If anyone doesn't remember this (perhaps you weren't around then) it's worth reviewing this when you read the absurd statements made about China.<p>Yes China is big, yes china is (still) growing fast, yes China wants to be more powerful on the world stage. And yes, China raises some challenges/risks to the western/OECD countries. But the level of the risks as they are today and in the near future are significantly overblown because to do so is useful to those who bang the drum.<p>And china itself faces many internal structural risks which are <i>underweighed</i> (or flat out ignored) both by those who want to tout China as a risk and by the Chinese government itself.<p>My favorite deal of the 1980s (1990) was when Martin Davis sold Pebble Beach to a Japanese developer. This was widely described in the press as evidence that the Japanese were about to take over the US (OMG the real estate value of the imperial palace exceeds the entire real estate value of California!!!!). Of course a few years later it was back in the hands of its original owners, the Pebble Beach company, for less than the Japanese buyers had paid. Now one story doesn't make a trend, but this high profile one is indicative of the situation. Some low-publicity slow-and-steady purchases have done well and the same in reverse (US companies in Japan). I expect the same with China.
You know how in Back to the Future 2 at the beginning Marty of 2015 works for a Japanese company? That's because in 1990, when the movie came out, everyone assumed that you'd work for a Japanese company in 2015.
I think part of the reason that China seems so scary is that they're way less developed than Japan was comparatively to the US in the 1980s. So if China's already threatening at 13% per capita American GDP, imagine what they'll be at 25%.
It was surprising to see the fluff listicle format popularized by Buzzfeed employed in a thoughtful tour of primary sources like this. As an easily-digestible exploration of the cultural-economic axis of the peak of the Japanese Miracle, it really worked, even if I kept expecting to see an animated gif captioned “TFW…”
I dont get this clipart scrap book article, are thy suggesting it blew over, got back to normal and its all good now like nothing happened? Lets consider just one example: video/TV industry. Not doing anything in the face of your market share going down to zero sure showed them!<p>Frontline: Coming From Japan [The Fall Of The US Television Industry] (1992) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aesJTsZqm6c" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aesJTsZqm6c</a>
Hysteria or not, you absolutely do not want foreign countries as rentiers, you very much want it the other way around.<p>While trade is not zero-sum, it can be mutually beneficial. But payments for usage rights are not (whether IP, land, machinery, or even capital). Indeed, it is one of the core ways 19th century empires extracted wealth from colonies.
Didn't seem to mention the biggest factor in technology in that era: the Japanese Fifth Generation Computer Systems: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_generation_computer?wprov=sfla1" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_generation_computer?wpro...</a><p>Didn't even mention <i>Rising Sun</i>: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Sun_%28film%29?wprov=sfla1" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Sun_%28film%29?wprov=sf...</a>
I did GCSE business studies in the 90s.
It was basically just Japanese case studies. I still remember learning about Kaizen, when was the last time anyone (outside of Japan) used that word?
Here's a Simpson's reference to Japan taking over:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dacPpadOS1A" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dacPpadOS1A</a><p>Longer clip:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq7wnMvLYg4" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq7wnMvLYg4</a>
I was so convinced that this was inevitable I went ahead and studied Japanese in college and did a foreign exchange program there, since I figured I'd surely end up working for a Japanese company. Now I'm a little disappointed that I've never been able to use my Japanese.
The Hollywood version of this is fairly fun: <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gung_Ho_(film)" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gung_Ho_(film)</a>
A little bit before that, everyone thought "the Arabs" would buy everything -- see the movie Network. (No, I mean it, see it, it's brilliant).