Steady Progress and Development of the Japan - Case Study Example

JAPAN- CHANGES AND CONTINUITIES Japan has always been in the forefront of world changes. This country has gone through more than its fair share of changes over the century and turned from an isolationist state to a powerful nation with good international reputation. Economy has been the greatest strength of Japan and this is one area where Japan has progressed in leaps and bounds over the last century. The post war years allowed Japan to concentrate on economic development. With nearly no defense expenditure, Japan was able to devote nearly one third of its GNP to investments during 1953-63. The government policies of investment in education, industry and research and development started bearing fruit and the average annual growth rate during 1960s remained around 11% per annum. This growth rate had a huge impact on the social structure of the country and meant significant changes for people on the whole as we shall later discuss. The government policies favored encouraging savings, promoting investments, supporting newly emerging industry and promoting exports. Between 1965 and 1970 average growth rate was 11.1% (Financial statistics of Japan, Ministry of Finance, 2005) GDP Growth in real terms** GDP Growth % 1960 8.8 1965 9.2 1970 11.1 1975 4.5 1980 2.8 The steady growth rate of almost 10% per annum helped Japan overtake Federal Republic of Germany in terms of GNP by 1968 to become 2nd only to United States of America. The 1973 oil crisis came as an economic shock to Japan. The second oil price increase of 1979 meant that the oil prices which were around $12.75 a barrel in 1974 increased nearly by 300% to $34 a barrel in 1981. Japan, being almost totally dependent on imported oil reacted quickly by adopting a policy of monetary constraints and improved its energy efficiency to stay competitive and the decline in exports in 1980-2 were recovered by 1984 proving that Japan has the ability to bounce back. The two decades following the Japan's meteoric rise were the years of globalization. 1980-2000 were the years when the economic development suffered a slow down all over the world. [Weisbrot et al, 2001] call it the period of diminished progress. The 2nd oil price increase of 1979, globalization and flow of capital to third world countries and economic mismanagement have all been blamed for the decline [Weisbrot et al, 2001]. The IMF figures of real per capita GDP (in constant 2000 US$) shows that when compared to 1960-80, almost in all cases per capita GDP declined during the two decades 0f 1980-2000. For the top GDP bracket (which includes Japan), the annual rate of GDP growth fell by 1%. Reference: [Weisbrot et al, 2001] Japanese society has also undergone changes. It is a nation with a rich cultural society, which reflects its traditional, stratificational and regional stretch. Japan too has cultural groups on the grounds of economic standards of people. Within these different local cultures, there are few groups who are welcoming towards any change introduced, this is the reason because of which the Japanese adapted to Western culture without any constrains or regret. The local Japanese culture can be categorized into, 'Mass culture, Alternative culture and Folk culture'( Sugimoto's: Introduction to Japanese society). Mass culture, culture that has been under the influence of media and market. The culture has been dependant upon the progress in mass communication, local consumer market and social activities on domestic and international level. Alternative culture, culture that was practiced by those who were much uncomfortable with the local traditions and cultural activities. Folk culture, it's the traditional old culture of Japanese people; however it is as diversified as the country's geographical stretch. Sugimoto believes that 'Japan has frequently been portrayed as a uniquely homogeneous society both racially and ethnically'(An Introduction to Japan), this has been much advantageous for Japanese society. Although such differences can be source of political and social reservations, but due to the influence of mass communication, western life style, the effects of these differences are negligible. The social, political and economic stability of Japan is credited with its racial and ethnic homogeneity. However what we observe is that the homogeneity is much linked with the mental understanding of the people, rather than cultural uniformity. Classes prevails, however the fragmentation has not deeply influenced the political and economic standing of the nation because its citizens respect and honor the notion of right and wrong irrespective of cultural division. In the Japanese society we don't have any cultural clash and struggle for dominance rather people are found honoring each others cultural, social and traditional teachings. Another reason for the existence of cultural harmony among the Japanese nationals is because Japanese society is much exposed to the international community on an unprecedented scale. The reason for developing interest in the Japanese society by international community is because of sustained and progressive economic policies initiated and practiced by the Japanese government. The growing Yen left no choice to the foreign companies but to invest and establish their institutions in Japan, and come along with the local Japanese population. Japan is undergoing transformation in its cultural standing because of the influence of international agencies, and the presence of cultural divisions within Japanese hardly discourages the progress. Sugimoto terms the ongoing development in Japan as 'irreversible globalization' (An introduction to Japanese society). Taking an account of Japanese society, Sugimoto is right to term it pluralistic, either on economic or geographical grounds. An ordinary citizen of Japan practices down-to-earth cultural styles, considered more informal, less traditional, vulgar and equally flexible regarding adaptation to cultural interference. The organized sub cultural people spend a living featuring hedonism, intemperance, and over indulgence. The various forms of Japanese