WI there is no japanese bubble, how the USA reacts to the japanese economy?

I have read in another thread that during the japanese economical "golden age" in the late 80s they still had only 1/3 of the american GDP, so they didn't really had the chance of passing the USA as the main economical power

Then i came up with this question: If the bubble was butterflied by some reason and Japan continued to grow well into the mid 90s, how would the US act to counter the japanese economy?
 
I think someone mentioned if the bubble didn't burst in late 80's, it will grow larger well into the 90's and burst much harder in mid to late 90's.
 
There is the question of if Japans economy had the capability to continue its growth of the previous two decades, bubble or no. Its something that has been raised by assorted 'experts'. I'm not able to judge such claims, but would appreciate hearing from experts.
 
There is the question of if Japans economy had the capability to continue its growth of the previous two decades, bubble or no. Its something that has been raised by assorted 'experts'. I'm not able to judge such claims, but would appreciate hearing from experts.

Horribly simplified but:
-You get high growth when your economy is catching up with the developed markets, which Japan did very successfully.
-That period of high growth naturally tails off as the easy productivity gains happen, examples would include literacy, mechanisation, agricultural modernization etc. All these one offs have happened and the country is left with something close to the global average.
-It seems bubbles (especially real estate) are not uncommon towards the end and ideally these don't last as long as the Japanese one, the bubble also tends to overstate the growth so that needs to be factored in.

That said if Japan had continued with high growth I think it would been partly through currency manipulation and government support. This might have led to a gradual rise in the threat of tariffs against Japan, followed by some being imposed. The current situation of Trade with China has some similarities.
 
Japans growth was based on technology that was state of the art or cutting edge 1955-1975. How large a investment would Japan need to make to keep its home industry at high productivity. Japan was spending a lot of its capitol building production overseas where other nations infrastructure cost was partially off Japans books. Can Japan sustain its growth with overseas investment, or does it need to bulldoze its 1950s-60s factories and erect new?
 
Japans growth was based on technology that was state of the art or cutting edge 1955-1975. How large a investment would Japan need to make to keep its home industry at high productivity. Japan was spending a lot of its capitol building production overseas where other nations infrastructure cost was partially off Japans books. Can Japan sustain its growth with overseas investment, or does it need to bulldoze its 1950s-60s factories and erect new?

It slightly avoids the question, but one issue that Japan and other countries have faced (China presently) is that there tends to be a law of diminishing returns for investment of any type. Thus productivity gains slow, and ever larger investments (or fiscal spending) are required to maintain a pace of growth.
 
is that there tends to be a law of diminishing returns for investment of any type. Thus productivity gains slow, and ever larger investments (or fiscal spending) are required to maintain a pace of growth.

This sounds to me like mature technology being a less productive investment than new technology. ie: 19th Century investment in coal energy production was a good investment, but as the 20th Century unfolded petroleum technology was a more productive investment.
 
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