trying to claim crazy accolades every 6 months or so. However, in your defense, this is probably why Japan lost the computer chip race and basically bowed out.
Yep. People in Japan have a good life. Very low crime rates, very low homelessness, low unemployment, some of the longest life expectancies in the world, excellent cuisine, and affordable good-quality healthcare. This youtube channel is run by investment bankers and private equity. They follow the mantra of 'endless GDP growth forever' because that's what's good for shareholders, regardless of the cost to society.
It's so refreshing and beneficial to watch a video like this as a Chinese person. Over the past 15 years, the Chinese have been busy with real estate speculation, and young people are forced to bear lifetime loans from banks. This has caused weak domestic demand and dragged the economy into a situation Japan has been facing for years. Humans never took a lesson from history.
Thank you so much for the comment! We are contemplating making a video on the situation in china. One of the biggest things we have been trying to communicate on our channel is that real estate speculation is one of the most dangerous activities for an economy.
@@rivertonhigh-v4t we had made a video on Canada, Australia and the US (which can be seen on our channel). We have also made a video on Brexit (i.e. the UK). We are contemplating California and other countries too. Thank you for the suggestions!
@@2and20The problem China is facing is way more challenging. The population is rapidly aging, the birth rate is plunging, and the international environment is getting tougher with the looming Trump presidency. seems like the whole country has been taken hold by defeatism.
Thank you so much! Real estate speculation is (in my view) a terrible terrible thing. Land is a non productive asset and constrained. In lieu of checks and balances it can lead to extremely negative outcomes. Henry George and Adam Smith both wrote about this, but for some reason modern capitalists ignore there warnings.
@@2and20 "For some reason" because they are in it, and if the system changes they might not come out on top. If their even is a top once workers get it
Someday a nation will be clever enough to make laws that effectively prohibit real estate speculation forever, and those people will enjoy a very very long period of prosperity.
Unfortunately, no one will try to fix the system until it reaches its limits. The middle class, with its power families and its accomplices. There is a pattern in human history where this problem escalates into war before it becomes visible. No one fixes the system until it reaches a critical point or until it reaches them. Henry George is not perfect, but he has raised the issue. Many have ignored the structural problems of the system because they do not seem to be an immediate problem and they seem to be hindering progress.
@@2and20the truth is, the group of people who hate capitalism the most tends to be capitalists. Every capitalist in their heart wants to be king, to have absolute power with no competition.
Today is japans worst generation. As Japanese, I am so pissed off at Japan, the people and the government for being so lazy, stupid, and not getting us out of deflation and lost decades. I am awaiting news that Japan is back and is set to dominate once again, I am sick of hearing news of declining population, sluggish growth, export decline shit
Not just that, Americans government in the 80s interfear Japan's economy so basically if America haven't interfear it's trade economy. Japan wouldn't be in this situation
I see a lot of people criticising Japanese culture here (probably people who had bad experiences in Japan) but I would like to think that even these bad side of Japanese culture plays important role to uphold culture which is disciplined and polite to others. Every culture has its own bad side and good side and they are there because of the other.
They badmouth it because they want it be like the rest of the world. Japan is unique and highly praised because of how it is. Yes there are some changes that need to be made. However I don't agree with making it like the western worlds.
So in Europe they did the opposite: "Saving" the banks, quantative easing and mass immigration. Leading to high inflation, high crime rates, housing crisis and a collapsing pension system. Rising taxes and crony capitalism Europe did the same, together with reducing the quality of school education so that everyone can feel good. The government is the problem, not the solution.
14:11 : that little shop is still standing as of 2024. It's located near by Tamagawa Station, and the previous shot with the kids is also the park alongside the Tama river nearby. Just like many of these small shops, it's still "in business" because of the value of the land and the cash the owners have been holding on forever.
what an excellent video!!! I have been researching on the fall of Japan's economy at university which is very complicated , i read books and listened from the lecturers about it a lot, but didn't grasp clearly at all. Thanks to this video, i understood it more. Thank you.
Japan is 30 years ahead of other developed countries. The US and Germany are going through the same thing now. The Japanese government bailed out the banks in the 90s, the US government did the same in 2008. Democracy is being replaced by Oligarchy. This leads to economic stagnation.
America lets in immigrants. They are one of the greatest strengths to our economic, cultural, and military might. As long as we don't have an ignorant population that fails to recognize this and votes in some kind of crazy political leaders we should be good.
I second what @hanaporter said. I also live in japan and with all these japanese economic crisis videos, i have yet to see any of them mention the effects on its citizens. Which is surprisingly mostly positive. Jobs are plenty, housing is cheap and affordable. Food is also affordable. Living here is more than comfortable. My salary is average but i can rent an entire house by myself and pay my bills and still have more than half of my salary left for savings and whatever i want to spend money on.
All these metrics and percentages don't really tell the full story. Cost of living in Japan is low, housing is cheap, and a lot of people love living in Japan. So what is some metric like their workforce is declining? Not everything is just a number on a spreadsheet. You have to actually go out and see the world for yourself. You can't learn everything from TH-cam documentaries.
The LDP is probably the major contributor to the problems, but they rarely get a mention. Japan has had pretty much a conservative government continuously since it became a democracy. Maybe this is what needs to change.
Arggggg! I'm tired of these videos that concentrate on the asset numbers and fail to see the high quality and stability of life here, which has been constant throughout the so called lost decades. An overheated market gains trillions of dollars in unreasonable asset values, so setting the peak as the baseline and crying about trillions from the peak is totally ridiculous. Despite all this "stagnation", Japan's economy ran at healthy surplus every year until the 2011 tsunami hit, and the main reason for subsequent deficits has been the need to import coal and gas after suddenly shutting all the nuclear power plants. Yes, there are issues, but they are nowhere as bad as these videos make out
dude, i know someone who used to live there, and it's way worse than you'd think, if they were more open to new solutions, they could fix their population decline which is set to lose 30 percent of their people by 2050
The video vilifies the governments too much imho, the corporate culture is just as guilty. But what you describe (essentially high standards of living) is a result of the fact that Japan entered the lost decades from a very high point, essentially that of the economy with the highest income. It has been losing ground but remains in a decent place because the starting point was so good. If nothing changes they are however doomed to drop even further. Semiconductors, Electric vehicles, AI, Japan is lagging everywhere. But when I was a very young child in the late ‘80s, Japan was the pinnacle of hi tech. That being said there are good aspects of not having a diverse population, which is internal stability and low crime rates.
This is actually true. I once worked in a japanese company in my country. Reluctant to try new ideas, old fashioned concepts, rigid company policies, red tape etc. My company had always japanese CEOs since the 80s. At one time an 'outsider' Singaporean CEO was elected just before Covid. He had new ideas. Made bold moves that work. Invest more on brand recognition through bold publicity stunts. However the japan HQ didnt like it. They didnt renew his contract. He was the reason why the company survived during covid. Now the company is back to 'boring' business ways.
0:45 I think there are two issues here: 1) The start of your x-axis in the graph in the 1900 but I think you meant it to be 1990. 2) The Y-axis has "K" but 632,000-818,000 JPY is not accurate as a yearly wage. The source material was very likely using 万 (10,000) as 6.32 to 8.18 million JPY is an accurate yearly wage.
It's a pendulum effect. When the population shrinks, companies find it hard to find workers, wages spike for a few years, companies find it too expensive and relocate resource fulfillment to cheaper countries, jobs get rarer yada yada yada
@@md.ahnafbinmatiur8481 white colar job? yes blue collar no, im just a poor human from a 3rd world country and every physical labor job is available , and get the same salary of everyone average 200k yen except for those who has high ranking job
I don’t think Japan not letting in immigrants from the global south was a bad thing. I experienced mass immigration in France, and it was not a good thing.
Do you think that maybe there is a correlation with their sinking economy with the better quality of life as compared to other countries? There a portion in the video that mentioned increased investments on rural areas compared to urban, but it seems as though it did improve the quality of a lot of lives. People aren't in complete poverty, its very safe, and there is a lot of public infrastructure. I know that this video is soley focused on the economy, but it seems as though the quality of life (maybe not for the Japanese office workers) is greatly increased.
That's what I don't understand about videos like this. Are they talking about the economy not growing relative to what they once were? Are they talking about borrowing too much foreign money and not being able to pay it back? Are they talking about people having less access to burrow money and less buying power? Are they talking about crashing values on their assets relative to foreign markets/their own? When people talk about a bad economy It's hard to understand it fully, when most people in Japan seem to be living fairly comfortable and convenient lives. Is it just a cultural thing or not as bad as they make it out to be. 🤷♂️ We don't exactly see famine and unrest in Japan. 🤷♂️
Quality of life is relative. Basic infrastructure still functions and crime is low. But many young Japanese can barely afford their homes, let alone to start a family. Most workers are part timers and temp workers with no real benefits. Workers work long hours, with nonexistent work-life balance, but wages are stagnant, and there's no real opening for advancement. Japan only looks okay because its still clean and shiny. Underneath the surface is a whole host of problems.
@1000rogueleader America's not much better to the average young person. Japan has better public infrastructure because its population centers are more dense. America could give a crap less because we built most of it around automobile travel for the past 70 years. Homes are more expensive in America than Japan because we treat them like investments and have regulations and lobbyists in major cities that fight against building more affordable housing to keep their property value high. The average millennial can't afford the average house price in America, and many are starting to live with their parents for years before they possibly are able to move out. Plus, crime is worse in America overall. However, crime can vary from place to place. Typically, the more blue (as in liberal) your city is, the more crime-ridden it is because of less regulation and prosecution.
That's really good point. Even though Japanese economy is not competitive as before, Japan is still a safe and clean country. The quality of life in Japan is not bad.
I think this video is about stagnation and lost opportunities after a massive economic progress ... It is so strange that a country functions with a debt of 300% to its GDP.
It's easy to blame the Japanese for "mistakes", but the reality is often simpler than it looks: - Singapore as an English colony and trading port is very good at communication. They make money by being a financial hub. - Taiwan makes money by being flexible and investing into being THE leader in semiconductors, basically inventing their own natural resource. 1. Japan "trick" was to have monopoly in bulk manufacturing electronics. They got ludicrously rich during that period. 2. Monopoly later ended as other countries like China wanted a piece of the pie. They couldn't do anything about that. The goose with the golden eggs was gone. 3. Japanese haven't found a new trick to boost their economy. They don't have natural resources to export, they are not great at communication, and aren't as flexible to create some magical innovation. 4. It's still a strong country that smartly invested their riches in advanced infrastructures and very high standards of living, higher than most western countries, exactly because they were strict on immigration and kept their society largely homogeneous. It's much cleaner and safer living in Japan than living in Germany. Their traditions and culture are intact and their life expectancy is the highest in the world. Was it worth it over having short term slight economy boosts that would quickly fade away unless they keep replacing their population with immigrants in uncontrollable scale that would inadvertently alter their way of life? Probably yes.
Okay, but the fact that the US and their allies threatened Japan into devaluation of their currency under threat of sanctions was probably the biggest factor here.
Although I'm largely sympathetic to your assessment, the missing piece from your analysis is this: how much will their way of life be altered by having collapsing communities all around the country and unsustainably high public debt with no hope of ever paying it back due to lack of workers? I would argue that the world you extol is just another, different form of "short-term focus", which is enjoyable while it lasts, but is creating another bubble that is unsustainable and eventually burst. And this bubble isn't a housing bubble, it's a human bubble -- much more severe.
You're using the word monopoly very incorrectly. Toyota selling competitive cars in the marketplace isn't a monopoly at all. You have a very poor grasp of economics. For other additional reasons I don't care to explain.
I don't think the Japanese are all that bad (aside from their government and banks), it's just you need to know what you're getting into. That's one thing I have learned while working at a Japanese manufacturer. The issue they have with foreigners is that they aren't raised in their culture. While bring in new ideas is a very good thing, foreign workers tend to also want to do things they way they have always done. Making a cohesive company culture much harder. Add all the Japanese cultural protocols and traditions it's almost impossible for a foreigner to be part of the overall culture. Even if they are born there, they are looked at as being foreign. It's a mess, yes, but I can understand the japanese reluctance.
This is the most annoying comment. We are not making this about immigration! Watch our video on immigration and that will be clear. People like you hear immigration and get all worked up for no reason. The point being made is simply this: a country with a rapidly aging population cannot have both a culture that makes it impossible to have kids and an anti immigration stance. As such, fix the culture!!!
@@2and20Funny how that’s the same idea of corporations that have zero ethics of using low, almost slave like labor of developing countries for economic profit. Now that these corporations have outsourced cheaper labor and don’t have to worry about ethics in safe work environments or environmental issues by shipping them over seas. They now need to try and lower the cost of labor with in the counties they operate in.
In Japan, talking about money in the family is a taboo. They need to fix that first and foremost!! How can you make economy great when you cannot freely discuss about wages, income and expenditures etc? You can’t! You can’t ignore stuff in private and rely on businesses to fix it.
Great video but maybe abit too negative? Japan still an advanced, high income country with a widely admired culture. Demographics is its biggest issue but far from alone in the developed world on that front or in east Asia in particular. The level of immigration needed to offset the low birthrate would be near impossible to achieve culturally for an East Asian state.
