I don't think it's possible to rebuild the bubble economy...it was based on the premise that Japan, alone in Asia, had a highly educated work-force combined with an advanced industrial infrastructure. In the 1980s, it was a real premise, and Japan was able to sell products to Asia as well as the rest of the world. The whole bubble was based on Japan being better than the rest of Asia.
In the late 80s and the early 90s the four 'tiger economies' of Asia began to eat away at the market the Japanese had cornered. Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea all had had great leaders who had foreseen the importance of education, and they had taken over the 60s and 70s role of Japan - going from labor-intensive workforces to educated laborers pumping out cheap, low-quality goods able to compete on the world market. But after years of industrialization, these countries managed to compete with Japanese companies for the same market. These days Japan is stuck in recession because it's lost market share to countries with cheaper labor and just as high technology. There's an education crisis in Japan because a lot of their best and brightest are being hired by Singapore and other countries that will pay them more and offer them bigger and better laboratories.
Basically, I don't think it's possible to re-create the bubble economy because countries like South Korea have caught up to Japan. There simply isn't enough of a difference any more. Japan's wealth was based on Asia's poverty - and now Asia is growing wealthy. Faced with ten times the population in China who are rapidly outstripping the rest of Asia in prosperity, Japan is falling even further behind. And with a greying population due to contract by half by 2055 and tough immigration laws, Japan will be lucky to maintain it's current, wasteful standard of living into the next century.
Still, with a determined reformer at the head of the country, Japan could once again rise to become a wealthy and innovative economy. But I don't see it ever becoming a bubble economy the way it used to - short of a new technology arising in Japan and being kept secret there. But the way things are going these days, it looks like the new discoveries will be made elsewhere.
-Dave
In the late 80s and the early 90s the four 'tiger economies' of Asia began to eat away at the market the Japanese had cornered. Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea all had had great leaders who had foreseen the importance of education, and they had taken over the 60s and 70s role of Japan - going from labor-intensive workforces to educated laborers pumping out cheap, low-quality goods able to compete on the world market. But after years of industrialization, these countries managed to compete with Japanese companies for the same market. These days Japan is stuck in recession because it's lost market share to countries with cheaper labor and just as high technology. There's an education crisis in Japan because a lot of their best and brightest are being hired by Singapore and other countries that will pay them more and offer them bigger and better laboratories.
Basically, I don't think it's possible to re-create the bubble economy because countries like South Korea have caught up to Japan. There simply isn't enough of a difference any more. Japan's wealth was based on Asia's poverty - and now Asia is growing wealthy. Faced with ten times the population in China who are rapidly outstripping the rest of Asia in prosperity, Japan is falling even further behind. And with a greying population due to contract by half by 2055 and tough immigration laws, Japan will be lucky to maintain it's current, wasteful standard of living into the next century.
Still, with a determined reformer at the head of the country, Japan could once again rise to become a wealthy and innovative economy. But I don't see it ever becoming a bubble economy the way it used to - short of a new technology arising in Japan and being kept secret there. But the way things are going these days, it looks like the new discoveries will be made elsewhere.
-Dave
