Japanese Capitalism - What's up with that?

[CopperGoat]

hey everyone. I was thinking about this today. Ever notic that the Capitalism in Japan is so much more different than the one in the West? I mean, for one thing, they make better products, another thing is that there aren't that many poor people and other poverty. Or is there? I really don't know much about it. And over there, the corporations actually respect the environment. It's the culture I guess. But it still exploits the workers right? I don't know. Do they have unions? Is anyone here from Japan? I need more info.... It just looks, and feels different.

Comments appreciated.

[kidicarus20]

Their country isn't in that good of shape from what I've heard.

Also, they look down upon communists organizations, if they aren't illegal there, which they probably are. And I don't think they have unions, not on the level that america has or has had.

I'm not sure though, and corporatiosn probably don't pollyute the environment because of their culutre.

That's what I like about japanese is their culture, and they are engaged in trying to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

[Conghaileach]

A friend of mine in unviersity had to do a question on her paper discussing the three types of capitalism:
- Anglo-American (traditional)
- German
- Japanese

As far as I'm concerned, they all exploit the workers. I'm not really sure what their differences are though.

[redstar2000]

This is not something I can claim real expertise about, but I have read a few books on the subject, so...

Forget about the environment; the Japanese corporate culture has covered every piece of flat ground with concrete that they can...they have over-built to an appalling extent and air pollution is among the world's worst.

Forget about unions. There are no really independent unions in the private sector...they basically accept any offer management makes, no matter how bad it is for the workers. In the public sector, the teacher's union is fairly militant with a Marxist presence.

There is far less income inequality in Japan than in the U.S. or even Europe; the kind of shameless looting that an American CEO considers routine would be regarded as a public disgrace in Japan.

There is poverty and unemployment, of course, but it tends to be not as visible. I believe the current official unemployment rate is around 6% -- the true rate is certainly higher.

The Japanese economy has stagnated since 1992, held back, according to bourgeois economists, by the fact that all the major banks have many billions of dollars (trillions of yen) in "bad debts" that they are afraid to write off for fear it would provoke a total collapse of the country's financial structure.

Although there is a Japanese Communist Party, like all Leninist parties in advanced capitalist countries, it is only interested in running candidates for parliament and has nothing in the way of a revolutionary perspective to offer the Japanese working class.

If you want to know more, you'll have to crank up that Google engine and start digging.

:cool:

(Edited by redstar2000 at 8:07 am on May 18, 2003)

[sypher]

could the fall of japanese capitalism destroy (or severly injure) the U.S. economy? A huge amount of things bought by Americans are japanese. When those Japanese companies go under it would scare the U.S. stock holders of U.S. corperations. could it be the end?

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

An even easier and more realistic target would the third-world. It would severely damage the American economy, making it easier for us to perhaps have an American rebolution.

A fall of the Japanese economy would probably boost the American economy by giving the U$ a monopoly on electronic goods.