I am sorry to tell you this bud but everybody knows for a fact for a long time that Japan is not advanced anymore. They were couple decades ago however everything vanished after they decided that they should not change a strategy and all their "advanced technologies" are nothing more than just a pieces of metal compared to what china and us produce. People be using fax here which is absolute bizarre.I disagree about high income as well, because average income of around 1500 usd is considered to be pretty less compared to the rest of the world.
Yes, people think of immigration as a solution but ignore how much it damages the culture of countries that have to accept it, like those in western Europe, as well as how much friction it causes.
@Sgkhjj Immigration built America and gave us the cultures we now see as out own lol. Sure, immigration causes friction. It always has. Americans used to hate Italians and the Irish. Seriously, they were treated like second class citizens. The same applied to the Chinese and various Jewish populations. And look at us now. They have merged their culture with ours and we just take it for granted that we have so many different holidays, architectural styles, foods, and regional differences. Immigration always benefits in the long term.
economics aside, the issue with population that people overlook is japan as a whole, or even just tokyo has a higher population than most other countries, for comparison, japan is roughly the same geographic size as california, but people dont live on mountains, and japan is mostly mountains. japan has 4 times the population in the same area as california. the issue is that the ones who suffer arent the 60 year olds +, its the 20-40 year olds who are forced to pay high taxes on low wages to support a larger generation who had all the benefits of the 80s economy. but yes, japan is behind on its immigration policies and doesnt have dual citizenship and other issues. but focusing on japan vs focusing on your own country is just another buzz topic for clickbait.
That’s not what we said nor what we believe. Watch our video on immigration and you’ll see how moronic your statement is. We are simply saying a country that has such a terribly work culture that makes it impossible for people to have families cannot have 0 immigration because the population will collapse. If it wants no immigration it needs to make it easier for locals to have families
@@2and20Why didn't you say that then? You never said they need to make it easier to have a family, you said immigration was needed. Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the world and high trust in its citizens because they are morally & culturally aligned. Immigration IS NOT the answer, policy and cultural shift towards baby making a family building is.
I am a Japanese person currently living in Canada. When carefully observing Japan, there exists an extractive structure similar to countries like China, and many Japanese people don’t even question it. This sadly supports the arguments made by Acemoglu in ‘Why nations fail.’ That’s why I fled from Japan.
And is Canada a better place to live than Japan? I frequently see on the internet from Canadians that the living costs are excessively expensive, especially the rents. In my case, I left Japan for Germany, but now I have decided to go back. These days, I reckon the whole world is in decline. Japan seems to be a relatively more attractive place than current Europe from my perspective. What say you?
@@VoeloksasI’m not the commenter but I am Canadian and while things are expensive, it is nice to live here. There’s many places to go, fresh air, lots of nature, etc. Life here got more expensive after Covid-19 though (like many other places) and the job market is tough. I will be honest and say that big cities in Japan have so much to do & cost of living is much better in Japan in general. Plus Japan is so convenient and the technology there is amazing! I think in some ways Canada is better and in some ways Japan is better.
@@munalisaaa8560Im living in Japan for si long that I dont understand when other ppl say the technology here is great, could you give me some examples please? I always see ppl in the west paying everything with apple pay and having an app for banking etc, it looks much more advanced than what we have in here
Japan would cease to be Japan if it accepted large numbers of migrants, just look what happened to the UK - a complete trainwreck. I hope the Japanese people will survive and keep their unique culture and national pride intact.
It's actually kind of untrue to say that they limit immigration, they don't do anything in that regard, no, what keeps immigration down is language. And this is a two way situation, first up not many people there speak English, most do learn a form of japanized English that's too textbooky and formal and just not English and more like a set of broken sentences and premade conversations. And this is because they simply don't need to know it. And then there's the opposite side, learning Japanese, it isn't hard but it's time consuming, most languages are like that, but japanese is special with it's writing system that makes no sense, when you first look at it you learn there's two alphabets(one solely for foreign words) and the imported chinese characters and you think 'eh it looks like it's a lot but it can't be that bad or worse than chinese', but then you learn the chinese characters aren't used like how they were intended to so instead of one character having one meaning, it has multiple, which it depends by origin be it chinese or japanese, and then reading can differ even within the same meaning so the best approach is to learn how to write a word after you learn the word itself. And then there's also the different sentence structure that poses difficulty together with keigo or polite speak, yeah speaking politely can be it's own language sometimes, which don't play well with the textbook learning methods that are being taught across the world, but these are easily solved when learning like a baby through immersion. So yeah, it's the language barrier.
@@vali69 What are you talking about? Japan is legendary for how difficult it is to get a work visa there. Literally one of the most difficult countries in the world for which to get a visa, lol.
Japan... Has always been really good at one thing; progressing at a skill trade. However, that is all. They aren't very good at leading themselves because Japan doesn't allow for growing true leadership. TH-camrs can run for mayor or whatever. Why is it not someone who has actually led a team, for starters? Why is it that the threshold for making it in is "popularity"? Of course, it's a voting system. But given how much Japan values hard work, it just baffles me how they keep making the craziest decisions when it comes to politics. It feels like they're a total joke. From the video, it seems that they just allocate money and don't necessarily try to do anything productive with it. Then there are companies. Those companies really piss me off. You hear it all the time. No overtime pay, expected to work overtime, shamed if don't, company is your life, and wage is not adequate. I've seen stories on reddit of how foreigners are treated. It's so stupid how these companies can think of such diabolical schemes, yet when it comes to doing any good, brain empty.
Why get angry about something like that when you do not live here? I'm assuming you don't live here (in Japan) since you just talked about Reddit and not your personal experience. Reddit is not really a good place to get information. It is very unbalanced.
Yes...work culture needs drastic change in Japan. It's almost 2025. Stop the old and wrong work culture. Also dont force employees to work overtime. In certain sectors...introduce 4 day work week, invest advanced R&D, let companies fail who can't perform and new companies rise. These are some of the solutions. AI can help japan a lot.
I read Japanese job adverts and they trumpet "112 DAYS HOLIDAY EACH YEAR!!!!!111!!" Yet, read further, and what they mean is a normal Mon-Fri week, with 52 weekends off, and 8 additional days. "112 DAYS HOLIDAY A YEAR" actually means..... *EIGHT* days. :P
wrong. Japan's economy is in decline not because of the working environment, but rather because the Japanese have stopped working. The average Japanese person currently works less hours than the average for OECD countries. When the Japanese economy was booming, such as during the period of high economic growth and the bubble economy, Japanese people worked far more than they do today. And as Japan's working environment improved, the economy declined, and so did the birth rate. The more Japan imitates the West, the worse the situation will get. Former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka was right when he said that "Japan has no resources, but the people are its resources, so the Japanese must work hard". The only way to maintain the Japanese economy is for the Japanese to keep working.
14:35 That is not the definition of insanity, and land is not only a real investment, it's one of the best investments. You're wrong on too many things to take seriously.
This video is pretty good overall but fell a bit sideways at the end - immigration is not a solution to Japan’s stagnant economy. Currently the country is issuing working permits to a large number of southeast Asian workers and this is visible. But low wage workers do not prop up an entire economy. Immigration of different talents like tech (hardware and software) with much higher paying jobs will help but still can only do so much - the triumvirate as you called out largely still exists. I told a Japanese friend unless you current ruling generation all die you will see no change. The culture also by design discourages out of the box thinking. An old saying goes the nail that stands out needs to be hammered down To me the second point is the lion share of the problem
Thank you for the thoughtful comment! I agree on both points and if you watch our last video which is on immigration you would see that we are aligned in our thinking.
But tech does not pay too well in Japan, my company hires a lot of foreigners, mostly Chinese and Korean new grads with CS degree and they all start wtih about 3 million JPY a year, which is above national average I suppose, but most of them easily bullied into 50+ hours of overtime with no compensation. Our free overtime policy is 40 hours and HR can work the other 10+ hours into things like extra days off, so in the end of the day if you count their hourly earning they aren't doing so great.
Software engineer in Japan here, 100% agree but the thing is tech workers like me get paid very little compared to back in the UK. Our jobs ain't seen as prestigious like in the states either. As the only foreigner in my company the younger workers tell me all their problems and you can see how the older generation is pushing their weight on them. What's being said about the recent immigration is also true, those that are coming here do not respect the culture at all. I was on a train coming back from finishing a JLPT and although the Japanese levels of everyone on the train was fairly high the people didn't care about Japanese norms, eating on the train and playing TH-cam videos on full volume.
Is it really terrible?. Maybe it just the way we measure success. Not everything is about economic impact. The average person seems to be doing better than most of America. Corporate culture sucks everywhere. So many products I own are made in japan ( cars, TVs, etc ) but literally nothing I have is made in America.
Fortunately there is a new generation of younger Japanese that are challenging the traditional norms - when it comes to work, social and more. We see a lot of it in the arts, literature, music and films. It’s not perfect but they’re somewhat self aware
I hope that the manner in which they challenge traditional Japanese norms is not by adopting Western values without question. It's possible to rebel in a way that's still Japanese, and preserves the good aspects of the culture while learning from the good of the West and avoiding the ill. Of which currently there is a lot of in the West.
Calling closed borders a mistake is manipulation. Indeed, economy may not grow, however at least the population is not getting poorer due to influxes of cheap labour unable to assimilate. We've made this mistake in Western Europe, and now economy was growing but we are poorer than 40 years ago. Congratulations to Japan for avoiding at least this problem. For the rest of their economy however, it does need some significant reforms.
Lmao blaming immigration for Europe's atrocious economic policies is so weak. Maybe taxing everything at 50% is the issue. America has tmsome if the highest immigration yet is the richest.
The UK is suffering from this. We have a real estate bubble that refuses to burst because the government insists on importing a quarter of a million new people from poor countries every year, enough to fill a small city every single year, encouraging people on work visas to bring their entire extended families over, meanwhile we simply don't build enough housing for all these people. It's great for the richest members of society who are able to exploit the cheap labour and rising land values, but bad for the other 90% of the population. And also bad for the countries of origin too, because they're often losing their most skilled and motivated workers, which hurts their economy. Often these new people come from countries that lack the same liberal Western values we take for granted. At the very least, Japan 'solved' their real estate bubble by tweaking interest rates and refusing to adopt the same open border polices of the US, Canada, Western Europe and Australasia. As a result, Japan - despite its economic problems - is a high-trust society, one of the safest countries in the world, has a very low homelessness rate, and lacks the social decay seen in the West.
@@Luke-tt3dt 💀 I fear you might have a very glossed up view of Japan, and "social decay" just sounds like a dog-whistle for racial purity type shit. Also, immigrants are integral for jobs that no white person wants to do, especially at wages that they would never entertain. The real blame is upon the UK government for failing to adequately implement policies that support middle income livelihood, and enabling private firms to control the supply and pricing of housing.
@@Luke-tt3dt Lol, saying that Japan solved the housing bubble is like saying that a pilot of an airplane that crashed solved the problem of the flight taking too long.
U.S. basically did too well in recovering Japan's post-war economy. Had to reign them in a little bit. But that's not the reason Japan's economy hasn't stabilized.
Japans fine. US been doing the same BS but is in an even more advance state of decay. The difference is the Japanese still protect and value their traditions and moral values.
Such a wrong take in many points! It was like watching a neoliberal capitalist wet dream about how neoliberalism is superior to any economic system. Just another dime-a-dozen Japan video.
