My thesis on Japan's decline:
My thesis is that Japan was a major world power prior to it's defeat in WW2. It had a young, energetic population, and was able to dominate Asia. The Japanese empire, drawn in green on a map, at its greatest extent, was actually comparable to any great empire from history, in terms of land mass and population under its control. Like Ancient Israel, Japan also had a very tight, insular population, with a very strong identity, a very strong concept of "in group / out group", and a very strong, ethocentric religion based around the idea of the emperor as descended from the sun god. But just like the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70AD was a psychologically devastating blow from which the nation of ancient Israel would ultimately never recover, the American dropping of the atomic bomb (similar in merciless violence) and forced concession on the Japanese that they needed to admit their emperor was mortal and a figurehead (similar in theological significance to "God allowing the temple to be destroyed"), took the soul from the Japanese in the same way the Ancient Israelites were left without their identity in 70AD.
The Japanese carried on for a while, based on their momentum. They were able to even raise to economic superpower to the extent people were talking about them taking over the role of the US as number 1. But the US knew they had Japan where they wanted them. The military base in Okinawa, for example. The "JET Program". Which was probably put in place as a result of American intelligence influence and allowed American graduates to live in Japan and study their ways. And, more than anything, the petrodollar, which meant that Japan's surplus was cycled back into US treasuries, as national and fuel security required access to dollars, but which was effectively a mafia-protection-racket like system of tribute.
The Japanese got to work 16 hour days making cheap electronics for the Americans. The Americans got cheap good to keep a lid on inflation at home, while the Japanese bought treasuries and funded the US government's deficit. Meanwhile the Japanese, suffering probably from Stockholm Syndrome, got to lie to themselves that they were benefitting from this, and that they might even someday rule economically. (Maybe the Japanese elites knew what was going on, but they were happy to go along, turning their citizenry into slaves for the American economic machine, while benefiting from their own Seigniorage grift).
Now, over 70 years later, the chickens are coming home to roost. The Japanese nation has been drained of its vitality since the war. The Americans have sucked the body dry. Japanese cannot afford to have kids. They are facing demographic death. They are importing third world labor as a result, and can look forward to a gradual erosion of the social contract and social harmony as a result, a la Europe. They are selling the family jewels—finally capitulating to American capital. Blackstone buying up real estate, for example. Or Buffet buying up the trading companies.
Japan is turning into another quasi colony cheap Asian travel destination. Its peers are now the likes of Thailand. They are building luxury resorts for Americans, Europeans, and Chinese, while their domestic population suffers under the weight of inflation. It used to be Japan was expensive and only accessible to the rich from the west, but now, with the cheap JPY, and the large income disparity, the average (or quite below average) American is able to fly to Japan and live large—buying up the food and resources and real estate while incentivizing prostitution of culture to creepy voyeurs desperately seeking the authenticity which hasn't existed in their globohomo homo economicus societies for decades.
My thesis is that Japan was a major world power prior to it's defeat in WW2. It had a young, energetic population, and was able to dominate Asia. The Japanese empire, drawn in green on a map, at its greatest extent, was actually comparable to any great empire from history, in terms of land mass and population under its control. Like Ancient Israel, Japan also had a very tight, insular population, with a very strong identity, a very strong concept of "in group / out group", and a very strong, ethocentric religion based around the idea of the emperor as descended from the sun god. But just like the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70AD was a psychologically devastating blow from which the nation of ancient Israel would ultimately never recover, the American dropping of the atomic bomb (similar in merciless violence) and forced concession on the Japanese that they needed to admit their emperor was mortal and a figurehead (similar in theological significance to "God allowing the temple to be destroyed"), took the soul from the Japanese in the same way the Ancient Israelites were left without their identity in 70AD.
The Japanese carried on for a while, based on their momentum. They were able to even raise to economic superpower to the extent people were talking about them taking over the role of the US as number 1. But the US knew they had Japan where they wanted them. The military base in Okinawa, for example. The "JET Program". Which was probably put in place as a result of American intelligence influence and allowed American graduates to live in Japan and study their ways. And, more than anything, the petrodollar, which meant that Japan's surplus was cycled back into US treasuries, as national and fuel security required access to dollars, but which was effectively a mafia-protection-racket like system of tribute.
The Japanese got to work 16 hour days making cheap electronics for the Americans. The Americans got cheap good to keep a lid on inflation at home, while the Japanese bought treasuries and funded the US government's deficit. Meanwhile the Japanese, suffering probably from Stockholm Syndrome, got to lie to themselves that they were benefitting from this, and that they might even someday rule economically. (Maybe the Japanese elites knew what was going on, but they were happy to go along, turning their citizenry into slaves for the American economic machine, while benefiting from their own Seigniorage grift).
Now, over 70 years later, the chickens are coming home to roost. The Japanese nation has been drained of its vitality since the war. The Americans have sucked the body dry. Japanese cannot afford to have kids. They are facing demographic death. They are importing third world labor as a result, and can look forward to a gradual erosion of the social contract and social harmony as a result, a la Europe. They are selling the family jewels—finally capitulating to American capital. Blackstone buying up real estate, for example. Or Buffet buying up the trading companies.
Japan is turning into another quasi colony cheap Asian travel destination. Its peers are now the likes of Thailand. They are building luxury resorts for Americans, Europeans, and Chinese, while their domestic population suffers under the weight of inflation. It used to be Japan was expensive and only accessible to the rich from the west, but now, with the cheap JPY, and the large income disparity, the average (or quite below average) American is able to fly to Japan and live large—buying up the food and resources and real estate while incentivizing prostitution of culture to creepy voyeurs desperately seeking the authenticity which hasn't existed in their globohomo homo economicus societies for decades.
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