Why is Japan so prosperous?

[The Curse]

The God Hunter

Japan has one of the best economies in the world regardless of its tremendous short comings. It is about the size of Missouri with about 125 million people making it the most densely populated country in the world. There is virtually no privacy a European newspaper compared the average Japanese home to "rabbit hutches". Land is so valuable the area the size of a news paper parcel costs up to $50,000. On top of that all of the resources it relies on are imported from other countries. Most of the land in Japan is either uninhabitable or poor farm land. Yet the country still thrives. How is their current economic prosperity even possible?

Not entirely true. I mean yes, in them iddle of the cities.

Out in the country towns of Japan where services are considerably less land is actually amazingly cheap. Also, the rapid modernisation of Japanese housing means that land depreciates extremely fast. The net value of a property can be zero or below twenty years on, if you factor in the amount a purchaser paid for it beforehand. This means there is extremely low mobility in Japan, it's hard to move around. Meaning country towns in Japan, contrary to much of the rest of the West, are not in a process of urbanisation*. Not that that would be easy anyway with the density that already exists.

*I should qualify that by saying that students still flock to the cities. Settling families however are generally more than happy to live in the countryside once they secure work. Lifelong employment attitudes completely fit in with the culture that exists with property values there.

[The Curse]

White Wolf of Nebu

OF course believe it or not, debt doesn't always mean a lot.

For example, Luxembourg has a debt of 5000% of GDP.

Well, economies of scale do apply to nations.

Except for the USA. Where the ATC of healthcare for each individual somehow exceeds far smaller countries. lol

[The God Hunter]

Final Boss of Life Issues

Japan doesn't sound so prosperous to me. I've read blog posts written by white people living there. Here's what I've heard about it:

Everyone smokes. All vegetables have meat in them. New video games are $100 and generally boring. People are mad uptight and completely devoted to working. Saying that Japan should apologize to the Chinese for World War II will result in your life being ruined. People there fist pump a lot. Everyone there is a racist. Etc.

I think the meat thing is to help lower their populations. As for the work thing the way I understand Japanese culture they are very community oriented. They need to be part of the community to be outside of the community is a fate worse then death. As for the smoking thing is anyone really that surprised? Numbers are dropping like a stone and Japan is just a new market to make it look really really cool to people who don't believe they cause cancer.

[AnarchoPhiliac]

Japan has quite a labour shortage caused by too many old people, and no meaningful immigration plan to boot.

They'll need some hardcore immigration reform if they want to get anything done. The alternative is to encourage people to have unprotected sex once a day, every day.

[A Liberal Media]

AnarchoPhiliac

The alternative is to encourage people to have unprotected sex once a day, every day.

which is harder than it sounds since Japan has effectively bred a generation of asexual metromen who aren't all that interested in fucking.

[The God Hunter]

AnarchoPhiliac

Japan has quite a labour shortage caused by too many old people, and no meaningful immigration plan to boot.

They'll need some hardcore immigration reform if they want to get anything done. The alternative is to encourage people to have unprotected sex once a day, every day.

From the way I understand it Japan wants to replace its workforce with robots. I don't know if this plan will actually work.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST27506220080408?sp=true

[AnarchoPhiliac]

The God Hunter

AnarchoPhiliac

Japan has quite a labour shortage caused by too many old people, and no meaningful immigration plan to boot.

They'll need some hardcore immigration reform if they want to get anything done. The alternative is to encourage people to have unprotected sex once a day, every day.

From the way I understand it Japan wants to replace its workforce with robots. I don't know if this plan will actually work.
]http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST27506220080408?sp=true

Oh, the plan will work...in Dermezel's imagination.

[The God Hunter]

AnarchoPhiliac

The God Hunter

AnarchoPhiliac

Japan has quite a labour shortage caused by too many old people, and no meaningful immigration plan to boot.

They'll need some hardcore immigration reform if they want to get anything done. The alternative is to encourage people to have unprotected sex once a day, every day.

From the way I understand it Japan wants to replace its workforce with robots. I don't know if this plan will actually work.
]http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST27506220080408?sp=true

Oh, the plan will work...in Dermezel's imagination.

Come on don't you want iRobot to come true? It can be a robot uprising and a trendy mac product think of the money they will make!

[AnarchoPhiliac]

The God Hunter

Come on don't you want iRobot to come true? It can be a robot uprising and a trendy mac product think of the money they will make!

