Japan's Nationalism - Essay Example

Broadly speaking, the Japanese citizens have developed skepticism towards the opinions they initially harbored regarding the political form of their nation and its present cultural nature. This skepticism is the core of my paper which seeks to find the causes of Japanese distrust and disloyalty against their government; and the ways through which the Japanese citizenry can increase their happiness and loyalty to their government. The country is found wanting when compared to Denmark which was ranked the leading country in happiness in the world.

Japan has the second largest free market economy in the world. Its mainstay is rooted in trade on an international level, and the less prominent economic areas of agriculture, service delivery with a proficient array of industrial technicians, investors, and industrial developers; and distribution of commodities. Japan is minimally adored with natural resources that can be exchanged for foreign exchange but this imbalance is offset by the high volumes of trade conducted within and without Japan.

Though Japan has been ranked as the second world largest free market economy, the economic growth has been falling since the early 1990s rated at 1% per annum, which was quite low when compared to the 4% per annum economic growth experienced in the 1980s. Though Japan experienced a period of recovery in the early years of the 2000s, the economic growth has fallen reflecting the global economic trends. The nation plummeted into a recession in the year 2008 that was prompted by a global decline for the demands of its products (Storry 1957 pp35-36).

This stagnation in the growth of the economy and the eventual recession did not pass unnoticed by the Japanese citizens as it had a direct impact on them. Increase in the global prices of crude oil sent a significant ripple in price increase of the household items. These items attracted greater prices in the market thus the Japanese citizenry had to pay higher for the products than they did initially. This trend has left them feeling the pinch and they feel uncomfortable with the price increases.

At the same time, demand for the Japanese products within the international market has fallen thus fetching less foreign exchange. This has also had the effect of loss of jobs for some of the laborers in Japan thus causing struggle in livelihoods as they attempt to make the household ends meet. The increased rates of joblessness have been another cause of discomforts for the Japanese people. This discomfort has resulted into the feeling of unhappiness that the Japanese are experiencing (Wilson 2002).

Exportation of the Japanese products has also been affected by the slowing down of both the United States and Chinese economies. The Japanese market has for a long time relied on the two above mentioned nations for marketing their products. The slow growth of the United States and the Chinese economies reflects on the Japanese market with a decreased demand for the Japanese products. This in return has led to the decline of the Japanese revenue that is in turn reflected in poor provision of national services by the Japanese government.

This has led to the people criticizing the government for its failure to effectively deal with the situation. This means that the Japanese are not happy with the way their government is dealing with the