NationStates Jolt Archive

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,392477,00.html
Keep in mind that this article was written by a German - thus the dismissal and language regarding the way Japan deals with its past.

What do you think will be the future of Japan?

China is taking its place as the leading nation in Asia. It scores diplomatic successes, while the Japanese' relation with their past alienates others. The only real friends Japan has left are the Americans.

The economy has taken something of a hit of course in the last ten years or so, and although I'm not too well-versed in the details, the problems are still around. And people get depressed.
I'd imagine that this sort of attitude will have shaped an entire generation by now, but for that it's probably better to ask someone who lives there (or did). You know who you are ;) .

So will Japan just disappear from the list of important countries?
It seems like it has similar problems to some of the European nations, but those at least have the EU to look forward to...

No. Aside from the fact that Japan's in the early stages of what appears to be a recovery (with actual inflation, thank God! :eek: ), they've got some of the most productive industries in the world and lead in a number of technology sectors. Plus, they've got a massive amount of Japanese technological innovation and large companies that are world leaders in their respective fields. As GM and Ford teeter under their unproductive and high-cost labor, Toyota and Honda are building plants and hiring hundreds of thousands of high-paid workers in the US. The Japanese model is apparently very healthy on a global scale.

Japan is weighed down by its budget deficits and the lingering remnants of the Nikkei bubble, but when it recovers it will be a force again.

China's strength is considerably overblown. It's banking entirely on foreign investment, with almost nothing coming from Chinese entrepreneurs (unlike India, whose IT industry is coming in to its own with several large companies and a strong homegrown R&D base). If foreign investment slows, China will come crashing down; I mean, its growth is already unsustainable from a demographic standpoint, and is hardly an improvement for the millions of unemployed Chinese.

Have you ever bought a Chinese car? A Chinese console?

No. The only things you could buy from China are objects manufactured by foreign companies. I'd be more worried about the fate of China then that of Japan; China is just one huge bubble waiting to burst.

What do you think will be the future of Japan?
Aside from diplomacy and economy, Japan's population is dwindling due to low birth rates and high death rates caused by the flu. Dwindling population would mean higher labour demand and tax shortage.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4552010.stm

Have you ever bought a Chinese car?
Aww shit, I forgot which web site is it but it shows that a Chinses made SUV had the worst crash ratings ever, very scary. I'll try find the web site if I can.

Aww shit, I forgot which web site is it but it shows that a Chinses made SUV had the worst crash ratings ever, very scary. I'll try find the web site if I can.

Well, it is a Chinese made SUV :P.

Aww shit, I forgot which web site is it but it shows that a Chinses made SUV had the worst crash ratings ever, very scary. I'll try find the web site if I can.
there it is: http://landwind.bootnetworks.com/

also, NEVER DRIVE A FORD VEHICLE!!!

there it is: http://landwind.bootnetworks.com/
The VW Touareg...made in Slovakia.

!!!

The Japanese population is dwindling you say !

Balderdash, whilst it may not be increasing theyve got millions of people to get through. Whilst it is worrying it is not a problem now, nor will it be one in the near to moderately distant future, a bigger problem will be their aging population.

Japan's population might be peaking...so is half of Europe's and, for that matter, I believe China's is leveling off as well thanks to the one-child laws. Mao's regime jacked up the population to ridiculous proportions; from Deng Xiaoping's regime on, there have been laws about limiting children. It causes insane amounts of problems, sure, but it does cut the population increase for sure.

Japan and China could easily go into some sort of cold war, certainly, but China won't pull the trigger for fear of awakening the U.S. and Japan won't pull the trigger because they don't have much of a military these days. Any battle will probably last a couple of decades and end with China's Communist regime collapsing and a Russia-esque attempt at democracy that might have trouble getting off the ground.

Have you ever bought a Chinese car? A Chinese console?

No. The only things you could buy from China are objects manufactured by foreign companies. I'd be more worried about the fate of China then that of Japan; China is just one huge bubble waiting to burst.

Aww shit, I forgot which web site is it but it shows that a Chinses made SUV had the worst crash ratings ever, very scary. I'll try find the web site if I can.

That is exactly what happened to the first Japanese products that hit the international markets. Just like the first Toyotas sucked so bad nobody would buy them, the Chinese will definitely improve on their stuff.

I believe the Japanese have to make and accept some changes to their economy and society - pretty much like what Germany has to face right now. But they will do fine. Look at what they do with robotics and such. They are still smart, those Japanese, believe you me. They'll do just fine. http://www.studip.uni-goettingen.de/pictures/smile/jap.gif

What do you think will be the future of Japan?