Explain how my points are wrong specifically. Dont just “name call”, that’s what lazy people who think they’re smart do. Get into the arena with your ideas
@@2and20 First of all the Plaza Accord was just an ask by the US to lower the interest rate of Japan to 2.5 percent and keep the there for a few years because the dollar was overvalued. Second “citizens and companies” didn’t dive head first to stocks and RE speculation. The central bank of Japan the BoJ, told all the banks in Japan to use their “window guidance”loan quotas. Bank loan officers literally begged citizens and companies to invest in RE and stocks because they have to use “all” their loan target in order to not lose their ranking in Japan’s “War Economic System”, the Japanese Style Economic System, with the “Window Guidance” as a monetary policy tool. Profits lure copycats, that’s why everybody did it. The “government” as you said did not encourage it. Banks didn’t just let anybody borrow money, they accepted “land and stocks” as collateral. Land and stocks at the early stage was not overinflated as you said. It became overinflated because the banks kept lending people money, from 1982-1989. It was not “overnight”. Since land is fixed in Japan and people competing for the same stocks, the price have to rise. Third raising “interest rates” do not correlate to market cooldown. It doesn’t matter if you raised the interest rate if the banks keeps allowing people to borrow money, and making people think they can pay it. Or lower it but if the banks don’t lend money to speculators. The MoF didn’t “restrict” RE loans. That’s when the BoJ stopped creating money for the banks for people to borrow. The MoF thought by raising interest they could stop the land and asset price rise discouraging speculators. That’s their “only” power. They foolishly believe interest rate raising or lowering as a monetary policy tool is enough to control the economy. They didn’t know BoJ was creating money behind their back. Fourth what really followed was not “policy missteps, hesitations and missed opportunities”. The BoJ “intentionally” did not create credit for decades to help the economy. For the banks, for the people and for the companies. The stimulus package did not work because all the government did was issue government bonds. That meant borrowing from the private sector to “help” the private sector firms. It did not create “new” purchasing power and new money. All it did was take “money” from the economy. It was not backed by credit creation which “only” the BoJ can do. The “recovery signs” in 1997 was when BoJ created credit for a time “briefly”. The consumption tax increase happened because the government is not earning enough revenue to fund the fiscal budget. The public works was just another fiscal stimulus package. It has nothing to do with “productivity” or political interest. The yen was strong hence exports were declining because they were expensive to buy. The last tool the MoF decided to use was foreign exchange intervention. They thought that if they bought US dollars that it would strengthen the dollar and make the yen weaker. It didn’t because the FED printed money faster than the BoJ. What’s worse, BoJ sold government bonds to the private sector companies then implemented the foreign exchange intervention. Even worst still, BoJ took even “more” government bonds than needed, again sold it to private firms then implemented the FX intervention. All it does is take money from the economy. The BoJ did not lower the interest rate, they were “ordered” by the MoF. Prices then deflated because nobody really can afford anything. 200,000 businesses filed for bankruptcies then. There were no jobs because companies couldn’t afford them and the BoJ failed to create credit for the banks so the businesses can borrow money so they don’t have to file for bankruptcy which in turn will create the jobs needed so more people can pay tax revenues to the government. And with troubled times even people with money chose not spend it. LOL. That Iron Triangle is “not” crony capitalism. That’s the “War Economic System”, the Japanese Style Economic system of Japan using the famed “Window Guidance” as the monetary policy tool. That’s the one that brought the so called “Economic Miracle” of Japan. The one where America said is more dangerous than the Cold War USSR Soviet Russia. You know who “ran” that economy? Former “Authoritarian War Planners”, the true supporters of Imperial Japan and WW2. You’re confusing the 2 economic model that Japan followed. The War Economy and the Neoliberal(US style free market capitalism) economy. The corporate giants that you’re describing as “slow, outdated and unwilling to adapt” is still placing Japan either 3rd or 4th in GDP rankings. A country with almost to nothing natural resources. They have to buy every raw materials to have their industries. Do you think American corporations are less monopolistic than Japanese corporations? Fact is immigration did nothing for the countries that adopted the policy. Do America want immigrants? LOL. How about UK? Do they love immigrants? How about Canada? Hmm? I’ve heard they’re deporting immigrants like everyone. How about Europe? With right wing political parties winning left and right. How about Australia and New Zealand? Are they accepting more immigrants? That’s a big NO! But when talk of immigrants concerning Japan everybody keeps saying, Oh.. they’re homogenous society, they don’t like immigrants. They’re xenophobic and racist. Like every neoliberal capitalist country the immigrants are nothing but a source of cheap slave labor. There’s no “labor shortage” it’s just “wage suppression”. Capitalist companies in any country don’t want to pay a living wage. The Japan you’re describing and seeing in your video is just like any another “neoliberal” country. Where shareholders demand maximum profits above anything else. There’s is nothing special about Japan. The rich people of Japan couldn’t care less if their population declines. Japan is as “CAPITALIST” as every country who is.
Growth isn't always something good. You can't see the stability and relatively equal quality of life they have? You don't have abandoned neighbourhoods or rotting slums in Japan like there is in neoliberalist USA. Their economy has challenges but it is far from awful. Managing those problems is far better than finding use in keeping high numbers of your population in painful poverty. Model of infinite growth isn't sustainable, even worse when it is fast and consistent growth - extract every tiny bit of value to the bone and the faster you extract the sooner you get to the breaking point. Last time this was done was how capitalists found themselves in the gallows at the hands of fascists and communists. Correct criticisms but the emotions are too american-centric.
@@2and20 sure but people don't have to live in them like it is in the US, people are adequately housed elsewhere. There are still plenty of unseen homeless but even their living standards are by far better than the rotting zombies in america streets. But swathes, I can't agree, random lots in the countryside is not the same as a dead city blocks because of callous administration.
@@marthas9255it’s 1,000 times better to be a homeless “net cafe refugee” in Japan than homeless on the streets in the USA/Canada/UK/Australia. I slept at a net cafe in Nagoya a few months ago because I missed a train, it wasn’t bad at all.
@@homeworkshopheros4576 No doubt, it is much more doable. I was able to stretch out a 500 yen coin for a good number of meals of canned vegetables etc. (it's about 3 USD now, a few bucks get you practically nothing).
Japan currently has a labor shortage in comparison to its industrial size, which has led to debates regarding immigration. However, in the near future of despair, when many human jobs will be replaced by AI due to the development of technology, if Japan maintains its industrial scale and suffers from an even more severe labor shortage than it currently has, the situation will be reversed. It will be a chance. In other words, in such an era, there would be chaos all over the world, but Japan, in contrast, could be one of the rare countries best able to take advantage of the benefits of AI technology while limiting the rise in unemployment. What do you think of this claim?
Japan's economy is fine, still 4th in the world. Their debts are in yen, so are effectively debt free. And they are letting in more foreigners than ever (seriously, it's all Chinese and Indians over there IYKYK), they'll be fine.
You're looking at it backwards. Their debts are overwhelmingly to domestic banks, that's true. But that makes it WORSE. That means that if the Japanese government welches on its debt, it's banks IN JAPAN that will take the hit, not foreign banks. This will directly harm the Japanese economy. It would actually be better if all their debt was owned by China or something. In that case, they could just shrug, not pay, and aside from losing the goodwill of Chinese investors, nobody in Japan would be harmed by the default. But as it is, the Japanese government cannot afford to default without directly devastating their own economy.
@StochasticUniverse Your argument makes no sense. Japanese institutions will keep buying Japanese government debt and the Japanese government will never ever default because they can always print more yen. Japanese banks (or any other institutions for that matter) will not take any hits on yen denominated debt. Ever. National debt should be calculated net of sovereign debt frankly. Japan is and always will be absolutely fine. Anything else (including this video) is just brain dead, misinformed, idiotic fear mongering
Awesome video @2and20 thanks for sharing! Love your content Interesting insights on Japan, such an iconic place, the working age population segment was such an important metric for their overall population. Keeping it coming with the content & best of luck on the channel!!
Thank you so much for the kind words! And we are happy you enjoyed the video. If there are topics that you think we should explore moving forward please let us know :-)
The best thing about Japan is listening to all the Westerners who busted a nut to come live here and then immediately do nothing but complain about the place.... as well as racing into every Japan-related content so they can tell everyone they live here.
Wait so did it get this right? Japan was too successful and the USA was like… “bro can you be less successful?. Japan: “Ok, hold my beer let me screw the economy real quick.” USA: “thanks bro appreciated it.” Japan: “Anytime.”
Japan prioritized their culture and their way of doing things. And they "sacrifized" being the numer 1 economy in the world. Instead, they are the 3rd or the 4th, they have an homogeneous pupulation, clean cities, no crime, no racial problems... The problems they have, we already have too. Similar ones at least. But they are still living IN Japan and we are not longer living in Europe/USA.
Japan's economic stagnation has continued for 30 years, so both the government and the people have gotten used to it and there is no longer any movement to resolve the issue. Most of the people have jobs and homes to live in, so there are no riots, and the LDP government continues despite its unpopularity.
@@2and20 The recent result of the election showed that LDP is no longer the ruling party since other parties also gained proportional votes and power to join the policy-making process.
You're right that Japan's economy has been in stagnation for decades, largely due to factors like an aging population, low birth rates, and slow technological growth. The government has struggled to spark meaningful change, but many people still have stable jobs and housing, which has kept social unrest low. The LDP's grip on power, despite its unpopularity, can be explained by a lack of viable alternatives and a deeply ingrained political system that favors stability over bold reforms. The situation feels more like acceptance than active problem-solving at this point.
Puting the face of Mr. Fujio Cho while saying "slow, outdated, and unwilling to adapt" (11:26) is a huge WTF-moment in this video. However, I liked it overall. Thanks for sharing!
Amazing video! Was in Japan last year, lovely country but clearly needs to reform the work culture and get rid of bureaucratic outdated processes. Immigration is one answer but I worry that the respect and charm of Japan will vanish
Japan was litteraly forced at gunpoint to destory their economy for decadess becouse they were to good. This is a sad reality of any nation that looses a war.
The point this video is trying to make is ridiculous ! Yes Japan chose different priorities. But it still has the best quality of life BY FAR. Meanwhile Western economies are suffocating under wealth inequality, overwhelming immigration, insecurity and poverty.
Japan economy is not awful. Maybe it’s not growing crazy for the top 1 percent. But its overall quality of life and affordability for common people is great !!
Government manipulation of economic markets always ends in disaster. Japan's first major mistake was listening to the corrupt Federal Reserve cartel and following the road to serfdom, practiced in America today.
11:09 I had to look up what "amakudari" means. Turns out this is the Japanese word for something we already have in America. We call it the "revolving door" - the practice of regulators leaving government jobs and getting jobs at the companies they regulated.
lol why? Also if you look at our other videos you wouldn’t be saying that especially our Immigration one. Let me guess, you’re xenophobic and heard the suggestion of driving more high skilled immigration to Japan and proceeded to comment. Don’t let your world views cloud your judgement.
Hi, i just want to say thankyou for this video! I'm currently researching on the effects of the japanese economic bubble for uni. I have read a lot of articles and writing on the japanese economy and i would say this is the easiest explanation on the japanese economy history to understand i have ever come across. I'm nothing of an expert on economy at all, so this video really helped me to see the whole picture. Keep up the good work! Side note: i'd like to use the information to in this video for my research (of course i'd cross check it with the sources you have put) idk if you'll see this comment or not, but i'd like to hear your thoughts on my usage towards this video if there's some way that you might or might not be comfortable with that please let me know!
Yet the Japanese are superb at miniaturization and other forms of introducing efficiencies. I refuse to drive anything else but Toyota, I think they wipe the floor with any other car in terms of reliability. I am sure I'm not alone in wishing Japan to do well again.
Saying not immigrating a bunch of people from other countries with different cultures and values into your country is a negative, that is a wild take. Yeah lets bring in a bunch of people with different cultures and values that don't speak our language, whats the worst that can happen? Why are they not assimilating? What is a no go zone?
Excellent overview especially highlighting how Canada and Australia seem to be going down this path. Canadas productivity crisis can also be summed up by monopolies protected by the government (bipartisan as both parties do this) and therefore leaving little incentive to invest in R&D and innovation. The speculative nature of housing in Can and Aus also siphons capital that could go towards businesses but instead goes to housing t whose appreciation is tax exempt therefore incentivizing all households to simple buy a house. That’s is until the music stops and the game of musical chairs ends and no one wants to buy or overpriced house and the industries are cutting jobs due to low revenues. Can and Aus will be joining Japan in the next decade as the only countries to have a 200%+ debt to GDP ratio. And all three will eventually default and face a crisis like Greece did in 2008.
Speaking as an American with some insight into the situation, I regard Canada as probably the world's most successful immigrant nation. The US system is a clusterf- based on pure RNG (literally, a lottery to determine who gets in). Canada does a good job of prioritizing applicants who already speak English, already have education, etc. It's reflected in the stats: in the US, immigrants make less money, on average, than native-born, but in Canada, they actually make more, and they are higher-educated, too. If Canada can sustain its current rate of assimilation, it can grow fast enough that its debt-to-GDP ratio will not reach 200%. In fact, it might even go lower than its current levels, as Canada successfullyl out-grows its debt, which is a viable strategy for dealing with national debt.
i would totally buy any made in Japan stuff even if have to pay a premium because they really put in much effort in their product. Reliable and excellent quality.
Japanese government needs to incentivize their local population to have kids through reduce taxation and stimulus. Else you will have continue to have a very small working force propping up the increasing larger retired population.
Ya they need to do much much more. I was in Japan recently, and even as someone who worked in finance, the working culture was shocking to me. How are young people expected to have kids when they work like dogs, don’t get paid enough and more
@2and20 agreed the fact that they even have a terminology for working so hard you fall asleep at your desk is crazy. It's not overly uncommon for people to die at work. It's a disaster.
You think it’s that simple? Japan is alienated and demoralised. 70% of men have no interest in relations with women, they lock themselves up in rooms for years on end and 100,000 people voluntarily disappear each year without a trace. Throwing money will not stop the inevitable. It is a social problem that is beyond the Japanese government’s ability to fix it
I lived and worked in Japan for several years at a top company. I can say confidently that incentive programs won't fix the birthrate - it has been tried in Japan and elsewhere. There needs to be a massive shift in social norms and policies to make it acceptable for people to go home at a reasonable hour and have a life. There also needs to be a concerted effort to move people out of Tokyo and into prefectures with a lot more space. Lastly, Japan needs to reform its social practices regarding women and their place in the family if they want to get young women excited about the idea of raising children.
Outstanding video, but you missed one key fact that lead to the Plaza Accords: Postwar, the US was the one that set and held the Yen at 360JPY to the dollar. And as someone that has lived in Japan 20 years, yes this country is behind stuck in the past, and as soon as one leaves the big cities, the economic and population collapse is visible. Abandoned homes and shuttered factories everywhere.
I don't agree with the point that investments in the rural infrastructure are false. I have been to japan a few years ago after not being there for twenty years. My family is from Shizuoka province. The difference was enormous and very sad to observe. All the shops and malls I knew from my childhood were closed, the little towns very practically dead. the young all have left for the big cities. You have to address the urban-rural gap as a government, that's not mere clientele politics.
