JAPAN TRADITION AND CHANGE

KEY TERMS SUBSIDY: money given by a government to assist a private company. RECESSION: a period during which an economy and the businesses that support it shrink, or make less money.

BIRTHRATE: the number of live births each year per 1,000 people. LABOR: the work people do for which they are paid.

In 1990s, employees of Japanese companies would gather to sing song like … “Let’s put our strength and minds together ……grow, industry, grow, grow, grow!” They adopted various ways to motivate their employees like in newspapers they included pep talks, they held Idea Expo in which employees compete in unique designs of vehicles. For them harmony and teamwork are the most important tings.

BUILDING A DEVELOPED ECONOMY When Japan opened its doors to the World in 1800s, it welcomed new ideas of the West. For years they kept on working hard and by 1920s Japan became an important manufacturing country.

JAPAN’S ECONOMY AFTER WORLD WAR II Japan was ruined after the World War II in 1945. US helped to rebuild Japan’s industries. Japanese government helped its people by giving them subsidies. They allowed companies to make large factories and produce more stuff which boosted their economy.

HIGH TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRIES Since 1960s Japan has produced some of the World’s most modern industrial robots. By 1970s, the Japanese were making more watches and cameras than the Swiss and Germans. By 1980s Japan made and sold a large share in World’s cars, electronic goods, skiing gears and bicycles. Japan also produced huge amounts of steel ships, televisions and CDs.

Working with the American and European companies, Japanese companies also developed the digital video disc (DVD). Some famous Japanese brands are: Daihatsu, Honda, Isuzu, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Suzuki, Toyota, Lexus. (cars) Canon and Nikon. Kenzo, Issey Miyake, Casio, Epson, Fujifilm, Hitachi, JVC, Kenwood, Panasonic, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba etc

SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES By 1980s, Japan had one of the World’s largest economy which depended on exporting its products. Americans and Europeans eagerly bought Japanese products, especially cars, television sets and electronics. Japanese did not buy many goods from America and Europe

Other countries grew angry at this, which led to poor trade relations between Japan and other countries. Due to this Japanese economy suffered a severe recession in 1990s. To fight with this recession many companies started firing their employees and the unemployment in Japan increased. Since 2004 Japan is growing economically again.

LIFE IN JAPAN Harmony, ceremony and order have been important in Japanese culture. Japanese people follow their traditional values.

WORKING TOGETHER They have a tradition of working together. Group of companies join to work together and this is called Keiretsu. For example a company who produces raw material will join with the company that manufactures it into a fine product. Then this company will join with the company who will sell this product.

CHANGING ROLES Today more and more Japanese are choosing not to marry or to marry late. Due to this the birthrate of the country is really low. The Japanese women work full time and as hard as their men, which was not before the World War II.

FACING THE FUTURE In the future, Japan needs to find a way to maintain its wealth. Due to the poor growth rate in population, they don’t have a work force as labors. Japan also does not allow immigrants to help them in the work force. There is a very few population of young people to support the huge population of older people. This is giving rise to inflation in Japan.