I'd prefer a more Ghost in the Shell-ish future biggrin

[Ash_Strife]

True Colours of Destiny

Ash_Strife

Final Boss of Life Issues

Japan doesn't sound so prosperous to me. I've read blog posts written by white people living there. Here's what I've heard about it:

Everyone smokes. All vegetables have meat in them. New video games are $100 and generally boring. People are mad uptight and completely devoted to working. Saying that Japan should apologize to the Chinese for World War II will result in your life being ruined. People there fist pump a lot. Everyone there is a racist. Etc.

That sounds like an article I read on Kotaku.

That's what I thought.

Japan: It's not funny anymore
Note: This is ******** ridiculously long.

Yeah, sadly I read through that whole thing and it just felt like a long bitchy rant. I'm sure anyone could walk into any country and b***h about it enough to make an article that long.

[Dubyamn]

Final Boss of Life Issues

Japan doesn't sound so prosperous to me. I've read blog posts written by white people living there. Here's what I've heard about it:

Everyone smokes.

Not so much that you would notice. Certainly more accepted than in America but not so much that you can't walk without getting smoke blown in your face.

Quote:

All vegetables have meat in them.

They do have a little trouble understanding that some people have food allergies or that they just don't want to eat certain things such as vegetarians or people with peanut allergies.

Of course these are people who still eat Fugu a extremely expensive dish that may kill you because the toxins make the lips tingle so it's not too surprising.

Doesn't effect Prosperity though.

Quote:

New video games are $100 and generally boring.

My god that was the most surprising thing about Japan. I assumed that they would have affordable games and electronics in fact I expected them to be cheap. That was really wierd.

Quote:

People are mad uptight and completely devoted to working.

Does that really hurt their posperity though? I would think a good work ethic would be good.

And if you honeslty believe this you've obviously never been out to their clubs or anywhere during golden week.

Quote:

Saying that Japan should apologize to the Chinese for World War II will result in your life being ruined. People there fist pump a lot.

My favorite part of the country actually. Of course I absolutely adore the fist pump.

But yeah OP 5% drop in GDP is not a sign of prosperity. It is a sign of an economy withering and dieing.

[Demon Kagerou]

The Curse

Except for the USA. Where the ATC of healthcare for each individual somehow exceeds far smaller countries. lol

Either we're abnormally sick people, or our healthcare system is particularly corrupted by greed. You decide!

[The God Hunter]

Recently there economy has been decreasing but if you compare them to countries will similar natural resources (none) or more natural resources they are doing quite well for themselves. They rely purely on imports for their resource needs. Hell they don't even have any natural gases or coal to mine. They don't even have COAL! EVERYONE has coal the can mine.
@anarcho Yes the iBrain its perfect! Then we can really call mac users mac heads. Though I have always harbored a secret desire to have a robot servant. Besides I could then commit robot genocide when they rise up against their human masters.

[Resid3nt]

Omnileech

The God Hunter

Japan has one of the best economies in the world regardless of its termendous short comings. It is about the size of Missouri with about 125 million people making it the most densely populated country in the world. There is virtually no privacy a european newspaper compared the average Japanese home to "rabbit hutches". Land is so valuable the area the size of a news paper parcel costs up to $50,000. On top of that all of the resources it relies on are imported from other countries. Most of the land in Japan is either uninhabitable or poor farm land. Yet the country still thrives. How is that even possible?

How's that national debt as a percentage of GDP going, Japan?

How is debt bought and financed by their citizens that important when compared with the US'?

Just clearing that up--

[Slutty_Eddie]

Dubyamn

Quote:

New video games are $100 and generally boring.

My god that was the most surprising thing about Japan. I assumed that they would have affordable games and electronics in fact I expected them to be cheap. That was really wierd.

Not really, when you understand the culture.

The Japanese have no problem buying something that's "cool", but totally without added useful function. Most people in Japan want to be the first adopters, while being a first adopter is cool in the US, it is not the majority of the market.

An HD TV watch would that was uncomfortable to wear, hard to see, have poor battery life and be extremely expensive would sell quite well in Japan. Price is an after thought, because being on the cutting edge is more important than price or even comfort and usability.

This is directly related to, "It doesn't have enough stuff in it" in the article.

Quote:

Quote:

People are mad uptight and completely devoted to working.

Does that really hurt their posperity though? I would think a good work ethic would be good.

You make a big assumption here.

You assume they're staying to work BECAUSE they actually have something to do. Many times people will take a 4 hour work day and stretch it into a 10~16 hour work day. Even if they're only required and paid to work 8 hours.

It's kind of like office space, where being at your desk is more important than what you actually do. Except the whole culture is in on it, so it's expected and required of you.