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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
JAPAN'S IMPACT ON THE ASIAN IMAGE
t has long been seen as the fountainhead of consumer electronics technology. Its cars are consistently among the world's most admired. Its corporations own two major Hollywood studios. Its kiddie culture has all but killed off Mickey Mouse and Barbie. Its $4 trillion GDP is number two behind the U.S. and its workers earn 25% more per head than Americans.
Bravo Castrati!
That's how many Asian Americans see Japan. A nation that should command the stature of a powerhouse -- and elevate the image of all Asians in the process -- possesses the geopolitical profile of, say, Switzerland, a nation a thirtieth its size. Japan's leaders are seen as mere hand puppets in a sad half-century charade of democracy. Its homes are cramped. Its men function as soulless drones whose women fly into the arms of western males. Even its vaunted economy has been on the ropes for ten years and looks ready to go down for the count. What little testosterone it possessed seems to have left with Ichiro.
A nation that should champion the Asian image has only reinforced every insulting stereotype. To many Asian Americans, Japan has done less than its smaller, poorer neightbors. Little Hong Kong exports asskicking action stars. South Corea exports people who take hooey from no one. Taiwan exports tech entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley. Impoverished China, Vietnam and even nutcase North Corea showed balls in standing up to the west. But mighty Japan? Spiritually it seems never to have recovered from its defeat in World War II.
Is Japan carrying its weight or slacking in the Asian image department?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:00:42 PM)
You'd better do some checking on your income per head comparing Japan and the United States. GDP per capita is WAY higher in the USA than it is in Japan.
Just adjust for the purchasing power of the currencies. (Very standard in economics), and it becomes clear.
It is also prudent to distinguish between the manufacturing sector of the economy and the service sector, both of which are very different in size in both countries.
This is said as someone who has worked in Japan and paid/ pays attention to his surroundings.
The unemployment statistics in Japan (5.4%???) are actually quite fake. Anyone who has worked ONE single hour in a week is counted as unemployed. IF you used the same measurement as America for unemployment, you might find it to be something like 10-12%. And that is if you don't count all the "make work" that the government puts out. Right now, Japan is about at the same level in terms of national debt as ITALY. And they are making more and more of it to service that which is existing. Oops!
Also: The GDP there is actually smaller than it was in 1995, while America's has grown by something like 30% over the same period.
Thanks T.H.Lien, for lifting the curtain about Lee Kuan Yew's Hitler-like repetition of the "Asian values" bit. ("If you tell a lie enough times, people will start to believe it.")
American in Repbulic of China
lpm100@yahoo.com
Saturday, December 22, 2001 at 03:57:59 (PST)
[While Japan's per capita GDP is only slightly higher than that of the U.S. (not adjusted for PPP), average worker's earnings are markedly higher in Japan than the U.S. One reason for the discrepancy is that a far smaller percentage of Japanese women work. Read carefully before you address us with trivial and off-point arguments. --Ed]
tty,
You are mistaking Japan’s globalization with your view of westernization. Global views, ideas, styles, and goods have influenced Japan greatly. Such influences include western AND Asian origins. Yet, Japan is uniquely Japan and uniquely Asian. If you ask any Japanese whether they are “toyojin” (Asian in Japanese), they will answer, “of course!” The problem you have is that Japan is not Asian enough by your own definition.
All nations, as they enter the arena of free trade of goods, services, and ideas, produce cultures that are influenced greatly by other nations. Throughout the human history, nations during great “growth” have always been influenced by other cultures, whether they would admit to it or not. Even if you look at the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Chinese, their greatest achievement years came when exchange of ideas, cultures, and goods, became abundant from annexation of other cultures, from promotion of freer trade, and from freer mobility of people. One of the decisive factors for their decline came when they perceived that “good” can only come by looking inward. If you study history you will understand this.
With greater ease of information exchange and mobility with advancement of technologies, such cross mixing of ideas and cultures are now exponentially greater, and may be called globalization instead. In the US, inward looking people despise the influences by other cultures, despite the fact that such diverse exchanges of ideas and cultures have helped America become so great. Like wise, inward looking Asian individuals despise Japan for its globalization (or westernization in your view).
World Traveler
Tuesday, December 11, 2001 at 07:08:52 (PST)
Japan does not really see itself as an Asian nation, and likewise the West has yet to fully accept them. Their situation is close to the British. The British sees itself more with the Americans than it does with the rest of Europe. But, the reality is that Britain has been and always will be intertwined with the fate of the rest of Europe. Same with Japan.
Japan's influence is overrated. Remember, that in China, they are not the only major investment factor. You got the U.S.A. the EU, Canada, Australia, overseas Chinese, and others. So, the Japanese influence among other Asians (at least mainland Chinese) is not as deep and as permeating.
tty
Saturday, December 08, 2001 at 16:38:33 (PST)
“Japanese government refused to let in foreign workers” – WRONG, Japan is and has been letting immigrants in. Much more controlled and restrict than the United States, but it has steady inflow of immigrants. Xenophobic? Many Japanese indeed are, but the Japanese have seen huge rise in crimes committed by the rising number of immigrants. Such is an unfortunate reality that Japan must get a handle on.
“As a result Japanese corporations began to move their operations abroad (to the foreign workers), and Japan's long decline began” – WRONG, Japan as with all industrialized nations have incentives to take low skill, labor intensive jobs to lesser wage nations. This does not necessarily lead to decline, especially if the industrialized country is able to retain higher wage jobs.
By “decline of Japan”, you mean Japan’s economic recession, it has many reasons, but major reason was due to over optimistic and inflated financial industry. Its unemployment rate is was at 5.4% last week (still fairly low by U.S. standard), and its capabilities in fields other than finance are still impressive to say at least (do you still see Japanese cars, electronic gadgets, industrial tools?). Its “decline” certainly did not come from Japanese companies moving jobs out to overseas.
Where do you get the idea that Singapore has something to teach the United States in the subject of immigration? The United States allows immigration much more than Singapore or any other nation in the world. Yes, there are limitations on visas that can be given per year, and many are rejected as a result. However, even with such quota, the United States allows in more immigrants that countries like Singapore can even bear.
World Traveler
Monday, December 03, 2001 at 14:41:28 (PST)
Singapore? No xenophobia? I just got four words: Malays in the Army.
BTW, If US politics and lifestyle goes the way of either Singapore OR Japan, I am leaving the country. Look's like you've fallen for the Senior Minister's line about "Asian values" meaning "browbeat everyone into following the dominant view."
Also, the Japanese decline is the result of insolvency in the banking system, not the result of Japanese companies moving manufacturing bases overseas.
T.H. Lien
Monday, December 03, 2001 at 14:00:29 (PST)
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