Why is Japan the second richest country in the world?

[the captain]

It's because the radioactive fallout from hiroshima and nagasaki turned everyone in japan into super humans that can work all day and night without tiring. It's one of the little known pro's about being nuked.

 

[Del-Toro]

They buy resources, and turn them into electronic things, which means they make a profit. Done. They might also be able to better do things like accounting and other such services, in much the same way as parts of Europe and North America.

 

[goodman528]

(Japan is at) the center of asia great location, its the path to the west
{It does have a long coastline, which is an advantage, but it's position at the end of Asia and the end of the Pacific, is an disadvantage. Path to the west simply holds no water, all other Asia countries established relations with the west much earlier than Japan.}

smaller population than Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria- population won't matter check the Age Dependency Ratio first THEN check population totals
{Thanks, I just learned something new. But where's the data that says Japan has a lower dependency ratio?}

is in an active earthquake zone- they've built around it
{big earthquakes still happens in cities, like Tokyo and Kobe, but this is a minor point, it's not that relevant}

--this point I agree with, so omitted here--

many near by invasion threat, such as Russia, USA and China- this is totally wrong.... Japan HAS THERMONUCLEAR WEAPONRY and is backed by the the United States, if you mess with Japan you mess with the US and all its allies
{Japan does not have nuclear weapons, go and look it up. China would never accept a nuclear Japan, in the same way USA can never accept a nuclear Cuba}

5th largest military expenditure in the world (~US$50billion)*, but officially no military -
huge nuclear stockpile, has a military force, and big ass navy (was largest navy in ww2) and today holds dominion over much of the pacific
{The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force does not have carriers or nuclear submarines; compared to today's major navies, USA, UK, and France; the Japanese navy is weak. However, it is the strongest surface navy in the western pacific, though this is much more because of the weakness and inaction of the PLAN (People's Liberation Army Navy, China) and the Pacific Fleet (Russia)}

lower productivity than France, Ireland, Canada, etc, and ranks 22 in the world*- depends on what productivity, for agriculture hell yah, why grow there when its cheaper to import from china but on an industrial level. no not at all.
{GDP generated per worker hour spent working}

 

[goodman528]

"Mostly destroyed by bombing in WW2"

Are you kidding me? I hate to say this, but lol.

Go and read some history on the strategical bombing of Japan.

 

[Walrus42]

Japan has:

no natural resources

many near by invasion threat, such as Russia, USA and China

so, why is Japan the second richest country in the world?

I can answer these.

Japan imports a lot. They were invaded by Russia once it was called the Russo-Japanese war. The Russians lost. USA was responsible for modernizing Japan. The Chinese were afraid of the Japanese invading them. Also, the Japanese people are incredibly efficient.

 

[The Bandit]

They're strong advocates of capitalism. Whine all you want to about the evils of it, but at the end of the day, it makes money.

 

[yankeefan19]

I say it's because of all the buisness and technology. Their getting to the point that they dont need anything else.

 

[Captain_Caveman]

They make good cars & electronics.

They're rich because they sell a lot of $hit. Just because they dont have natural resources in their country doesnt mean they cant get them.

 

[ParkourMcGhee]

One word: Japophiles. Lol.

I believe that the internet phenomenon of loving Japan has attracted so many tourists that that's what's floating their economy. I mean seriously: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121737740486095275.html

 

[maddawg IAJI]

Becuase they are the technological capital of the world.

now off topic here why are posting all these econmic threads.

 

[DarkRyter]

I'm assuming on that Military spending is going into Gundams.

Cause if they aren't, my childhood dreams will be crushed into nothingness.

And they're rich because they are extremely technologically advanced. I'm guessing a heft majority of electronics exported in the world come from Japan.

 

[ParkourMcGhee]

I'm assuming on that Military spending is going into Gundams.

Even though I don't really like gundams... This would be freaking awesome. No matter if they were crap, imagine the psychological effect of having a huge robot on your side!

