Well, fears of Japan overtaking the US were always unfounded based on population size, natural resources (or lack thereof) and demographics alone. To anyone looking at it strategically and with a long-term focus, it was obvious that Japan's economic boom of the 80s was a bubble and not sustainable in the long run. With present-day China, it's not so obvious since they have 12 times the population Japan had, and also control a huge portfolio of critical natural resources. It's well possible that China is also living on borrowed time, that their real estate bubble will burst and their population will grow old before it becomes rich - but they at least have the potential to overtake the U.S. as the leading power in the world, or to at least force a bipolar world order without a singular hegemon. Japan never actually had this potential.

Great video, just finished it. Seems to me most of his predictions have come to pass but not all in the way he would have hoped.

Particularly enjoyed the part about how upset he was about separating from Malaysia, was very touching. Liked his comment at the end about not leaving things on autopilot. Wish my country had a leader like him.

China's population will decline by at least 20 percent in the next 10 to 15 years. India just took over.
Furthermore outsourcing Cheap Labor didn't start from China. Japan was part of the equation. And at one point Indonesia as well, as a matter of fact most South East Asia countries. All this was done before China opened up.

I would also like to add if I may.

I agree on your take in regards to Population and Natural resources.

But I also want to mention something that you might not have considered.

For a nation or a country to be powerful Population and Natural resources is just part of the equation and there are other deciding factors that are more significant than those.

For Japan, these are some of her traits that will propel her if she ever get a chance to again to stand tall above most in the world stage.
These are traits that most...not all..but most countries lack or fall behind...including populous countries like China and India.

A homogeneous, orderly and extremely discipline culture and society

Like Germany during WW2.... The Japanese pretty much conquered most of Asia and South East Asia in an astonishingly short period of time.

The African continent , you name it, South Africa, Nigeria have population and natural resources..
Indonesia have 250 plus million which is Rich in Resources .
India is 1.4 almost 1.5 Billion now and is also rich in Resources

They are not doing exactly well at the moment , at least not yet.

Britain doesn't exactly have resources and population either but at their peak they controlled 1/3 of the world.
Last but not least after the events of WW2 , there is around 50,000 American Troops in Japan.

To say that Japan doesn't have the potential, I would say it is rather short sighted. They can , they will but they can't because they are emasculated in a number ways at the moment.

this doesn't cover the gooks who wanted to decapitate GI.

edit- to be more clear, I love and respect the vietnamese people now, My high school and college thesis was about their culture and people.
They have an amazing community bond.

This post was edited by Mondain on Aug 2 2023 01:22pm

You already dropped two nukes on them.

my point was you didn't factor in the asain hate towards the west.

you blanket statemented the west as being anti asian.

Despite miss-understanding America rebuilt many asian countries and propped them up.
sure for their own benefit, but it's silly to say america hates asian countries.

Where did I blanket statement that Asia hates West. I m pointing out and drawing parallel to raising economical and up and coming economical powers and how the existing one will do their best to strike them down with any means. The Anti Asian whether Anti Japanese or Chinese is only part of the effect that the ruling economical power needs to include in, in order tov get the masses behind their backs to support their policies.

Your point?

okay I apologize I misunderstood, you had posted an anti america, pro asia video.

This post was edited by Mondain on Aug 2 2023 01:30pm