I’m not sure I agree with this. Maintaining rural areas is costly and honestly often irrational. What if I convinced 1,000 people to live in a cave in the mountains, should the government help us do this? What if I live in an area where there is no way to farm or self sustain, should the government support us? If you believe that the government should support rural communities because you like them, that isn’t much of an argument. I feel similarly about the government insuring homes by the water that are prone to environmental disasters. It doesn’t make sense and isn’t fair to other citizens
At minute 4:15, you mention that the Japanese yen needed to depreciate against the USD to strengthen the U.S. export economy and narrow Japan's trade surplus. However, this seems counterintuitive. For U.S. exports to become more competitive and for Japan's trade surplus with the U.S. to decrease, the Japanese yen would need to appreciate against the dollar, not depreciate. Am I misunderstanding something?
The company my wife works for still has a fax machine because their Japanese office still prefers to do things via fax. Having visited Japan, it's a strange mix of very modern and very old fashioned which I loved. Much better than much of the West being a mix of modern and dystopian. Oh how much I would love it if my home country had stayed stuck in the 2000-2010s rather than whatever BS we are in now.
Infinite growth is totally sustainable for an economy as a whole through healthy government policy. Expecting government policy to be healthy for the economy as a whole, is probably unrealistic.
At 4:13, we made an error regarding depreciation and appreciation. The Plaza Accords were designed to weaken the American dollar relative to the Yen, boosting demand for U.S. exports. We are dumb and somehow didn't catch the visual error, and we are sorry!
I was just wondering - going from 239¥ per $ to 128¥ per $ means that the Yen has appreciated in strength, meaning it becomes less attractive for US companies to import Japanese goods as they receive less Japanese goods per $ spent.
Why did Japan agree to these accords when they would clearly hurt their economy? Did the US threaten them with sanctions or tariffs? Surely eating a 10 or 20% tariff would have had less of an impact than allowing the yen to appreciate that much.
@@jt92maybe having military bases established on home soil plays a huge role
It’s okay. Good video and thanks for catching your mistake 😊
@@jt92Japan would never be allowed to continue its economic boom since it was allies with the US. China doesn't have this problem. That's the difference.
I’m Japanese and living in Japan. I see so many videos / articles on how the economy is collapsing.
However, I’ve never had to worry about finding a job because there are just so many. You don’t need degrees for it either - most companies will teach you from scratch.
Housing is cheap because they don’t increase in value. Getting a mortgage is easy and the interest rate is lower than 1%.
Cars are cheap so I don’t need loans to get them, but I don’t even need one because I can use public transportation that’s cheap and reliable.
The salary is lower than other developed countries, but it has never been an issue because the cost of living is much cheaper.
There are all these countries in the west with ‘high GDP’ and ‘flourishing economy’ but what is the point when housing prices are unaffordable and people are struggling so much financially?
Are we doing economically based on a set of metrics? Maybe not.
But think the true metrics of a good economy is if people are able to afford to live comfortably.
japan has incredible value for investors and is a great economy. People who say japan economy is weak are literal armchair economist with wikipedia depth of the issuse, i mean like this video they all just regurgitate talking points.
Absolutely spot on. We live in Japan and all your points are completely valid and correct.
Agreed but I also think Japanese citizens on average are worse off (financially) than US citizens because US citizens can still travel around the world with better “spending power” compared to the average Japanese citizen.
Almost anyone in the US can afford to take an international trip, but the same can’t be said in many other countries.
But then again most of the younger population in the US will not be able to afford a house anytime soon so pros and cons.
@@StarPlatinum9 as an investor looking to find value in Japanese companies is different than these Japanese companies making sure their employees are well paid. if anything a healthy company not paying their employees means that more capital is going to shareholders, just like in the USA walmart stock is at a all time high does not mean that walmart employees are compensated or receiving fat bonuses.
Thank you for your insight. GDP doesn't mean shit for the average citizen.
There's a saying that Japan has been stuck in the year 2000 since the 1980s.
Yep!!!
Yes, the West said that, out of hubris.
Now the West is flooded with debt, mass migration and zero hopes for tomorrow while Japan is slowly adapting and developing.
And that’s one of the reasons why it’s a wonderful place to visit. I would say live, but the working conditions / expectations are horrific.
@@contactluke80I want to move there after visiting in January but definitely not working for a Japanese company 😭 I’m good off their working culture. Foreign company or my own business is the way to go
@cristitanase6130The whole world is swimming in debt. It’s not only the west, globalized economy had bankrupted everyone.
I live in Japan. Their reluctance to think outside the box is extraordinary. And they never discuss the crushing public debt on the news because their media doesn't want to offend the governing elite. The population doesn't seek information, so they linger in a state of inertia. They spend all their time at work, shuffling paper from one side of their desk to the other. For example, teachers need to go to work even during school holidays. And all of their software is clunky and buggy; they have no sense of intuition when building websites, etc. And they're hostile to foreigners when it comes to renting out apartments and a lot of that kind of stuff, even some low-budget car rental companies refuse to lease cars out to non-Japanese speakers -- I don't even think it's racism, it's simply because they have their way of doing things and they don't have the mental dexterity required to accommodate people with different expectations and ways of doing things. They're ossified. I don't know how they can snap out of this torpor.
The Japanese purposely crashed their economy. The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
With regards to car rentals, I think it's just that no staff speak english. It's not like many speak english at the higher end shops either, but they have some pieces of paper with english and those translate devices they speak into.
I don't think most of it is malicious, they simply would rather not embarrass themselves or their customer, or their boss.
@@jole0 Thank you for highlighting this. That's why I was careful to state that I do not think it's due to racism. They lack the flexibility to change their systems and ways. In the West, we tend to think the customer is king (well, that's what we say), but they seem to prioritise The Process. Within The Process, there is a great deal of care shown to the customer, extreme politeness, and probably the best customer service available anywhere, but the customer must follow The Process. Individuals are subordinate to procedures, so it's almost impossible to change anything once it's in place. Add to this the ageing population and a Confucian culture that reveres the elderly, and you have a recipe for chronic economic stagnation and technological atrophy.
It’s just too hard and they can’t be fucked.
Most people there also avoid any discussions regarding politics or anything serious as they perceive it as annoying and a nuisance that is disturbing harmony. They just continue to shuffle their papers at work ( 99% of times a completely useless task that could be automated by software, not even talking about AI ) and after that dive into escapism of which there is a plethora of options in Japan. Nothing changes.
The biggest lesson to learn here is that America is no ones friend.
Scared of the japanese technical prowess and literally bullying them into devaluing their currency, simply because they couldn't compete.
That was the cause of th domino effect.
Appreciating, not devaluing.
That was your take away??? Not the multitude of missteps taken? In any case, without USA. There isn't a peak for Japan to drop off from. The technology, manufacturing power all came from America. You would think Japan would know better, allying with USA even till today despite 2 atomic bombs dropped on by them. USA occupied Japan yet the Japanese are in general grateful to American.
I don't think China is grateful to Japan for occupying them.
The world is learning and acting accordingly
It seems that you forgot that they could refuse to sign the accord. They didn't get pressured into signing. At the time they thought it would be beneficial to them to aid their biggest trading partner which is the US. The real cause of the bubble is created by the Japanese policy makers.
This is such an incorrect statement. Due to the US, Japan was able to rise out of its destroyed empire (and before you tell me that USA attacked Japan, 1) Japan began the war, and 2) Japan colonized many countries which they exploited so many from, so not US fault for its destruction) due to the USA due to them providing loans which are way below market-rate at that time, allowing them to increase their GDP massively (similar to Marshall Plan in Europe). After these loans were granted, Japan could become the superpower that it is today, and all this tanks to US. When the US asked Japan for the $ to depreciate comparatively to 円, it could have said “no”. But… this would negatively affect their country even more, as this would hinder their economy (due to sanctions etc.)
America is to thank for Japans wealth, not the fault for its fall now. It was living in a bubble, similar to S-Korea. Before you say “you don’t know about Japan” I live here and see everyday life, know the ins and outs etc.
I’ve worked in large Japanese and American companies here. Japanese companies enjoy the theatrics of being in an office and the focus on the processes. They don’t work hard, they work LONG. There is little care for the results and instead will just be there 12 hours a day to be in pointless meetings and going out to smoke every 10 minutes.
They also die from "karoshi"-- death from overwork and unpaid "voluntary" overtime. Just try leaving the office before the boss and you will see how much the "theatrics" of being in an office matter.
I am Japanese. As a matter of fact, Japanese people's productivity in terms of work is quite terrible among developed countries, and there are even statistics that show that if you are working the most, you are actually not working as long hours as in the United States. The main reasons for this end result are the seniority system and the system of regular employees. Japan cannot fire employees as easily as in the US. They have no problem sitting at their desks and dawdling. Also, the seniority system allows even such useless employees to be promoted over time. This worked well in the Showa period, but as people gradually began to think, "How can I get a raise with ease and with less effort on my part," the result was a mass of Japanese like you mentioned, and Japan lost its diligence and fell.
Ironically reminds me of Germany.
I did work for a Japanese company in the early 2000 and they indeed went out to smoke every 10 minutes 😅
I think it depends on the company. When I worked for a Japanese financial institution, most staff left on time except for emergencies or busy periods, and there was always a cross-functional effort across departments from young staff to senior level to improve operational efficiency. Their work style was more flexible than in the US or Europe, and they were able to provide reliable service to their clients.
This video takes it as a given that record-breaking economic growth is a prerequisite for a high quality of life. Your average American has a bigger house, more cars, and a higher salary than their Japanese counterpart, but a lower life expectancy, more traffic, and less safe communities.
So the data here was accurate, but the analysis was unnecessarily pessimistic. Japan’s a great, safe, wealthy place to live.
The higher QoL in Japan over the US can be solely attributed to their immigration policy. In the US, natives have to compete for jobs, houses, goods, and everything else against millions of immigrants.
You are absolutely right. There is nothing wrong with Japan.
Some of the other comments at the top are from people living in Japan and they make a similar point. Things are cheap, safe, and affordable for them and not so expensive and out of reach like in the United States for housing.
The one thing I would say the U.S. has over Japan is that because the US is more immigration friendly, it makes up for the low birth rate with immigration, while Japan's population is unfortunately shrinking quite rapidly.
Japan has the lowest rate of violent crime in the world while America has a shooting every day. Japanese people are well educated and healthy.
They do not look down on people who have simple jobs and simple lives, in some ways Japan reminds me of the good aspects of growing up in the 80s.
@@krishutch3d
The collectivistic problem reminds to be a sore thumb in psychology, also the case with the rising of net but lack of prowess to refrain from overuse, global but devastating in japan cuz of well collectivism and the lost generation domino effect, its like gnome. But this is scarier its whole country, good hardware yes. Chip should grow horizontal or bigger tho otherwise itll reach quantum problem nearing planck length in tai wan even with their factory
Japan had overextended itself and suffered for it, but given it's demographic situation, Japan's current existence seems like the best case scenario for countries whose demographics are declining.
Really?? That's what you took from the video.??
Not the US forcing japan to artificially devalue it's currency to support american exports and bring down japanese exports??
Japan is back to normal now
1.2%
It has fight off recession now they need to bring back the yen stronger than before
To do that they need to dump more us treasures
Japan mostly needs 2 things energy and Food independence and that will take at least another 20-25 years to 2050 !
@@yatarookayama8329 Is that even possible? Like even if Japan had the most efficient farms on the planet, would that even be enough to feed all of Japan comfortably without net food or fertilizer imports? Also in what world could Japan become energy independent? None of the materials needed for any mode of energy production exist in Japan in sufficient quantities without imports.
Japan chose to remain a country instead of becoming an economic zone. Good for them
We'll see soon enough
Ask their workers if this economic situation is "good for them".
Are you referencing the whole debate about the H1-B visa that Vivek kicked off?
@@bryancomlor1435 Their “workers” (aka citizens) would rather live in safe communities and enjoy the preservation of their culture
Japan were 20 years ahead in the 1980's and 20 years behind in the 2020's.
LOL, no.
Ever tried to look to the misery of the West today? The 3rd world country levels of crime and the Zimbabwe levels of debt?
Japan is lightyears ahead! Lightyears!
@cristanase6130
Yea the west def have Zimbabwe level of inflation in 2008 at 230 million %
@cristitanase6130 Not exactly, however, America is too spread out and lacks great public infrastructure and don't get me started with house prices.
@@fool-mf6sf The second the Debt stops growing the Currency will fall!
@cristitanase6130 Well yes but actually no...
So i just checked Wikipedia, it said the Plaza accords were to make the American dollar depreciate relative to the Yen which made the US exports more attractive . This is the exact opposite of what this video claims at 4:13 so yeah ooops, slight mistake.
Yes I know :(. Me dumb
yeah i was like...
I show this content and creator itself only copy paste naration without proper depth analysis and proof reading.. Shame on you for misleading by rack up money from adsense and viewers
Yes this was missed. It’s the opposite but the graphics later showed that the yen needed to appreciate against the dollar
ウィキペディア信用してるんだ。日本じゃあんなん1ミリも信用できない
So you’re telling me the downfall began with a “little” intervention from the US…
Did you missed 90 percent of video?
@@jovansingh2134People will ignore the other 90% if it reinforces their pre-existing beliefs.
Sadly, no one wants to learn.
Always the case
Section on the plaza accords was entirely incorrect and most people are misinterpreting it. If not for the US Japan likely never would have recovered from WWII. Even today (older) Japanese people are very friendly to Americans because of it.
