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Posted on 08/25/2025 9:42:19 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Japan, Inc., on the brink.
Many have welcomed Japan’s recent economic recovery after several years of contraction, but the current circumstances are fragile at best. As of August 2025, Japan’s economy, the fifth-largest globally by nominal GDP and purchasing power parity, embodies a weak recovery undermined by overreliance on government intervention: GDP growth is limp—flat in Q1 and only marginal in Q2—barely avoiding recession.
The lessons from the past must be heeded if Japan’s economic situation is to be navigated intelligently: state intervention may work in the short term, but will ultimately stifle dynamism and growth in the long term.
To understand the stakes, it’s worth recalling Japan’s economic arc after the devastation of the Pacific War. From the 1960s through the late 1980s, Japan stunned the world with export-led, high-tech industrial growth; an era when Japan was seen as a model for nations forging their own paths through technological progress, combining the traditions of the past with the opportunities of modernization. “Japan, Inc.” became shorthand for relentless efficiency, disciplined corporate culture, and a deft marriage of state guidance with private innovation.
The 1980s asset bubble, fueled by lax monetary policies, collapsed in the 1990s, ushering in the “Lost Decades” of deflation, sluggish growth, and repeated fiscal and monetary interventions. Since then, policy has leaned heavily on low interest rates, public works, and targeted subsidies to spur momentum. While these tools sometimes prevented deeper recessions, they also fostered a reliance on government support that blunted productivity reforms.
Japan’s challenges today are the long shadow of that cycle: aging demographics, structural labor shortages, and unsustainable public deficits. This is a situation with which other developed nations are deeply and uncomfortably familiar, and no...
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Japan is the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the developed world.
It’s not all bad news. Shohei Ohtani hit a home run yesterday and the Taiwan team won the Little League World Championship (undoubtedly the Taiwanese interest in baseball dates to the 50 year period when the island was ruled by Japan).
It’s funny that when I was a kid, it was stated that Japan was way overcrowded with population of 97 million in early 1960’s. Now with population of over 127 million they claim it’s a population emergency. Looking at pictures of cities in japan it looks to me like they’re pretty crowded.
4 African countries get official hometowns, special visa category in Japan under migration deal
In unison(ish) post-WWII countries established, essentially, pyramid schemes of government welfare that only work if the working base always increases and people din’t live too long.
Japanese problems are fixable but the leaders refuse to do them: stop mass immigration, lower taxes, cut regulations, cut spending, reshore industries from China, protect intellectual property, etc. Japan is very crowded so several millions less should be welcomed.
Yeah, they lost about 4 million from their peak in 2008, but the real problem is they have huge social payment programs for everything and consumption tax is 10%. It’s too expensive to have children, because people are taxed too much (and the society is very materialistic).
Well, Sanseito and Kokumin parties are growing, and they will probably address the problem for the LDP.
“...reshore industries from China...”
That’s probably the biggest challenge. One of my Japanese BiL’s company moved production of shoes to China and made him production liaison. He thought it was a promotion until he got a pink slip just before the company finally went belly up. The Chicoms now make shoes at a factory they got for almost nothing. He’s now a cab driver and re-seller of surplus Korean clothing (through a Korean guy he knew from his shoe days).
Japanese companies invested a lot in building production facilities in low-wage countries but not so much at home.
When I went there last December, there were lots of complaints about high prices, especially the price of rice, but no real rise in wages, and good jobs are hard to find. Only one of my nieces and nephews got one. The others are making do with cobbled together home businesses and multiple part-time jobs.
Shinzo was killed so the kalergi plan hand rubbers could ruin Japan. Notice “they” are not targeting Japan for not being diverse? Or any African country? Or Indonesia? Or Malaysia? Or…
Shinzo was killed so the kalergi plan hand rubbers could ruin Japan. Notice “they” are not targeting China for not being diverse? Or any African country? Or Indonesia? Or Malaysia? Or…
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