<story><title>China is catching up to the USA, while Japan is being left behind</title><url>https://lemire.me/blog/2017/11/12/china-is-catching-to-the-usa-while-japan-is-being-left-behind/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>toomuchtodo</author><text>What if the Japanese don’t want to move forward and are happy to live out the remainder of their lifespans as is?&lt;p&gt;Progress without purpose is not progress. GDP over quality of life is like measuring your success of curing HIV in a human using bleach. You’ve succeeded, but for what?</text></item><item><author>raverbashing</author><text>Seems Japan did not lose only one decade, but 2 decades so far&lt;p&gt;And by the way things go, it seems they froze in time. Nobody moves the country forward&lt;p&gt;Japan’s tech cannibalism saps Abenomics - 
 &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ft.com&amp;#x2F;content&amp;#x2F;238c993c-427d-11e6-9b66-0712b3873ae1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ft.com&amp;#x2F;content&amp;#x2F;238c993c-427d-11e6-9b66-0712b3873...&lt;/a&gt; might need to Google it&lt;p&gt;Some other day I saw people complaining that in Japan they still use a mechanical mouse (not an optical one, the older ones)</text></item><item><author>sillysaurus3</author><text>&lt;i&gt;China is no longer a contender - It&amp;#x27;s the true looming power of the East. And depending on how internal politics play out, it will be interesting to see where exactly China stands in as little as 10-20 years in the future.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Exactly that:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;kjF57Sy.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;kjF57Sy.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;OkOQWkj.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;OkOQWkj.png&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>joaodlf</author><text>This post goes over science and research, which to me is a consequence to other, &amp;quot;big picture&amp;quot;, areas of the Chinese growth. Areas such as economy, geopolitcs and finances. China is no longer a contender - It&amp;#x27;s the true looming power of the East. And depending on how internal politics play out, it will be interesting to see where exactly China stands in as little as 10-20 years in the future.&lt;p&gt;One thing that strikes me about China is their attitude towards foreign politics - They still want the world to consider them as a &amp;quot;developing country&amp;quot;. Sure, it&amp;#x27;s a gigantic country, both in land and population - There are still many challenges to overcome, but this is now a country with enormous cash reserves, who own a significant lump of US debt, and making truly gigantic strides on all levels of society.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>erikpukinskis</author><text>It’s sad people are downvoting this. Maybe they disagree but this is absolutely a question all of us must ask.&lt;p&gt;There are side effects to growth. We lose cultural practices, we lose languages, we lose neighborhoods, we lose species, we lose entire ecologies.&lt;p&gt;I actually really appreciate the conservative (well...Republican) argument that sometimes it’s worth it. Maybe we should burn some fossil fuels to help developing countries build economically, bring down mortality, be able to support larger investments, etc, in exchange for some extinctions, and the loss of some indigenous culture. I’m open to that.&lt;p&gt;But you also have to be open to the fact that sometimes it’s &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; worth it, and ask what does it look like if we were to try to preserve our cultural and biological heritage. This is a conservative ideal too.&lt;p&gt;And when I think about how to do that, I am drawn back to Japan over and over who solved many of these problems hundreds or thousands of years ago. Japan has already asked the question: “should we destroy all of our native ecologies and cultures in order to fuel industrial growth?” And they are one of the few countries who has taken a stance on that issue, and succeeded at preserving things America seems destined to continually destroy in its relentless path towards an industrial monoculture.&lt;p&gt;We can’t write that off as provincialism or regressiveness. We (in the U.S.) have something to learn here, and the advantage is not entirely ours.</text></comment>
<story><title>China is catching up to the USA, while Japan is being left behind</title><url>https://lemire.me/blog/2017/11/12/china-is-catching-to-the-usa-while-japan-is-being-left-behind/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>toomuchtodo</author><text>What if the Japanese don’t want to move forward and are happy to live out the remainder of their lifespans as is?&lt;p&gt;Progress without purpose is not progress. GDP over quality of life is like measuring your success of curing HIV in a human using bleach. You’ve succeeded, but for what?</text></item><item><author>raverbashing</author><text>Seems Japan did not lose only one decade, but 2 decades so far&lt;p&gt;And by the way things go, it seems they froze in time. Nobody moves the country forward&lt;p&gt;Japan’s tech cannibalism saps Abenomics - 
 &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ft.com&amp;#x2F;content&amp;#x2F;238c993c-427d-11e6-9b66-0712b3873ae1&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ft.com&amp;#x2F;content&amp;#x2F;238c993c-427d-11e6-9b66-0712b3873...&lt;/a&gt; might need to Google it&lt;p&gt;Some other day I saw people complaining that in Japan they still use a mechanical mouse (not an optical one, the older ones)</text></item><item><author>sillysaurus3</author><text>&lt;i&gt;China is no longer a contender - It&amp;#x27;s the true looming power of the East. And depending on how internal politics play out, it will be interesting to see where exactly China stands in as little as 10-20 years in the future.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Exactly that:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;kjF57Sy.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;kjF57Sy.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;OkOQWkj.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;OkOQWkj.png&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>joaodlf</author><text>This post goes over science and research, which to me is a consequence to other, &amp;quot;big picture&amp;quot;, areas of the Chinese growth. Areas such as economy, geopolitcs and finances. China is no longer a contender - It&amp;#x27;s the true looming power of the East. And depending on how internal politics play out, it will be interesting to see where exactly China stands in as little as 10-20 years in the future.&lt;p&gt;One thing that strikes me about China is their attitude towards foreign politics - They still want the world to consider them as a &amp;quot;developing country&amp;quot;. Sure, it&amp;#x27;s a gigantic country, both in land and population - There are still many challenges to overcome, but this is now a country with enormous cash reserves, who own a significant lump of US debt, and making truly gigantic strides on all levels of society.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>FullMtlAlcoholc</author><text>By most measures, progress in happiness and quality of life in has stalled compared to other industrialized nations. Fewer people are getting married with many citing economic pressures. The world happiness report lists the worlds 3rd largest economy in 56th place in the list of happiest countries.&lt;p&gt;From my own experiences living there, Japan may have a strong sense of community that shines during crises, but that connection is often only surface level. Relationships are heavily compartmentalized. You may have  drinking buddies, golf friends, etc. But they aren&amp;#x27;t friends in the sense that you&amp;#x27;ll visit them outside of those activities or really open up to them to reveal your vulnerable side. If an older person loses a spouse, they often don&amp;#x27;t have anyone else for companionship.&lt;p&gt;Japan&amp;#x27;s suicide rate is still among the highest in the world and 2nd highest of rich, industrialized countries. It is the leading cause of death for women 15-34, who are amongst the longest lived in the worls.&lt;p&gt;Career satisfaction is also pretty low. The reality of work. The system is based on seniority. Hours are unecessarily long, most likely hurting produxtivity. Gaining advancement based upon merit is rare.</text></comment>