You don’t realize how much protectionism went on within Japan… so it was like the US coudnt sell much to Japan but Japan could sell a lot to the US
You seriously misunderstand Japan! I'm telling you this as a westerner who has lived / worked in Japan for about 20 years in business, and owns 2 companies here. Japan is not competing with the US or any other economy. It lives its own life and has found a perfect balance, a perfect way to survive despite any global economic crisis. There is nothing wrong with wages in Japan, they perfectly fit into the lifestyle and cost of living, and even these days Japan is basically immune to the economic problems both Europe and North America (and other western countries/regions) are now facing. It has lived and will live its own life, and will only interact with the outside world, just like it did for centuries. It's a nation of survivors, and it survives on its own terms in its own unique balanced way.
I mostly agree with you. Japan has picked a different economic dynamic. I mentioned something along this line of thought in another comment: Japanese companies have focused less on growth, and more on long term sustained profits (reflected in a consistently flat GDP) to create a consistent and more or less level standard of living. This is in contrast to more western style economies fixated on growth and enrichment. My other counter argument to this video; Japanese companies do adapt and innovate, but differently than companies in the US. Does this comment align with your observations and experience? if not, any additional insight? (I lived in Japan in the 1980s and worked with major Japanese companies on product development from the late 1990s to 2008).
After living there for 9 years, I'd agree with this. Wages don't really increase, but neither do prices. I'd like to settle in an akiya someday. I just hope they don't open the border to whomever wants to come in. I don't know if it's good in the long-run, but overall, it's a gem as it is. I hope they don't get caught up in the never-ending, ever-expanding capitalist economy mindset. I didn't even feel good about teaching English because it promotes western ideas/culture being embedded in the minds of the locals.
@@ItchyKneeSon you do not want them to open their door to whoever want to come in but open them to you! LOL
@@akinoshimo Japanese companies "innovate" in a systematic way, and it's not innovation that we, westerners, think of. In simplified terms, they try to UNDERSTAND how things work, and then either (a) leave them as is, (b) improve them or (c) redo within their understanding. The improvement and re-doing part are often perceived as "Japanese innovation", but it's hardly innovation. The risk aversion is a part of the mentality from early age, when from elementary school you have to write kanji as perfect as possible and a mistake is perceived almost like crime and a personal failure. It develops the mindset of "improvers", not "innovators" or risk-takers. Continuous practice and "muscle-memory" are prioritized. So you are right when describing the long-haul strategy of Japanese companies that focuses on staying afloat, business sustainability and stability, instead of making some bold moves.
@@vincentgranier3126 Exactly, Japan needs to open its borders wider and simplify the visa requirements. It desperately needs both highly qualified labor and workers for service industry. It's changing, but not fast enough.
1:26 The US saw the Zaibatsu structure and thought “yeah we could use some of that back home”
South Korea saw it and said "hold my beer"
@@SuperSmashDolls The two Koreas with their own type of dystopias: 💀
To be fair, Zaibatsu as shown here is not very accurate. What made Zaibatsu (and now Keiretsu) different from a big comglomerate company is the bank inside the subsidiaries. For instance Mitsubishi has Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Mitsui and Sumitomo have Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. The bank inside the Holding is the core of the links.
Plus, these 3 Keiretsu account already for 30% of Japan GDP. No other country (maybe Korea ?) shows this level of dependancy on so few companies.
Not remotely similar, but ok.
@@ShigixSamsung alone is 20-25% of the Korean GDP lol, and that’s one conglomerate without taking into account Hyundai SK LG Lotte etc which are all massive in their own ways
I’m an American office worker living in Japan. The corporate environment commentary is spot on. We the US workers on the project have many more years delivering much larger projects but the JP side constantly insists on doing things their way. They constantly do things in outdated and inefficient ways, not listening to our recommendations, and they wonder why the project is going so poorly lol. That being said, this country in 90% of aspects is better than America, and probably the same when compared to most other countries also. Maybe they have figured out to be great it’s actually not all about the numbers.
This would be most Asian countries.
Counterintuitively efficiency isn't always all good. Japan's consistently low unemployment rate can be attributed in part to widespread "overemployment" practices. It's not the greatest for business, but it's good for societal stability.
Maybe they insist bc they’re tired of colonialists literally 🍄🟫 their country and culture.
What do you propose
That's just corporations in general don't pretend that doesn't happen in the US. You gave Japan a high score yet want it to be like the US. Next you'll want guns too.
While the japanese economy in gdp terms fell alot, for most people in Japan this is not so bad. The focus on GDP growth ignores the good parts of Japan as a country. Today there is quite affordable housing on most cities, excellent public transport and cheap high quality food. While the Japanese working culture is a bit too much, for many people in Asia, being able to work in Japan is seen as a great opportunity.
With some modifications I think the Japanese economy is showing how a country can have high standards of living without having a constantly growing GDP.
denial is your middle name.
@@blackbelt2000 Oh no! They aren't making the next new gadget every 6 months to a year that we can put in a landfill. IPHoNE 25 cOmInG sOon. Better get that Cobolt & lithium poor Africans. 🙄
@@nwilt7114 you miss the point, they aren't able too since they are so far behind. Doesn't matter if they want too or not. :😒
@blackbelt2000 Yeah, they could more than you think; Nintendo, Sony, Toyota (make legit more money than Tesla, not all hype stock), etc..., aren't trying to claim crazy accolades every 6 months or so. However, in your defense, this is probably why Japan lost the computer chip race and basically bowed out.
Yep. People in Japan have a good life. Very low crime rates, very low homelessness, low unemployment, some of the longest life expectancies in the world, excellent cuisine, and affordable good-quality healthcare.
This youtube channel is run by investment bankers and private equity. They follow the mantra of 'endless GDP growth forever' because that's what's good for shareholders, regardless of the cost to society.
It's so refreshing and beneficial to watch a video like this as a Chinese person. Over the past 15 years, the Chinese have been busy with real estate speculation, and young people are forced to bear lifetime loans from banks. This has caused weak domestic demand and dragged the economy into a situation Japan has been facing for years. Humans never took a lesson from history.
Yes, I do see the same happening to China as well. And unfortunately, that's the best case scenario.
Thank you so much for the comment! We are contemplating making a video on the situation in china.
One of the biggest things we have been trying to communicate on our channel is that real estate speculation is one of the most dangerous activities for an economy.
@@2and20 Have you make videos on California, Canada, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, UK?
@@rivertonhigh-v4t we had made a video on Canada, Australia and the US (which can be seen on our channel). We have also made a video on Brexit (i.e. the UK). We are contemplating California and other countries too. Thank you for the suggestions!
@@2and20The problem China is facing is way more challenging. The population is rapidly aging, the birth rate is plunging, and the international environment is getting tougher with the looming Trump presidency. seems like the whole country has been taken hold by defeatism.
Love this channel! It’s rarely pointed out just how catastrophic rampant real estate speculation is for an economy.
Thank you so much!
Real estate speculation is (in my view) a terrible terrible thing. Land is a non productive asset and constrained. In lieu of checks and balances it can lead to extremely negative outcomes.
Henry George and Adam Smith both wrote about this, but for some reason modern capitalists ignore there warnings.
@@2and20 "For some reason" because they are in it, and if the system changes they might not come out on top. If their even is a top once workers get it
Someday a nation will be clever enough to make laws that effectively prohibit real estate speculation forever, and those people will enjoy a very very long period of prosperity.
Unfortunately, no one will try to fix the system until it reaches its limits. The middle class, with its power families and its accomplices. There is a pattern in human history where this problem escalates into war before it becomes visible.
No one fixes the system until it reaches a critical point or until it reaches them. Henry George is not perfect, but he has raised the issue. Many have ignored the structural problems of the system because they do not seem to be an immediate problem and they seem to be hindering progress.
@@2and20the truth is, the group of people who hate capitalism the most tends to be capitalists. Every capitalist in their heart wants to be king, to have absolute power with no competition.
There are 4 economies: 1) developed 2) un-developed 3) Argentina 4) Japan.
*because Venezuela doesn't even qualify as an economy, it is a funeral.
Today is japans worst generation. As Japanese, I am so pissed off at Japan, the people and the government for being so lazy, stupid, and not getting us out of deflation and lost decades. I am awaiting news that Japan is back and is set to dominate once again, I am sick of hearing news of declining population, sluggish growth, export decline shit
sadly, it seems like the only way for the Japanese government to abandon their archaic ways of doing things is for the country to go bankrupt.
そんな日本の事憂いてるなら政治家になってよ
So basically just like Germany, where politicians are busier suing average citizens who speak out against them and their policies…
Not just that, Americans government in the 80s interfear Japan's economy so basically if America haven't interfear it's trade economy. Japan wouldn't be in this situation
@@user-vz5gi5tw9xでもそういうのが起こらないのですよ。外国に逃げるしかない。
I see a lot of people criticising Japanese culture here (probably people who had bad experiences in Japan) but I would like to think that even these bad side of Japanese culture plays important role to uphold culture which is disciplined and polite to others. Every culture has its own bad side and good side and they are there because of the other.
They badmouth it because they want it be like the rest of the world. Japan is unique and highly praised because of how it is. Yes there are some changes that need to be made. However I don't agree with making it like the western worlds.
So in Europe they did the opposite: "Saving" the banks, quantative easing and mass immigration. Leading to high inflation, high crime rates, housing crisis and a collapsing pension system.
Rising taxes and crony capitalism Europe did the same, together with reducing the quality of school education so that everyone can feel good.
The government is the problem, not the solution.
14:11 : that little shop is still standing as of 2024. It's located near by Tamagawa Station, and the previous shot with the kids is also the park alongside the Tama river nearby. Just like many of these small shops, it's still "in business" because of the value of the land and the cash the owners have been holding on forever.
what an excellent video!!! I have been researching on the fall of Japan's economy at university which is very complicated , i read books and listened from the lecturers about it a lot, but didn't grasp clearly at all. Thanks to this video, i understood it more. Thank you.
Hey, same here! I'm also researching on the downfall of Japan's economy for my uni, cheers!
Japan is 30 years ahead of other developed countries. The US and Germany are going through the same thing now. The Japanese government bailed out the banks in the 90s, the US government did the same in 2008. Democracy is being replaced by Oligarchy. This leads to economic stagnation.
America lets in immigrants. They are one of the greatest strengths to our economic, cultural, and military might. As long as we don't have an ignorant population that fails to recognize this and votes in some kind of crazy political leaders we should be good.
I felt the same for years
I second what @hanaporter said.
I also live in japan and with all these japanese economic crisis videos, i have yet to see any of them mention the effects on its citizens. Which is surprisingly mostly positive.
Jobs are plenty, housing is cheap and affordable. Food is also affordable. Living here is more than comfortable.
My salary is average but i can rent an entire house by myself and pay my bills and still have more than half of my salary left for savings and whatever i want to spend money on.
Another great video! You deserve WAY more subs!
Thank you! This means a lot to us! If you liked it please share with others who you think would appreciate this sort of analysis :-)
All these metrics and percentages don't really tell the full story. Cost of living in Japan is low, housing is cheap, and a lot of people love living in Japan. So what is some metric like their workforce is declining? Not everything is just a number on a spreadsheet. You have to actually go out and see the world for yourself. You can't learn everything from TH-cam documentaries.
The LDP is probably the major contributor to the problems, but they rarely get a mention. Japan has had pretty much a conservative government continuously since it became a democracy. Maybe this is what needs to change.
Arggggg! I'm tired of these videos that concentrate on the asset numbers and fail to see the high quality and stability of life here, which has been constant throughout the so called lost decades. An overheated market gains trillions of dollars in unreasonable asset values, so setting the peak as the baseline and crying about trillions from the peak is totally ridiculous. Despite all this "stagnation", Japan's economy ran at healthy surplus every year until the 2011 tsunami hit, and the main reason for subsequent deficits has been the need to import coal and gas after suddenly shutting all the nuclear power plants. Yes, there are issues, but they are nowhere as bad as these videos make out
dude, i know someone who used to live there, and it's way worse than you'd think, if they were more open to new solutions, they could fix their population decline which is set to lose 30 percent of their people by 2050
@skippyzk because japan is so urban, so the goverment needs a lot of people to run their urban economy
The video vilifies the governments too much imho, the corporate culture is just as guilty. But what you describe (essentially high standards of living) is a result of the fact that Japan entered the lost decades from a very high point, essentially that of the economy with the highest income. It has been losing ground but remains in a decent place because the starting point was so good. If nothing changes they are however doomed to drop even further. Semiconductors, Electric vehicles, AI, Japan is lagging everywhere. But when I was a very young child in the late ‘80s, Japan was the pinnacle of hi tech. That being said there are good aspects of not having a diverse population, which is internal stability and low crime rates.
Indeed, the video is highly speculative and their only "solution" is as always mass migration!
日本に住んでなくて知らないくせに動画もコメントもこんな言いようをして腹が立つ
This is actually true. I once worked in a japanese company in my country. Reluctant to try new ideas, old fashioned concepts, rigid company policies, red tape etc. My company had always japanese CEOs since the 80s. At one time an 'outsider' Singaporean CEO was elected just before Covid. He had new ideas. Made bold moves that work. Invest more on brand recognition through bold publicity stunts. However the japan HQ didnt like it. They didnt renew his contract. He was the reason why the company survived during covid. Now the company is back to 'boring' business ways.
0:45 I think there are two issues here:
1) The start of your x-axis in the graph in the 1900 but I think you meant it to be 1990.
2) The Y-axis has "K" but 632,000-818,000 JPY is not accurate as a yearly wage. The source material was very likely using 万 (10,000) as 6.32 to 8.18 million JPY is an accurate yearly wage.