 

[crepesack]

(Japan is at) the center of asia great location, its the path to the west
{It does have a long coastline, which is an advantage, but it's position at the end of Asia and the end of the Pacific, is an disadvantage. Path to the west simply holds no water, all other Asia countries established relations with the west much earlier than Japan.}
||You win this one, didn't think that through, although its position with Asia, a fast growing region, has helped along better than other nations.||

smaller population than Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria- population won't matter check the Age Dependency Ratio first THEN check population totals
{Thanks, I just learned something new. But where's the data that says Japan has a lower dependency ratio?}
||http://esa.un.org/unpp/p2k0data.asp as you can see the dependent ages 0-14 and greater than 65 are relatively small except for the 65 population however, this is inevitable as most developed countries suffer a negative growth rate (about 10percent is under 15)||

is in an active earthquake zone- they've built around it
{big earthquakes still happens in cities, like Tokyo and Kobe, but this is a minor point, it's not that relevant}
||okay next||

--this point I agree with, so omitted here--

many near by invasion threat, such as Russia, USA and China- this is totally wrong.... Japan HAS THERMONUCLEAR WEAPONRY and is backed by the the United States, if you mess with Japan you mess with the US and all its allies
{Japan does not have nuclear weapons, go and look it up. China would never accept a nuclear Japan, in the same way USA can never accept a nuclear Cuba}
||Japan is actually one of the front runners in nuclear technology, they have state of the art nuclear power plants across japan, and at any moment can make a nuclear device. They have also made it known that they will willingly manufacture nuclear devices in the face of an asian threat.||


5th largest military expenditure in the world (~US$50billion)*, but officially no military -
huge nuclear stockpile, has a military force, and big ass navy (was largest navy in ww2) and today holds dominion over much of the pacific
{The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force does not have carriers or nuclear submarines; compared to today's major navies, USA, UK, and France; the Japanese navy is weak. However, it is the strongest surface navy in the western pacific, though this is much more because of the weakness and inaction of the PLAN (People's Liberation Army Navy, China) and the Pacific Fleet (Russia)}
||Just because Japan has a weak military it spends on navy, and also weaponry technology, just cuz the swedes don't fight doesn't mean they can't make great guns (which they do) and comparatively the nations it beats aren't that affluent.||

lower productivity than France, Ireland, Canada, etc, and ranks 22 in the world*- depends on what productivity, for agriculture hell yah, why grow there when its cheaper to import from china but on an industrial level. no not at all.
{GDP generated per worker hour spent working}
|| has a heavy services industry, the most productive part of any nation, in fact you can measure a nations wealth by the number of 3rd class inudstries it has.||

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html hopskip to the economy section it gives you the whole story.
looks like we are building quite the repartee

 

[Mr0llivand3r]

Japan has:

no natural resources

mostly mountains, not great agricultural land (only 1% permanent crop, out of 11% arable)

smaller population than Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria

is in an active earthquake zone

mostly destroyed by the bombing in WWII

many near by invasion threat, such as Russia, USA and China

5th largest military expenditure in the world (~US$50billion)*, but officially no military

lower productivity than France, Ireland, Canada, etc, and ranks 22 in the world*

*stats are always arguable, don't take them for the truth, as long as they do sound roughly reasonable just go with it.

so, why is Japan the second richest country in the world?

because the Japanese signed a treaty at the end of the second world world agreeing that they would never have an army again. so all of their money doesn't need to go to military funding. they can spend it all on technological advances, which in turn gets sold for profit

 

[goodman528]

This link doesn't work:

http://esa.un.org/unpp/p2k0data.asp

||Japan is actually one of the front runners in nuclear technology, they have state of the art nuclear power plants across japan, and at any moment can make a nuclear device. They have also made it known that they will willingly manufacture nuclear devices in the face of an asian threat.||
{Japan's one day nukes is a myth. Equating making nuclear missiles to nuclear power is US propaganda on Iran, making any weapon system, especially one as complicated as an operational nuclear missile requires a lot of organisation, even if the science is known, it would still require a lot more time to make something operational. But politically, none of its neighbours can accept this. With the possibility of a nuclear war between N. Korea and Japan, USA can not accept this kind of risk either.}

||Just because Japan has a weak military it spends on navy, and also weaponry technology, just cuz the swedes don't fight doesn't mean they can't make great guns (which they do) and comparatively the nations it beats aren't that affluent.||
{Most of Japan's military is built up from buying from the USA, Japan's military technology is based on modifications on US technology, it has very limited R&D in military. There has been a ban on Japan exporting weapons since WWII, either in Japanese law or by international treaties, look it up, I'm pretty sure it's still in effect.}

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html hopskip to the economy section it gives you the whole story.
{It only covers the part after WWII, and it still raises the question of why did the USA help rebuild its enemy Japan better than helping its European Allies, or Taiwan? and what makes Japan so rich compared to other similarly sized countries, like Bangladesh? Is it the geography? The history? Or the system?

looks like we are building quite the repartee
{yep.}

I think Japan is one of those countries that logically shouldn't be rich, because it doesn't have anything, yet it is very rich.

 

[zacaron]

define rich: do you meen rich as in they have housed more money in there country then most others or do you meen rich as in the ammount of money each person makes there in relation to other countrys?