I was curious if anyone has a good answer on this issue. Of all the Asian countries, why has Japan been so successful as far as business, technology, economics, etc. All other countries surrounding Japan are not even close to being as successful. The Phillipines can be called a 3rd world country.
Anyone got a good answer?
Dean.
The same way the other Asian “Tiger” economies, and the same thing China is doing today
Authoritarian military dictatorship
Authoritarian goverment control and direction of the economy towards rapid industrialization.
Note that Authoritarian does not mean reactionary or conservative, but rather pragmatic and generally rational without an extreme ideological baggage.
Cultural lauding of education. The Japanese had an advantage in that theirs was a population with an unusually high level of literacy.
Military and political allignment with the United States.
Japan also had the advantage that it, like Germany, started out before WW2 as a major industrial power. It was easier to get back there than to start from scratch.
Want your impoverished Asian country to become a major world power? Email me at el_presidente_Mangrove@dictators.r.us.net. Email in the next 30min and get my free guide, Winning Land Wars in Asia™ , a $49.99 value, absolutely free!
Most of the other Asian countries either had governments that wanted to maintain old traditions or were colonies of some foreign power. The Japanese government decided to modernize itself. A few decades later, most of the colonial powers were gone and Japan was getting the benefits of modernization, so other countries began following its example.
I’d also toss in a healthy respect for the rule of law.
What about South Korea? Going with some general numbers from the CIA factbook, we get:
Infant mortality:
USA: 6.43
Japan: 3.24
S. Korea: 6.16
China: 23.12
Life expectancy:
US: 77.85
JP: 81.25
SK: 77.05
CH: 72.58
Per Capita GDP:
US: $43,500
JP: $33,100
SK: $24,200
CH: $7,600
I chose these because they appear to be a good indicator of what quality of life is like in those countries. It’s very much not comprehensive, nor is it particularly sophisticated, but other numbers in the various profiles match with my impression of South Korea based on what else I’ve picked up over the years. I know it’s got problems (such as the DMZ, and what a Korean-born friend has told me about fairly widespread beliefs that are excessively optimistic about conditions in NK and how well a “merger” would work). Still, South Korea has so far done a damned good job of keeping things together, becoming economically prosperous, and developing technology and industry.
Japan certainly seems to have more influence in the world, but is it fair to single it out without acknowledging that South Korea has done well too? That is, Japan may still be much farther ahead than SK, but SK is still a lot more developed than much of the rest of Asia. Does the military situation with US protection and tensions with NK factor into excluding SK?
I checked out Taiwan which is pretty prosperous
Infant mortality:
6.29
Life expectancy:
77.43
Per Capita GDP:
29,000
Population: 23m
I wonder whether tightly defined borders came into things, South Korea is effectively as island, while most other Asian States tend to have porous borders and/or diverse populations.
North Korea is also effectively an island, particularly as China does not allow refugees to escape across the border to get away from the Kim Il Sung follies.
Satellite pictures of the Korean peninsula taken at night can be found here.
Guess which half of Korea uses magical socialist theory to run its economy.
South Koreas was, prior to WW2, a Japanese colony.
Ditto with NK.
Taiwan was also occupied by the Japanese in 1895
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/tw.html
I suppose being ‘islandish’ and having long Japanese cultural traditions could come into play - although another factor is that post WWII the USA really wanted all three to be successful.
I would totally disagree on the piece of the points made by Throatwarbler Mangrove regarding authoritarianism
I would point out that Japan is the politically “free-est” of the Asian countries and has been since the late 40’s. Free Market Capitalism is easier and more effective in a true Democracy - rather than an Authoritarian rule.
Taiwan, South Korea shed their Authoritarian systems roughly as they came up economically in the World and democratized – wealth and democracy went hand and hand
It is a clear trend….
… and you say :
Didn’t the Philippines democratize roughly along the same track as Taiwan and South Korea?? Hmm Jimmy - where is our Philippine Tiger?-- and how would this explain China being the number 4 Economy on Earth and the explosive growth of Singapore? Didn’t Hong Kong go exactly the OPPOSITE way? Hmmmm?