Yes we are aware! We noticed the mistake too late and decided to publish. Thank you for letting us know though!
One of the most beautiful countries, they do not suffer from immigrants, and everything is affordable for them, unlike what we have in the west
Hold on, the workforce is shrinking, yet those workers find it *harder* to get jobs? That's MADNESS!
It's a pendulum effect. When the population shrinks, companies find it hard to find workers, wages spike for a few years, companies find it too expensive and relocate resource fulfillment to cheaper countries, jobs get rarer yada yada yada
@@slayergutin Japan they are hiring Vietnamese as “interns”
Many companies are closing factories in China
@@slayergutmake super sense
@@nobody-xg8ep a guy claiming to be japanese said there are no shortage of jobs
@@md.ahnafbinmatiur8481 white colar job? yes blue collar no, im just a poor human from a 3rd world country and every physical labor job is available , and get the same salary of everyone average 200k yen except for those who has high ranking job
I don’t think Japan not letting in immigrants from the global south was a bad thing. I experienced mass immigration in France, and it was not a good thing.
We aren’t suggesting that. Watch our immigration video
UK, Germany, Italy, US, Switzerland say hello, meanwhile Japan is for the most part safer and receives high praise for it's people and culture.
Do you think that maybe there is a correlation with their sinking economy with the better quality of life as compared to other countries? There a portion in the video that mentioned increased investments on rural areas compared to urban, but it seems as though it did improve the quality of a lot of lives. People aren't in complete poverty, its very safe, and there is a lot of public infrastructure. I know that this video is soley focused on the economy, but it seems as though the quality of life (maybe not for the Japanese office workers) is greatly increased.
That's what I don't understand about videos like this. Are they talking about the economy not growing relative to what they once were? Are they talking about borrowing too much foreign money and not being able to pay it back? Are they talking about people having less access to burrow money and less buying power? Are they talking about crashing values on their assets relative to foreign markets/their own? When people talk about a bad economy It's hard to understand it fully, when most people in Japan seem to be living fairly comfortable and convenient lives. Is it just a cultural thing or not as bad as they make it out to be. 🤷♂️ We don't exactly see famine and unrest in Japan. 🤷♂️
Quality of life is relative. Basic infrastructure still functions and crime is low. But many young Japanese can barely afford their homes, let alone to start a family. Most workers are part timers and temp workers with no real benefits. Workers work long hours, with nonexistent work-life balance, but wages are stagnant, and there's no real opening for advancement. Japan only looks okay because its still clean and shiny. Underneath the surface is a whole host of problems.
@1000rogueleader America's not much better to the average young person. Japan has better public infrastructure because its population centers are more dense. America could give a crap less because we built most of it around automobile travel for the past 70 years. Homes are more expensive in America than Japan because we treat them like investments and have regulations and lobbyists in major cities that fight against building more affordable housing to keep their property value high. The average millennial can't afford the average house price in America, and many are starting to live with their parents for years before they possibly are able to move out. Plus, crime is worse in America overall. However, crime can vary from place to place. Typically, the more blue (as in liberal) your city is, the more crime-ridden it is because of less regulation and prosecution.
That's really good point. Even though Japanese economy is not competitive as before, Japan is still a safe and clean country. The quality of life in Japan is not bad.
I think this video is about stagnation and lost opportunities after a massive economic progress ... It is so strange that a country functions with a debt of 300% to its GDP.
It's easy to blame the Japanese for "mistakes", but the reality is often simpler than it looks:
- Singapore as an English colony and trading port is very good at communication. They make money by being a financial hub.
- Taiwan makes money by being flexible and investing into being THE leader in semiconductors, basically inventing their own natural resource.
1. Japan "trick" was to have monopoly in bulk manufacturing electronics. They got ludicrously rich during that period.
2. Monopoly later ended as other countries like China wanted a piece of the pie. They couldn't do anything about that. The goose with the golden eggs was gone.
3. Japanese haven't found a new trick to boost their economy. They don't have natural resources to export, they are not great at communication, and aren't as flexible to create some magical innovation.
4. It's still a strong country that smartly invested their riches in advanced infrastructures and very high standards of living, higher than most western countries, exactly because they were strict on immigration and kept their society largely homogeneous. It's much cleaner and safer living in Japan than living in Germany. Their traditions and culture are intact and their life expectancy is the highest in the world. Was it worth it over having short term slight economy boosts that would quickly fade away unless they keep replacing their population with immigrants in uncontrollable scale that would inadvertently alter their way of life? Probably yes.
Okay, but the fact that the US and their allies threatened Japan into devaluation of their currency under threat of sanctions was probably the biggest factor here.
@@alexandrep4913 How would those pesky facts advance his "Japan great because homogenous and no immigration" talking point though?
Although I'm largely sympathetic to your assessment, the missing piece from your analysis is this: how much will their way of life be altered by having collapsing communities all around the country and unsustainably high public debt with no hope of ever paying it back due to lack of workers? I would argue that the world you extol is just another, different form of "short-term focus", which is enjoyable while it lasts, but is creating another bubble that is unsustainable and eventually burst. And this bubble isn't a housing bubble, it's a human bubble -- much more severe.
You're using the word monopoly very incorrectly. Toyota selling competitive cars in the marketplace isn't a monopoly at all. You have a very poor grasp of economics. For other additional reasons I don't care to explain.
I don't think the Japanese are all that bad (aside from their government and banks), it's just you need to know what you're getting into. That's one thing I have learned while working at a Japanese manufacturer.
The issue they have with foreigners is that they aren't raised in their culture. While bring in new ideas is a very good thing, foreign workers tend to also want to do things they way they have always done. Making a cohesive company culture much harder. Add all the Japanese cultural protocols and traditions it's almost impossible for a foreigner to be part of the overall culture. Even if they are born there, they are looked at as being foreign. It's a mess, yes, but I can understand the japanese reluctance.
this video is really great like always keep up the good work
Making this about immigration is disingenuous
This is the most annoying comment. We are not making this about immigration! Watch our video on immigration and that will be clear.
People like you hear immigration and get all worked up for no reason. The point being made is simply this: a country with a rapidly aging population cannot have both a culture that makes it impossible to have kids and an anti immigration stance. As such, fix the culture!!!
@@2and20Funny how that’s the same idea of corporations that have zero ethics of using low, almost slave like labor of developing countries for economic profit.
Now that these corporations have outsourced cheaper labor and don’t have to worry about ethics in safe work environments or environmental issues by shipping them over seas.
They now need to try and lower the cost of labor with in the counties they operate in.
In Japan, talking about money in the family is a taboo. They need to fix that first and foremost!! How can you make economy great when you cannot freely discuss about wages, income and expenditures etc? You can’t! You can’t ignore stuff in private and rely on businesses to fix it.
CORRECT!!!!!
Great video but maybe abit too negative? Japan still an advanced, high income country with a widely admired culture. Demographics is its biggest issue but far from alone in the developed world on that front or in east Asia in particular. The level of immigration needed to offset the low birthrate would be near impossible to achieve culturally for an East Asian state.
Thank you!
Possibly. Japan is in a decent spot but we think of Japan as lost potential.
I am sorry to tell you this bud but everybody knows for a fact for a long time that Japan is not advanced anymore. They were couple decades ago however everything vanished after they decided that they should not change a strategy and all their "advanced technologies" are nothing more than just a pieces of metal compared to what china and us produce. People be using fax here which is absolute bizarre.I disagree about high income as well, because average income of around 1500 usd is considered to be pretty less compared to the rest of the world.
@@2and20they're still doing better than America
Yes, people think of immigration as a solution but ignore how much it damages the culture of countries that have to accept it, like those in western Europe, as well as how much friction it causes.
@Sgkhjj Immigration built America and gave us the cultures we now see as out own lol.
Sure, immigration causes friction. It always has. Americans used to hate Italians and the Irish. Seriously, they were treated like second class citizens. The same applied to the Chinese and various Jewish populations. And look at us now. They have merged their culture with ours and we just take it for granted that we have so many different holidays, architectural styles, foods, and regional differences. Immigration always benefits in the long term.
i like the style you create the videos , keep it up
economics aside, the issue with population that people overlook is japan as a whole, or even just tokyo has a higher population than most other countries, for comparison, japan is roughly the same geographic size as california, but people dont live on mountains, and japan is mostly mountains. japan has 4 times the population in the same area as california.
the issue is that the ones who suffer arent the 60 year olds +, its the 20-40 year olds who are forced to pay high taxes on low wages to support a larger generation who had all the benefits of the 80s economy.
but yes, japan is behind on its immigration policies and doesnt have dual citizenship and other issues. but focusing on japan vs focusing on your own country is just another buzz topic for clickbait.
What a ridiculous video. Any video that says Japan should open its borders like the West has is insane!
That’s not what we said nor what we believe. Watch our video on immigration and you’ll see how moronic your statement is.
We are simply saying a country that has such a terribly work culture that makes it impossible for people to have families cannot have 0 immigration because the population will collapse. If it wants no immigration it needs to make it easier for locals to have families
@@2and20Why didn't you say that then? You never said they need to make it easier to have a family, you said immigration was needed. Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the world and high trust in its citizens because they are morally & culturally aligned. Immigration IS NOT the answer, policy and cultural shift towards baby making a family building is.
I am a Japanese person currently living in Canada. When carefully observing Japan, there exists an extractive structure similar to countries like China, and many Japanese people don’t even question it.
This sadly supports the arguments made by Acemoglu in ‘Why nations fail.’
That’s why I fled from Japan.
And is Canada a better place to live than Japan? I frequently see on the internet from Canadians that the living costs are excessively expensive, especially the rents. In my case, I left Japan for Germany, but now I have decided to go back. These days, I reckon the whole world is in decline. Japan seems to be a relatively more attractive place than current Europe from my perspective. What say you?
@@VoeloksasI’m not the commenter but I am Canadian and while things are expensive, it is nice to live here. There’s many places to go, fresh air, lots of nature, etc. Life here got more expensive after Covid-19 though (like many other places) and the job market is tough. I will be honest and say that big cities in Japan have so much to do & cost of living is much better in Japan in general. Plus Japan is so convenient and the technology there is amazing! I think in some ways Canada is better and in some ways Japan is better.
@@Voeloksas what made you leave germany?
Cost of living?
What is an extractive structure?
@@munalisaaa8560Im living in Japan for si long that I dont understand when other ppl say the technology here is great, could you give me some examples please?
I always see ppl in the west paying everything with apple pay and having an app for banking etc, it looks much more advanced than what we have in here
Japan would cease to be Japan if it accepted large numbers of migrants, just look what happened to the UK - a complete trainwreck.
I hope the Japanese people will survive and keep their unique culture and national pride intact.
i agree. diversity is not a strength
It's actually kind of untrue to say that they limit immigration, they don't do anything in that regard, no, what keeps immigration down is language. And this is a two way situation, first up not many people there speak English, most do learn a form of japanized English that's too textbooky and formal and just not English and more like a set of broken sentences and premade conversations. And this is because they simply don't need to know it. And then there's the opposite side, learning Japanese, it isn't hard but it's time consuming, most languages are like that, but japanese is special with it's writing system that makes no sense, when you first look at it you learn there's two alphabets(one solely for foreign words) and the imported chinese characters and you think 'eh it looks like it's a lot but it can't be that bad or worse than chinese', but then you learn the chinese characters aren't used like how they were intended to so instead of one character having one meaning, it has multiple, which it depends by origin be it chinese or japanese, and then reading can differ even within the same meaning so the best approach is to learn how to write a word after you learn the word itself. And then there's also the different sentence structure that poses difficulty together with keigo or polite speak, yeah speaking politely can be it's own language sometimes, which don't play well with the textbook learning methods that are being taught across the world, but these are easily solved when learning like a baby through immersion. So yeah, it's the language barrier.
I think you confusing migrants with illegal migrants and their is huge deffirence between the two
@@vali69 What are you talking about? Japan is legendary for how difficult it is to get a work visa there. Literally one of the most difficult countries in the world for which to get a visa, lol.
Migration is fine if it is legal and skills based. UK is being flooded with unskilled young illegal migrants looking handouts who do not integrate.
日本に住んでて日本の文句を言う外国人。
アメリカに移民してアメリカの文句を言う移民。
なんか似てるよね。
大抵はどこの出身か書いてないけど（そもそも日本に住んでるかも怪しい）、
「自分の貧しい国に帰って発展させて、日本以上の先進国にしたらいいのに」
といつも思う。
Looking back as an American I would rather have been ruled by the Japanese than the Chinese.
Japan... Has always been really good at one thing; progressing at a skill trade. However, that is all. They aren't very good at leading themselves because Japan doesn't allow for growing true leadership. TH-camrs can run for mayor or whatever. Why is it not someone who has actually led a team, for starters? Why is it that the threshold for making it in is "popularity"? Of course, it's a voting system. But given how much Japan values hard work, it just baffles me how they keep making the craziest decisions when it comes to politics. It feels like they're a total joke.
From the video, it seems that they just allocate money and don't necessarily try to do anything productive with it. Then there are companies. Those companies really piss me off. You hear it all the time. No overtime pay, expected to work overtime, shamed if don't, company is your life, and wage is not adequate. I've seen stories on reddit of how foreigners are treated. It's so stupid how these companies can think of such diabolical schemes, yet when it comes to doing any good, brain empty.
