Quote:
Originally Posted by chiuchimu
I personally believe it is in Japanese best interest to distance ourselves from the U.S.
1) have our own military and have the U.S. forces leave
2) work on closer ties with China and SEA.
3) don't depend on the U.S. market, work on markets everywhere.
4) Balance the economy by importing far less expensive fashion goods.
Japan doesn't have to be a huge economy to have a healthy economy and we wouldn't need U.S. protection from our neighbors if we didn't side with the U.S. in the first place.
|
4) Importing less expensive fashion goods will not balance the economy. The majority of goods imported by Japan are food and energy, expensive fashion goods make only a ghost of a fraction of the total goods which Japan imports.
3) The US market is the largest in the world, equaling roughly the amount of the rest of the world combined. Japan markets their products just as heavily to the rest of the world, but high taxation in Europe and lack of money in other economies limits how much can be sold there.
2) China is more of a competitor than a friend to Japan, and though ties have grown closer over the decades, Japan knows that any great gains in the Chinese economy in the future will come at great cost to the Japanese economy. Economists and business people in Japan recognize China as a growing power and potential customer, but they are actually increasing their ties to America, just as Korea, Taiwan, and even Vietnam are.
1) Japan is constitutionally banned from having a standing military. This constitutional ban would be exceedingly difficult to change even if the people wanted to do it, and at the moment, they don't. Japan pays for half the expenses of stationing American military forces in Japan, which provides them with the help of the world's largest and most advanced military, and at a low cost.
You have to realize that Japan is a small island nation with limited resources, and with it's current population levels it is impossible for Japan to be self-sufficient. The Japanese are aware of this, and have built their economy accordingly, and they have done a good job under the circumstances; Japanese enjoy the highest standard of living in Asia.
The number one subject in Japanese universities is and has for decades been economics, and the Japanese understand a great deal about this subject. All of the suggestions you have listed above have been discussed at length, and found to be unworkable or to have no merit.
The Japanese, like anyone else, put themselves first when it comes to deciding important policies, but even so, they believe that the course they have followed since the end of the war has been the best one, as it has brought them the highest level of prosperity they have ever known.
The current system may not be perfect, but then there is no such thing as a perfect system, and for all it's faults, it has worked quite well.