And I would have little to say – so try this:
“Except For China and Hong Kong in Asia there is a general direct correlation : the more Democratized a Society is, the more wealthy it tends to be”
I would be inclined to look at it differently, the wealthier a society, and the more even the distribution of wealth, then the more likely it is to be ‘democratic’.
Democracy requires a degree of concensus.
I think we need to look farther back to find the critical events. Japan had the Meiji Reformation starting in mid 1800s. Japan transformed from a medieval feudal society into a modern industrial one. The transformation was rapid. The new industrial base, plus the newly modernized military, allowed Japan to compete with Western powers (beating Russia in a war) and annex Korea. Japan continued to expand until it was defeated by the U.S. in WWII (although one could argue that it was bogged down by China). Everything postwar is just a continuation of the same, sans militarism.
Ultimately, Japan got its headstart because its leaders saw which way the winds of history were blowing and forced their country to catch up. And for whatever reasons, it worked.
A pet hypothetical of mine is that assuming that Commodore Perry was a key stimulus to the modernization movement in Japan, what would have happened if he had visited Korea instead and catalyzed a transformation there? How different would East Asia be today?
Ummm…somebody did.
It just didn’t go off too well.
You might have mentioned Cuba’s infant mortality rate: 6 per 1000
Life expectancy is 77.4. But maybe Castro is the reason for that. Or the CIA factbook, for that matter.Of course, as the cite points out,
Others have addressed the false assumptions you’ve made about Japan being the only successful Asian country. As for the Philipines… well, 400 years of colonial rule will often leave your economy in a 3rd world state, and it tends sap the energy out of a culture, too. Who knows what that country would be like if it hadn’t been colonized by Europeans.
You mean they should have taken the median instead of the mean? 
So far we have discussed the historical and political motivations for Japan’s ascendance into a 1st world nation, but, in the case of Japan, there are cultural factors that are perhaps even more important.
Where to begin… well, perhaps for starters I can talk about a particular word in Japanese that highly defines the culture, and has defined it for at least 200 words. “Gambaru” is a word that does not perfectly translate into English. The simplest explanation is “try your best,” but is closer to “try your best, then try harder, and if you fail, then suck it up and dont complain.” If you lose your job in Japan and are looking for a new one, your friends will not say “good luck,” they will say “ganbatte.” This spirit of perseverance has undoubtedly led Japan as a nation to strive for excellence.
Another important thing to consider is the notion of honor. Although this is changing now, for ages honor and its parental influences of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Bushido, have led the Japanese nation into an incredible rate of growth. Historically, it is better to die than to be dishonored. Defeat is dishonorable. Suicides to maintain your honor are still performed today in Japan, although uncommon. My point is that, if I’m allowed to anthromorphize an entire nation, Japan has not allowed itself to face dishonor by being a weak nation. It’s a very difficult argument to phrase well, and honestly I could write an entire book on the topic.
Japan also has a very deep-seated elitism. Again, American influence is gradually erasing this, but Japanese people have a belief that they are the best country in the world. For example, if you ask a Japanese person: “which is bigger, California or Japan?” They will always always say Japan. They will not believe how small their country actually is. Not just size, but the Japanese culture is viewed as the best way of living. Foreign people in Japan, unlike America, are expected to blend in with the Japanese way of life. If this does not happen, things become very awkward very fast.
As a conclusion, I offer this as food for thought. You ask why Japan is a world leader today? I say, any country that, upon facing invasion in WWII, was preparing squads of woman and children with bamboo spears to fight to the death for their Motherland, then I reply: how can you be surprised?
Or of course, there is always the much simpler answer:
“Why not Japan?” ^^
Like the USA perhaps, or Canada or Australia ?
I think you are getting your terminology confused, ‘colonization’ is very different from ‘administration’.
And when it comes down to it, British administration of African states was not that bad - well it was less ‘bloody’ and awful than both before and afterwards.
Consider also that your ‘founding fathers’ were actually British and imposed a constitution that was pretty much cutting edge politics in Britain.
Dr. Walter Williams wrote an article recently on why some nations succeed financially while others fail.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2007/02/07/world_poverty
He also notes, like FRDE, that many successful nations were once colonies.