Why get angry about something like that when you do not live here? I'm assuming you don't live here (in Japan) since you just talked about Reddit and not your personal experience. Reddit is not really a good place to get information. It is very unbalanced.
The whole time I was thinking how Japan’s economy in the 90s feels like Canada today…and then he said it, loud and clear at the end
Haha there are definitely similarities
Yes...work culture needs drastic change in Japan. It's almost 2025. Stop the old and wrong work culture. Also dont force employees to work overtime.
In certain sectors...introduce 4 day work week, invest advanced R&D, let companies fail who can't perform and new companies rise. These are some of the solutions. AI can help japan a lot.
I read Japanese job adverts and they trumpet "112 DAYS HOLIDAY EACH YEAR!!!!!111!!" Yet, read further, and what they mean is a normal Mon-Fri week, with 52 weekends off, and 8 additional days. "112 DAYS HOLIDAY A YEAR" actually means..... *EIGHT* days. :P
Some Japanese really like overtime because the pay isn't very good. So the extra money really helps.
@@JourneyTHistory Then increase the Pay
Let's start with 5 day work week, yes legally Japan is still having 6 day work weeks and Saturday is being treated as a company welfare.
wrong. Japan's economy is in decline not because of the working environment, but rather because the Japanese have stopped working. The average Japanese person currently works less hours than the average for OECD countries. When the Japanese economy was booming, such as during the period of high economic growth and the bubble economy, Japanese people worked far more than they do today. And as Japan's working environment improved, the economy declined, and so did the birth rate. The more Japan imitates the West, the worse the situation will get. Former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka was right when he said that "Japan has no resources, but the people are its resources, so the Japanese must work hard". The only way to maintain the Japanese economy is for the Japanese to keep working.
Comprehensive and well-informed. Wow. Keep up the good work. 🙏🏻
Thank you means the world!!!
14:35 That is not the definition of insanity, and land is not only a real investment, it's one of the best investments. You're wrong on too many things to take seriously.
❤
possibly the best content creator focused on economics.
loved it.
Wow that’s high praise! Thank you so much, means the world :)
This video is pretty good overall but fell a bit sideways at the end
- immigration is not a solution to Japan’s stagnant economy. Currently the country is issuing working permits to a large number of southeast Asian workers and this is visible. But low wage workers do not prop up an entire economy. Immigration of different talents like tech (hardware and software) with much higher paying jobs will help but still can only do so much
- the triumvirate as you called out largely still exists. I told a Japanese friend unless you current ruling generation all die you will see no change. The culture also by design discourages out of the box thinking. An old saying goes the nail that stands out needs to be hammered down
To me the second point is the lion share of the problem
Thank you for the thoughtful comment! I agree on both points and if you watch our last video which is on immigration you would see that we are aligned in our thinking.
But tech does not pay too well in Japan, my company hires a lot of foreigners, mostly Chinese and Korean new grads with CS degree and they all start wtih about 3 million JPY a year, which is above national average I suppose, but most of them easily bullied into 50+ hours of overtime with no compensation. Our free overtime policy is 40 hours and HR can work the other 10+ hours into things like extra days off, so in the end of the day if you count their hourly earning they aren't doing so great.
Software engineer in Japan here, 100% agree but the thing is tech workers like me get paid very little compared to back in the UK. Our jobs ain't seen as prestigious like in the states either. As the only foreigner in my company the younger workers tell me all their problems and you can see how the older generation is pushing their weight on them. What's being said about the recent immigration is also true, those that are coming here do not respect the culture at all. I was on a train coming back from finishing a JLPT and although the Japanese levels of everyone on the train was fairly high the people didn't care about Japanese norms, eating on the train and playing TH-cam videos on full volume.
@@yifanpan2138national average household income is 5.2 M yen.
Exactly "An old saying goes the nail that stands out needs to be hammered down" -- both Chinese and Japanese ahve told me this :) :)
4:13 the script (not just the visual) is also missleading. The JPY had to appreciate, not depreciate as per your video.
Look at our pinned comment, we addressed this!
Is it really terrible?. Maybe it just the way we measure success.
Not everything is about economic impact.
The average person seems to be doing better than most of America.
Corporate culture sucks everywhere. So many products I own are made in japan ( cars, TVs, etc ) but literally nothing I have is made in America.
Fortunately there is a new generation of younger Japanese that are challenging the traditional norms - when it comes to work, social and more. We see a lot of it in the arts, literature, music and films.
It’s not perfect but they’re somewhat self aware
True, but hikikomorism has been around for decades. And other countries are following suit.
I hope that the manner in which they challenge traditional Japanese norms is not by adopting Western values without question. It's possible to rebel in a way that's still Japanese, and preserves the good aspects of the culture while learning from the good of the West and avoiding the ill. Of which currently there is a lot of in the West.
'The arts, literature, music and films' can enhance an economy on a national level but they can't drive it.
As a Canadian I can whole-heartedly agree that being in a small box is a recipe for future disaster.
@@linesided like reddit or Bluesky 🤣
@21Kikoshi When I think of America's economy. I think..... At least we're not Canada yet.
Your country is huuuge, you're just not taking advantage of its potential.
@@CheezeBreaux I think the small box is more political than the destroy nature part for shops and entertainment 😅
@@21Kikoshi I am talking about their external politics, not about bombing Alberta for some tons of minerals.
Calling closed borders a mistake is manipulation. Indeed, economy may not grow, however at least the population is not getting poorer due to influxes of cheap labour unable to assimilate.
We've made this mistake in Western Europe, and now economy was growing but we are poorer than 40 years ago.
Congratulations to Japan for avoiding at least this problem.
For the rest of their economy however, it does need some significant reforms.
Lmao blaming immigration for Europe's atrocious economic policies is so weak. Maybe taxing everything at 50% is the issue. America has tmsome if the highest immigration yet is the richest.
The UK is suffering from this. We have a real estate bubble that refuses to burst because the government insists on importing a quarter of a million new people from poor countries every year, enough to fill a small city every single year, encouraging people on work visas to bring their entire extended families over, meanwhile we simply don't build enough housing for all these people. It's great for the richest members of society who are able to exploit the cheap labour and rising land values, but bad for the other 90% of the population. And also bad for the countries of origin too, because they're often losing their most skilled and motivated workers, which hurts their economy. Often these new people come from countries that lack the same liberal Western values we take for granted.
At the very least, Japan 'solved' their real estate bubble by tweaking interest rates and refusing to adopt the same open border polices of the US, Canada, Western Europe and Australasia. As a result, Japan - despite its economic problems - is a high-trust society, one of the safest countries in the world, has a very low homelessness rate, and lacks the social decay seen in the West.
@@Luke-tt3dt 💀 I fear you might have a very glossed up view of Japan, and "social decay" just sounds like a dog-whistle for racial purity type shit. Also, immigrants are integral for jobs that no white person wants to do, especially at wages that they would never entertain. The real blame is upon the UK government for failing to adequately implement policies that support middle income livelihood, and enabling private firms to control the supply and pricing of housing.
@@Luke-tt3dt Lol, saying that Japan solved the housing bubble is like saying that a pilot of an airplane that crashed solved the problem of the flight taking too long.
You’re not even Western European. Dont worry no one is moving to Poland.
U.S. basically did too well in recovering Japan's post-war economy. Had to reign them in a little bit. But that's not the reason Japan's economy hasn't stabilized.
Japans fine. US been doing the same BS but is in an even more advance state of decay. The difference is the Japanese still protect and value their traditions and moral values.
Such a wrong take in many points! It was like watching a neoliberal capitalist wet dream about how neoliberalism is superior to any economic system. Just another dime-a-dozen Japan video.
Explain how my points are wrong specifically. Dont just “name call”, that’s what lazy people who think they’re smart do. Get into the arena with your ideas
@@2and20 First of all the Plaza Accord was just an ask by the US to lower the interest rate of Japan to 2.5 percent and keep the there for a few years because the dollar was overvalued.
Second “citizens and companies” didn’t dive head first to stocks and RE speculation. The central bank of Japan the BoJ, told all the banks in Japan to use their “window guidance”loan quotas. Bank loan officers literally begged citizens and companies to invest in RE and stocks because they have to use “all” their loan target in order to not lose their ranking in Japan’s “War Economic System”, the Japanese Style Economic System, with the “Window Guidance” as a monetary policy tool. Profits lure copycats, that’s why everybody did it. The “government” as you said did not encourage it. Banks didn’t just let anybody borrow money, they accepted “land and stocks” as collateral. Land and stocks at the early stage was not overinflated as you said. It became overinflated because the banks kept lending people money, from 1982-1989. It was not “overnight”. Since land is fixed in Japan and people competing for the same stocks, the price have to rise.
Third raising “interest rates” do not correlate to market cooldown. It doesn’t matter if you raised the interest rate if the banks keeps allowing people to borrow money, and making people think they can pay it. Or lower it but if the banks don’t lend money to speculators.
The MoF didn’t “restrict” RE loans. That’s when the BoJ stopped creating money for the banks for people to borrow. The MoF thought by raising interest they could stop the land and asset price rise discouraging speculators. That’s their “only” power. They foolishly believe interest rate raising or lowering as a monetary policy tool is enough to control the economy. They didn’t know BoJ was creating money behind their back.
Fourth what really followed was not “policy missteps, hesitations and missed opportunities”.
The BoJ “intentionally” did not create credit for decades to help the economy. For the banks, for the people and for the companies.
The stimulus package did not work because all the government did was issue government bonds. That meant borrowing from the private sector to “help” the private sector firms. It did not create “new” purchasing power and new money. All it did was take “money” from the economy. It was not backed by credit creation which “only” the BoJ can do. The “recovery signs” in 1997 was when BoJ created credit for a time “briefly”.
The consumption tax increase happened because the government is not earning enough revenue to fund the fiscal budget.
The public works was just another fiscal stimulus package. It has nothing to do with “productivity” or political interest. The yen was strong hence exports were declining because they were expensive to buy. The last tool the MoF decided to use was foreign exchange intervention. They thought that if they bought US dollars that it would strengthen the dollar and make the yen weaker. It didn’t because the FED printed money faster than the BoJ. What’s worse, BoJ sold government bonds to the private sector companies then implemented the foreign exchange intervention. Even worst still, BoJ took even “more” government bonds than needed, again sold it to private firms then implemented the FX intervention. All it does is take money from the economy. The BoJ did not lower the interest rate, they were “ordered” by the MoF. Prices then deflated because nobody really can afford anything. 200,000 businesses filed for bankruptcies then. There were no jobs because companies couldn’t afford them and the BoJ failed to create credit for the banks so the businesses can borrow money so they don’t have to file for bankruptcy which in turn will create the jobs needed so more people can pay tax revenues to the government. And with troubled times even people with money chose not spend it.
LOL. That Iron Triangle is “not” crony capitalism. That’s the “War Economic System”, the Japanese Style Economic system of Japan using the famed “Window Guidance” as the monetary policy tool. That’s the one that brought the so called “Economic Miracle” of Japan. The one where America said is more dangerous than the Cold War USSR Soviet Russia. You know who “ran” that economy? Former “Authoritarian War Planners”, the true supporters of Imperial Japan and WW2. You’re confusing the 2 economic model that Japan followed. The War Economy and the Neoliberal(US style free market capitalism) economy. The corporate giants that you’re describing as “slow, outdated and unwilling to adapt” is still placing Japan either 3rd or 4th in GDP rankings. A country with almost to nothing natural resources. They have to buy every raw materials to have their industries. Do you think American corporations are less monopolistic than Japanese corporations?
Fact is immigration did nothing for the countries that adopted the policy. Do America want immigrants? LOL. How about UK? Do they love immigrants? How about Canada? Hmm? I’ve heard they’re deporting immigrants like everyone. How about Europe? With right wing political parties winning left and right. How about Australia and New Zealand? Are they accepting more immigrants? That’s a big NO!
But when talk of immigrants concerning Japan everybody keeps saying, Oh.. they’re homogenous society, they don’t like immigrants. They’re xenophobic and racist.
Like every neoliberal capitalist country the immigrants are nothing but a source of cheap slave labor. There’s no “labor shortage” it’s just “wage suppression”. Capitalist companies in any country don’t want to pay a living wage.
The Japan you’re describing and seeing in your video is just like any another “neoliberal” country. Where shareholders demand maximum profits above anything else. There’s is nothing special about Japan. The rich people of Japan couldn’t care less if their population declines. Japan is as “CAPITALIST” as every country who is.
@@2and20🐓!!!
Out of curiosity how many economic systems do you think there are?
@skippyzkTo be fair healthcare and the standard of living is better in the usa
Growth isn't always something good. You can't see the stability and relatively equal quality of life they have? You don't have abandoned neighbourhoods or rotting slums in Japan like there is in neoliberalist USA. Their economy has challenges but it is far from awful. Managing those problems is far better than finding use in keeping high numbers of your population in painful poverty. Model of infinite growth isn't sustainable, even worse when it is fast and consistent growth - extract every tiny bit of value to the bone and the faster you extract the sooner you get to the breaking point. Last time this was done was how capitalists found themselves in the gallows at the hands of fascists and communists. Correct criticisms but the emotions are too american-centric.
There are literally swathes of abandoned cities and homes in Japan…
@@2and20 sure but people don't have to live in them like it is in the US, people are adequately housed elsewhere. There are still plenty of unseen homeless but even their living standards are by far better than the rotting zombies in america streets. But swathes, I can't agree, random lots in the countryside is not the same as a dead city blocks because of callous administration.
