Yes. After the 1989 real estate crash, Japan's economy was way down for several decades. Japan led in advanced technology in the late 1980s, and then just seemed to give up. It was so strange. I'd expected Japan to come up with a way to get out of that mess, but that never happened. Then the population peaked, and now most areas outside Tokyo and Osaka are slowly dying off.
> Japan led in advanced technology in the late 1980s, and then just seemed to give up.
I wouldn't necessarily say that--what happened was cellular phones. And cell phones absolutely ate technology.
The Japanese (especially the teenage girls) took to those like a duck to water. Japanese phones were WAY ahead of the West for absolutely forever.
The other problem for Japan was language. So, exporting culture was difficult. However, it did happen--"Ghost in the Shell" was 1995 which led to The Matrix in 1999. Anime probably peaked about 2002-ish and then effectively just became mainstream.
The US gets a big cultural advantage from the fact that the world has almost completely defaulted to English as the Lingua Franca.
> Japanese phones were WAY ahead of the West for absolutely forever.
Not really. Fun fact: In the early 1990s, the largest cellphone brand in Japan was Finnish company Nokia, and Nokia lost its edge there mostly because you could only sell phones through operators and the suppliers played dirty: for example, they refused to sell Nokia color LCD screens.
Now Japanese phones in the late 1990s were indeed the bees knees, but they were incompatible with the rest of the world (PDC/i-mode instead of GSM/WAP/GPRS), they missed the boat on 4G as well (NTT FOMA was the first out the gate, but not standard), and when the iPhone came along it was too late.
Even through the late 2000s, Galapagos phones were way more advanced in terms of capabilities than anything available in the west, including the first couple of iPhone generations.
Trouble is, they wouldn't or couldn't sell them anywhere else, and eventually the rest of the world outpaced them and ate their lunch. Yes, the radio standards were incompatible... Would it have been so hard to make an international model? I think they just didn't feel like they needed to.
This pattern keeps happening where Japanese companies develop amazing products for their domestic market, and then staunchly refuse to bother selling them elsewhere, allowing global competitors to win in the long term.
Strengthening a currency seems good in the short term, but local growth comes from (a) increasing exports, and (b) substituting imports, both of which get hosed by too strong a currency.
(at least according to Jane Jacobs, "The Economy of Cities". Most of her books are good, and "Systems of Survival" might even be relevant to the current US administration)
Germany used the post-Plaza strong DM for reunification. Even after adding NIIP to accumulated GDP, I can't figure out what large aggregate in Japan the post-Plaza strong JPY has benefited.
"Structural anthropologist Masakuni Kitazawa foresaw a “society administered through highly sophisticated mechanisms for forecasting, planning, and control,” based on “quantitative analysis of data and compilation of a set of optimum conditions for that society’s well-being,” in which a technocratic “power elite” would gently control all aspects of life, making it difficult to draw “a clear boundary between service and authoritarian control.” "
sounds familiar..
Japan's futurist image is left over from the 80s. Tokyo architecture doesn't hold a candle to Singapore and many other cities around S.E. Asia. Kuala Lumpur is full of buildings that surpass anything in Tokyo in terms of looking out of a Sci-Fi movie.
Cities like Hong Kong and even Hangzhou from the right locations look way more like "Neo Tokyo" than Tokyo itself has ever looked.
You’re totally right, but as a complete aside, Tokyo’s architecture still feels nice.
It seems to strike the right balance between density and sunlight, cars and pedestrians, aesthetics and practicality.
Having relocated to Singapore earlier in the year, I rarely feel “comforted” by its design - like I could walk around for hours enjoying the ambience of the streets.
Could also be the oppressive heat and humidity though.
Everyone has a different taste, but for me Japanese architecture is horrid. Sure, old temples, shrines and castles are beautiful, but other than that...
The tiny streets everywhere, the buildings with only a few centimetres of separation between them, the cheap plastic look of many buildings... Everything feels cramped and chaotic.
Isn't it obvious though? Why would a country keep spending on new and modern infra when what they have works just fine? Time will come when Singapore and HK will start looking old in comparison to new metropolis emerging in Africa and India.
Yes, I totally agree. It's only that the AFAICT the "image" of Tokyo doesn't fit reality and I find that interesting. The image is left over. I'm curious when the image itself will change to reflect the new reality.
On the other hand 14 new buildings 20 stories or higher have been going into Shibuya and there are many more planned.
I think it is the way it is because Tokyo was one of the first metropolis to transform like that "overnight" and the image stuck. Like if you go to London or New york they still have plenty of old architecture lingering around. Singapore & HK feels more like Tokyo 2.0 than London 2.0 or NY 2.0
I agree on Singapore and would maybe throw in Seoul as well, but completely disagree on Kuala Lumpur. The architecture in Kuala Lumpur is nothing special and feels relatively dated.
Yes. After the 1989 real estate crash, Japan's economy was way down for several decades. Japan led in advanced technology in the late 1980s, and then just seemed to give up. It was so strange. I'd expected Japan to come up with a way to get out of that mess, but that never happened. Then the population peaked, and now most areas outside Tokyo and Osaka are slowly dying off.