culture ranges include colorful agrarian festivals, and local folk dances. In this global period of economic decline, Japan's economic also went through a period of recession. When everyone was expanding Japan to continue the economic miracle, Japan's economy had to face a number of financial crises, some of which in the hindsight appear to be of their own making. [Agarwal, 2004] believes that the liberalization of financial system, the deregulation of banking sector, interests and capital flows were carried out without proper assessment of their impact on the domestic financial markets. Many financial institutions came to the verge of bankruptcy and most of these had to be bailed out to prevent an economic crisis. Some analysts [in Agarwal& Agarwal, 2001] believe that unlike United States which stepped into to save the economy from 'Savings and Loan', Japan's Ministry of Finance failure to intervene and making the financial institutions sell their assets to account for hundreds of billion dollars worth of non performing loans is responsible for the economic crisis of Japan during the 1990s. During the first half of 2004 Japan's economy began to show the sign of recovery. It was the first time that the economic figure gave reason for optimism for Japan's economy during almost a decade; Japan declared a growth rate of 5.25% (seasonally adjusted annual figure). This figure was largely due to the new economic factors now emerging in the world economy, the fast growing Chinese economy. Slower growth in domestic machinery demand and reduction in orders from China resulted in an overall growth rate of 2.25%. Suddenly the economic pundits have become extremely optimistic about Japan's economic growth in the forthcoming years. Economics believe that due to pressures of being a democracy, Japan chose not to make hard choices; the banks were forced to hide the non recoverable loans and were obliged to throw good money after bad to appear to be solvent. The government borrowed heavily from the public and now the debt stands at 160% of GDP [CIA Economic Report, 2005]. Japan opted to ignore the option of writing off bad debts and using inflation to overcome the problem and used monetary tactics of accumulation of capital, which to most economist has cost them a longer than expected period of economic decline. The position now is that the banks are in a strong financial position and are generally solvent. The economic recovery from now on can be expected to be on a sound footing [Jerram, 2004]. Japan has also shown great advancement in the area of women development. In a country where woman had very limited and structured roles to play, things have changed a lot since early 1900s. As far as women are concerned, changes can be divided into pre and post 1945. These were two significant periods and with the end of Second World War things changed a lot for women where their rights and status were concerned. Before 1945, they were confined to homes and were seen only in their traditional roles of mother and wives. They never worked outside of house as Lupri writes: "since the major task of household head was family continuity, his spouse was to be the procreator and the socializer of the family successor." (p. 208) Things changed for women after the war as economic boom entered Japan. This was the time when women finally had a change of roles and were no longer confined to strict traditional roles. "the women in the 1950 cohort will have become relatively free from child rearing in their mid-thirties..[women's roles changed] when Japan experienced a high rate of economic growth which demanded cheap women labor on a temporary and part time basis.." (p. 210) Japan today is a much different nation than it was pre- Second World War. Not only has it progressed economically, it has also seen many social and cultural changes. Its youth has become more Americanized and is well aware of the world beyond. The country has also opened doors to foreign chains from all over the world and is now a major hub of economic and cultural activity. All these changes over the century had a huge impact on the people. Japanese had always been a close society wit very harsh traditional rules. However with the changes in their economy, changes could also be seen in the Japanese culture and society. For example women gained more freedom to work, youth became more westernized in their outlook and Japanese organizations became global giants. We must understand that all this happened purely due to economic changes and due to the fact that Japan could no longer spend on military. With sanctions that were imposed on its defense sector, Japan did not choose to sulk, instead it began focusing on its economy. And changes in economy meant more interaction with the world that automatically opened doors for Japanese to communicate with the world at large. This allowed new ideas to enter the Japanese society and gradually changes started to emerge. These changes can now be seen in Japan's youth, its desire to be more globalized and the fact that almost all major chains have shown an interest in entering Japanese markets. Japan is one of the few locations where Disney world has chosen to have its presence. This says a great deal about transitions that Japan has undergone. WORK CITED 1. Agarwal, J. D., Globalization and International Capital Flows, Keynote Address at the National Conference on Globalization Decadal Indian Experience, Kannur University, Kerela, India, 17th January 2004 2. Agarwal, J.D. and Agarwal, A. (2001), Liberalization of Capital Flows, Banking System & Trade: Focus on Crisis Situations, International Review of Comparative Public Policy Volume 13, pp. 151-212. 3. Jerram, R., This Time it's Different: Japan Poised for Growth, The International Economy, Spring 2004 4. Weisbrot, M., Baker, D., Krav, E.and Chen, J., The Scorecard on Globalization 1980-2000, Twenty Years of Diminished Progress, Center for Economic and Policy Research, July 2001 5. Yoshio Sugimoto. An Introduction to Japanese Society, Cambridge University Press. 6. Eugen Lupri, The changing position of women in family and society : a cross-national comparison. 1983 Read More