GOJIRAAAAA!

GOJIRAAAAA!
http://www.studip.uni-goettingen.de/pictures/smile/schock.gif

Go solar! Shut down the Japanese NPPs at once!!!

http://www.studip.uni-goettingen.de/pictures/smile/schock.gif

Go solar! Shut down the Japanese NPPs at once!!!

Too late! If Blue Oyster Cult already wrote a song about it, it MUST HAPPEN!

Has anyone ever noticed that many futuristic Animes show Japan as a decaying, hedonistic hellhole?

I predict Akira-style bike gangs roaming the streets of Neo-Tokyo :p

Aww shit, I forgot which web site is it but it shows that a Chinses made SUV had the worst crash ratings ever, very scary. I'll try find the web site if I can.

But then if you recall Honda was noted for the worst brakes ever when it first came out.

Well, according to the Japanese themselves, half of the world's population was to be annihilated in 2001 after the Second Impact. Then, a paramilitary UN organisation will take control of the third rendition of the city of Tokyo and fight creatures bent on destroying (?) all life with huge, biomechanical war (?) machines.

Has anyone ever noticed that many futuristic Animes show Japan as a decaying, hedonistic hellhole?
Yeah, it seems like that sort of thing is rather big in Japanese popular culture.

Even though Japan is only starting to recover from its long recession, Japan was one of the fastest growing economies in world history before then. Besides, the Japanese are becoming adept at projecting their power abroad, despite having no real military. Article IX of their constitution (banning an offensive force) will be repealed sooner or later, and once it is, Japan can have teeth. It may not always have the US as a close ally, but if it does, it can help project both powers in Asia. In contrast to loosing power, Japan has never been more powerful since the height of WWII.

It may not always have the US as a close ally, but if it does, it can help project both powers in Asia.
But it doesn't really have any friends in Asia. Any sort of "power projection" would be against the opposition of the local nations - at the top of which now stands China as the local leader.

But it doesn't really have any friends in Asia. Any sort of "power projection" would be against the opposition of the local nations - at the top of which now stands China as the local leader.
China can lead if it wants to, but doesn't. It's too busy with its own issues, and has no real friends outside of SE Asia. Geopolitically speaking, the US is the most powerful nation in Asia, but has less need for a role in that area now that the USSR is gone. Japan is filling the vacuum.

China can lead if it wants to, but doesn't. It's too busy with its own issues, and has no real friends outside of SE Asia...
We'll see. The article in the OP suggests otherwise.

China can lead if it wants to, but doesn't. It's too busy with its own issues, and has no real friends outside of SE Asia.Actually, China doesn't want Japan to join the UN security council
Geopolitically speaking, the US is the most powerful nation in Asia.Lol, but btw the US army is still present in Asia, protecting South Korea from Krazy Kimmy's Korea attack.

[quote]Lol, but btw the US army is still present in Asia, protecting South Korea from Krazy Kimmy's Korea attack.
I know, though it withdraws a little more every year. Whether I support that or not is another issue. In any case, the US has a powerful military presence in Japan, and the trend is now toward several small outposts in SE Asia and Australia. The Chinese may have a stronger land force, but have no power projection capabilities and, most importantly, are not interested in them. That's just military. Economically, who gives Asia its cash? Who buys their goods? If US consumption slowed down tommarow, Asia would be hit very hard. That's why every central bank there props up the dollar, so that they won't loose a big buyer.

Has anyone ever noticed that many futuristic Animes show Japan as a decaying, hedonistic hellhole?

I predict Akira-style bike gangs roaming the streets of Neo-Tokyo :p

KAAANEEEEDAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, had to^_^

I think it'll be more like Ghost in the Shell, though did you notice how the city looks more like a Chinese one than a Japanese one?^_^ but in reality, otakus will never let japan sink into economic decline.

In the near future, corporate networks reach to the stars; electrons and light flow throughout the universe.
The advance of computerisation, however, has not yet wiped out nations and ethnic groups.

Has anyone ever noticed that many futuristic Animes show Japan as a decaying, hedonistic hellhole?


It's something that has a lot to do with Japanese youth culture (this is all according to lectures from my Japanese teacher and a few friends who are big Japan buffs). I guess (and like i said, I've hardly spent hours reading on it) that there is a broad feeling that everything is going to hell in a handbasket, economically speaking.