shooting this out there: Japan avoids the bubble in the 80s

What happens instead during the "Lost Decade", does Japan remain economically superior to China? Japan's new GNP? GNP per capita? Japan in OTL still remained ahead of China until 2010, it was only recently that the Chinese economy blew past Japan, but if Japan never suffered 15 years of stagnation and continued to grow, all be it not necessarily at the fastest rate, then how would Asia and Trade change?
 
What happens instead during the "Lost Decade", does Japan remain economically superior to China? Japan's new GNP? GNP per capita? Japan in OTL still remained ahead of China until 2010, it was only recently that the Chinese economy blew past Japan, but if Japan never suffered 15 years of stagnation and continued to grow, all be it not necessarily at the fastest rate, then how would Asia and Trade change?

Well, Japan was poised to do some very interesting things in space exploration, so maybe Japan joins the US and Russia as a proper manned-capable space power?

Also, if the Japanese economy had experienced population growth as fast as that experienced by the USA over those same 15 years, the Japanese economy would have grown faster than the US economy. The main reason for the "lost decade" has been Japan's shrinking population. So that's also the most plausible way to keep Japan out of recession. Of course, a bigger Japanese population has all sorts of impacts. (I think Japan would have about 160 million people or so by the modern day - should be supportable.)

fasquardon
 
The Bubble was Japan's growth, though. If that doesn't happen, well, they're just poorer, I guess.

You can't just magic up economic growth. Japan's Lost Generation (as I think we now can call it) was because of screwed-up age demographics, and since they have a very strong aversion to immigration that's pretty unfixable.
 

trurle

Banned
Well, Japan was poised to do some very interesting things in space exploration, so maybe Japan joins the US and Russia as a proper manned-capable space power?

Also, if the Japanese economy had experienced population growth as fast as that experienced by the USA over those same 15 years, the Japanese economy would have grown faster than the US economy. The main reason for the "lost decade" has been Japan's shrinking population. So that's also the most plausible way to keep Japan out of recession. Of course, a bigger Japanese population has all sorts of impacts. (I think Japan would have about 160 million people or so by the modern day - should be supportable.)

fasquardon
The demographics was also affecting seriously ISAS/JAXA. I remember well all these before-retirement professors in ISAS (when i worked in Sagamihara ISAS campus) and their idiotic ideas. Well, magically cancelling the permanent employment system (and associated groupthink fallacy) of Japan may help a bit to alleviate the bubble and to make a more productive space program, but at severe social costs. Rampaging crime and inequality would make such ATL Japan very dissimilar to OTL one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink
 
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