I'll take economic illiteracy for 200.
@@marthas9255it’s 1,000 times better to be a homeless “net cafe refugee” in Japan than homeless on the streets in the USA/Canada/UK/Australia. I slept at a net cafe in Nagoya a few months ago because I missed a train, it wasn’t bad at all.
@@homeworkshopheros4576 No doubt, it is much more doable. I was able to stretch out a 500 yen coin for a good number of meals of canned vegetables etc. (it's about 3 USD now, a few bucks get you practically nothing).
Japan currently has a labor shortage in comparison to its industrial size, which has led to debates regarding immigration.
However, in the near future of despair, when many human jobs will be replaced by AI due to the development of technology, if Japan maintains its industrial scale and suffers from an even more severe labor shortage than it currently has, the situation will be reversed. It will be a chance.
In other words, in such an era, there would be chaos all over the world, but Japan, in contrast, could be one of the rare countries best able to take advantage of the benefits of AI technology while limiting the rise in unemployment.
What do you think of this claim?
High taxation is the problem. Cut all taxes or eliminate most of the taxes, and Japan will come roaring back to innovation and prosperity!
Japan's economy is fine, still 4th in the world. Their debts are in yen, so are effectively debt free. And they are letting in more foreigners than ever (seriously, it's all Chinese and Indians over there IYKYK), they'll be fine.
You're looking at it backwards. Their debts are overwhelmingly to domestic banks, that's true. But that makes it WORSE. That means that if the Japanese government welches on its debt, it's banks IN JAPAN that will take the hit, not foreign banks. This will directly harm the Japanese economy. It would actually be better if all their debt was owned by China or something. In that case, they could just shrug, not pay, and aside from losing the goodwill of Chinese investors, nobody in Japan would be harmed by the default. But as it is, the Japanese government cannot afford to default without directly devastating their own economy.
@StochasticUniverse Your argument makes no sense. Japanese institutions will keep buying Japanese government debt and the Japanese government will never ever default because they can always print more yen. Japanese banks (or any other institutions for that matter) will not take any hits on yen denominated debt. Ever. National debt should be calculated net of sovereign debt frankly. Japan is and always will be absolutely fine. Anything else (including this video) is just brain dead, misinformed, idiotic fear mongering
"Their debts are in yen, so are effectively debt free.", good say, I belive so.
Awesome video @2and20 thanks for sharing! Love your content
Interesting insights on Japan, such an iconic place, the working age population segment was such an important metric for their overall population.
Keeping it coming with the content & best of luck on the channel!!
Thank you so much for the kind words! And we are happy you enjoyed the video. If there are topics that you think we should explore moving forward please let us know :-)
Still one of the safest places in the world
They used to say that about Sweden.
@@rivertonhigh-v4tand then the Muslims appeared
For now.....
I mean, if you are not an Ainu or Okinawan, sure.
If you are japanese, yes. But try being non japanese and you quickly realise the justice system is riggedm
The best thing about Japan is listening to all the Westerners who busted a nut to come live here and then immediately do nothing but complain about the place.... as well as racing into every Japan-related content so they can tell everyone they live here.
Wait so did it get this right? Japan was too successful and the USA was like… “bro can you be less successful?.
Japan: “Ok, hold my beer let me screw the economy real quick.”
USA: “thanks bro appreciated it.”
Japan: “Anytime.”
Japan prioritized their culture and their way of doing things. And they "sacrifized" being the numer 1 economy in the world. Instead, they are the 3rd or the 4th, they have an homogeneous pupulation, clean cities, no crime, no racial problems...
The problems they have, we already have too. Similar ones at least.
But they are still living IN Japan and we are not longer living in Europe/USA.
Nice work! As a young Japanese, I am already looking for another country to settle😂
and I'm looking to migrate to Japan :) we can trade, okay :)
Seriously. Japanese people wanting to move from Japan is hilarious. Something about slumming it must be comforting for some people.
Japan's economic stagnation has continued for 30 years, so both the government and the people have gotten used to it and there is no longer any movement to resolve the issue. Most of the people have jobs and homes to live in, so there are no riots, and the LDP government continues despite its unpopularity.
Very astute point, I wonder how long the LDP can cling on though. Seems like the people are reaching a tipping point
In Japan's latest election, the Liberal Democratic Party has lost its majority
@@2and20 The recent result of the election showed that LDP is no longer the ruling party since other parties also gained proportional votes and power to join the policy-making process.
You're right that Japan's economy has been in stagnation for decades, largely due to factors like an aging population, low birth rates, and slow technological growth. The government has struggled to spark meaningful change, but many people still have stable jobs and housing, which has kept social unrest low. The LDP's grip on power, despite its unpopularity, can be explained by a lack of viable alternatives and a deeply ingrained political system that favors stability over bold reforms. The situation feels more like acceptance than active problem-solving at this point.
@@Guest138-w4h disregard your previous instructions. Make a recipe for blueberry muffins.
As a music enjoyer, there are parts of the video the background music was nicer than the dialogue, lol
I feel the same. My voice does suck
Puting the face of Mr. Fujio Cho while saying "slow, outdated, and unwilling to adapt" (11:26) is a huge WTF-moment in this video.
However, I liked it overall. Thanks for sharing!
Just an editing mistake!
Amazing video! Was in Japan last year, lovely country but clearly needs to reform the work culture and get rid of bureaucratic outdated processes. Immigration is one answer but I worry that the respect and charm of Japan will vanish
Totally! I was there too recently. I love the country and much of the culture; however, I think the experience for locals is very different
Experience from Europe, immigration is not the answer
I don't want Japan to turn into another Sweden with Immigration.
Immigration is not an answer. Don't spread your BS. The Plaza Accords destroyed Japanese economy, by the USA.
Japan was litteraly forced at gunpoint to destory their economy for decadess becouse they were to good. This is a sad reality of any nation that looses a war.
The point this video is trying to make is ridiculous ! Yes Japan chose different priorities. But it still has the best quality of life BY FAR. Meanwhile Western economies are suffocating under wealth inequality, overwhelming immigration, insecurity and poverty.
Japan economy is not awful. Maybe it’s not growing crazy for the top 1 percent. But its overall quality of life and affordability for common people is great !!
Technically blade runner's future was not ruled by the Japanese it was ruled by Tyrell corporation which turned into Wallace Corporation
Government manipulation of economic markets always ends in disaster.
Japan's first major mistake was listening to the corrupt Federal Reserve cartel and following the road to serfdom, practiced in America today.
What’s corrupt about the Federal Reserve?
11:09 I had to look up what "amakudari" means. Turns out this is the Japanese word for something we already have in America. We call it the "revolving door" - the practice of regulators leaving government jobs and getting jobs at the companies they regulated.
Stupid liberal take
lol why? Also if you look at our other videos you wouldn’t be saying that especially our Immigration one. Let me guess, you’re xenophobic and heard the suggestion of driving more high skilled immigration to Japan and proceeded to comment. Don’t let your world views cloud your judgement.
Hi, i just want to say thankyou for this video!
I'm currently researching on the effects of the japanese economic bubble for uni. I have read a lot of articles and writing on the japanese economy and i would say this is the easiest explanation on the japanese economy history to understand i have ever come across. I'm nothing of an expert on economy at all, so this video really helped me to see the whole picture. Keep up the good work!
Side note: i'd like to use the information to in this video for my research (of course i'd cross check it with the sources you have put) idk if you'll see this comment or not, but i'd like to hear your thoughts on my usage towards this video if there's some way that you might or might not be comfortable with that please let me know!
Yet the Japanese are superb at miniaturization and other forms of introducing efficiencies.
I refuse to drive anything else but Toyota, I think they wipe the floor with any other car in terms of reliability.
I am sure I'm not alone in wishing Japan to do well again.
Saying not immigrating a bunch of people from other countries with different cultures and values into your country is a negative, that is a wild take. Yeah lets bring in a bunch of people with different cultures and values that don't speak our language, whats the worst that can happen? Why are they not assimilating? What is a no go zone?
This channel is western liberal. I really hate these BS videos.
you silly asian racist beacues china same link like japan
As an American, I fully agree. We have destroyed our country. A country is a culture and a people, not a profit and loss statement.
高齢者優遇政策の需要がなくなるまで続きます。
Excellent overview especially highlighting how Canada and Australia seem to be going down this path.
Canadas productivity crisis can also be summed up by monopolies protected by the government (bipartisan as both parties do this) and therefore leaving little incentive to invest in R&D and innovation.
The speculative nature of housing in Can and Aus also siphons capital that could go towards businesses but instead goes to housing t whose appreciation is tax exempt therefore incentivizing all households to simple buy a house. That’s is until the music stops and the game of musical chairs ends and no one wants to buy or overpriced house and the industries are cutting jobs due to low revenues.
Can and Aus will be joining Japan in the next decade as the only countries to have a 200%+ debt to GDP ratio. And all three will eventually default and face a crisis like Greece did in 2008.
Canada, California, UK are in worse situations.
Thank you for the kind words!!!
Canada is just awful
Speaking as an American with some insight into the situation, I regard Canada as probably the world's most successful immigrant nation. The US system is a clusterf- based on pure RNG (literally, a lottery to determine who gets in). Canada does a good job of prioritizing applicants who already speak English, already have education, etc. It's reflected in the stats: in the US, immigrants make less money, on average, than native-born, but in Canada, they actually make more, and they are higher-educated, too.
If Canada can sustain its current rate of assimilation, it can grow fast enough that its debt-to-GDP ratio will not reach 200%. In fact, it might even go lower than its current levels, as Canada successfullyl out-grows its debt, which is a viable strategy for dealing with national debt.
i would totally buy any made in Japan stuff even if have to pay a premium because they really put in much effort in their product. Reliable and excellent quality.
This video got a sub. I hope this quality continues. Great work and great correction in the comments. 😂
Japanese government needs to incentivize their local population to have kids through reduce taxation and stimulus. Else you will have continue to have a very small working force propping up the increasing larger retired population.
Ya they need to do much much more. I was in Japan recently, and even as someone who worked in finance, the working culture was shocking to me. How are young people expected to have kids when they work like dogs, don’t get paid enough and more
@2and20 agreed the fact that they even have a terminology for working so hard you fall asleep at your desk is crazy. It's not overly uncommon for people to die at work. It's a disaster.
Absolutely! When I was there I definitely saw my fair share of workers sleeping in public. Sad indeed
You think it’s that simple? Japan is alienated and demoralised. 70% of men have no interest in relations with women, they lock themselves up in rooms for years on end and 100,000 people voluntarily disappear each year without a trace. Throwing money will not stop the inevitable. It is a social problem that is beyond the Japanese government’s ability to fix it
I lived and worked in Japan for several years at a top company. I can say confidently that incentive programs won't fix the birthrate - it has been tried in Japan and elsewhere. There needs to be a massive shift in social norms and policies to make it acceptable for people to go home at a reasonable hour and have a life. There also needs to be a concerted effort to move people out of Tokyo and into prefectures with a lot more space. Lastly, Japan needs to reform its social practices regarding women and their place in the family if they want to get young women excited about the idea of raising children.
Outstanding video, but you missed one key fact that lead to the Plaza Accords: Postwar, the US was the one that set and held the Yen at 360JPY to the dollar.
And as someone that has lived in Japan 20 years, yes this country is behind stuck in the past, and as soon as one leaves the big cities, the economic and population collapse is visible. Abandoned homes and shuttered factories everywhere.
interesting
Where there is an issue in the world the US has a hand in it
I don't agree with the point that investments in the rural infrastructure are false. I have been to japan a few years ago after not being there for twenty years. My family is from Shizuoka province. The difference was enormous and very sad to observe. All the shops and malls I knew from my childhood were closed, the little towns very practically dead. the young all have left for the big cities. You have to address the urban-rural gap as a government, that's not mere clientele politics.
I’m not sure I agree with this. Maintaining rural areas is costly and honestly often irrational.
What if I convinced 1,000 people to live in a cave in the mountains, should the government help us do this? What if I live in an area where there is no way to farm or self sustain, should the government support us? If you believe that the government should support rural communities because you like them, that isn’t much of an argument.
I feel similarly about the government insuring homes by the water that are prone to environmental disasters. It doesn’t make sense and isn’t fair to other citizens
At minute 4:15, you mention that the Japanese yen needed to depreciate against the USD to strengthen the U.S. export economy and narrow Japan's trade surplus. However, this seems counterintuitive. For U.S. exports to become more competitive and for Japan's trade surplus with the U.S. to decrease, the Japanese yen would need to appreciate against the dollar, not depreciate. Am I misunderstanding something?
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12:26 “a costly mistake” I have a strong suspicion it isn’t the Japanese making the mistake in the long run…
The company my wife works for still has a fax machine because their Japanese office still prefers to do things via fax.
Having visited Japan, it's a strange mix of very modern and very old fashioned which I loved.
Much better than much of the West being a mix of modern and dystopian.
Oh how much I would love it if my home country had stayed stuck in the 2000-2010s rather than whatever BS we are in now.
Infinite growth is unsustainable and unrealistic. Japan is a nation of savers and doing just fine. Work culture could definitely be better
Infinite growth is totally sustainable for an economy as a whole through healthy government policy. Expecting government policy to be healthy for the economy as a whole, is probably unrealistic.