They got so rich and confident, kids stopped taking engineering and went into business and finance. By the early 1990's, their engineering surplus grew into a shortage. Nonetheless, they were able to deal with it due to sensible immigration policies-- there was no cap on skilled visas, but there was a catch-- companies were required to pay a 10% premium over the prevailing wage to get these people. The justification was simple: (1)Japanese companies would not displace a Japanese worker for economic reasons if they had to pay a premium for a foreign worker and (2)The foreign worker needed more to live a comparable lifestyle with his Japanese co-workers due to additional expenses such as travel, learning the language and a reduced range of choice in housing and such.
By the late 1990's, the surplus of business graduates (among other things) in Japan had resulted in a stagnated economy from which she is only now recovering. One of the reasons for the emerging recovery is (surprise!) more young Japanese going into science and engineering because many of the forign workers (including this one) went home during the last decade (many of them taking the skills they learned to develop their own economies) and there is, once again, a strong demand for graduates from Japanese universities well-grounded in science and math.