[GOP_1900AD]

There was never very much outsourcing to Japan. Japan has always had higher labor rates and overhead than even the US (at least it has since the 1960s). That said, wise US corporations have utilized the technologies of Japan especially via componentry (including advanced materials technology and PCB fabs).

While on the subject of Japan, there are still a far greater percentage of vertically integrated firms there versus the outsourced and PRC mongering US. And that will be a good thing for them when the #&$#* hits the fan.

[faulkner]

Japan's per-capita GDP in the 1950's was no higher than Latin America's at the time. But through exports, Japan grew rich. Other E. Asians followed the same strategy to get rich and, as a result, you had the "E. Asian economic miracle" over the past half-century, where E. Asian Third Worlders transformed into First Worlders over just a few decades. It's fantasy to try to argue that this transformation didn't take place and the E. Asians were well-off to begin with.