World History Question...PLEASE HELP!??

Question

Comparing the Chinese and the Japanese experiences, how do you account for the spectacular economic gains of Japan as scontrasted to the very limited gains of China under Mao? Would the same general explanations hold when viewing the successes of other, smaller countries of the "Pacific rim"?

I realyyyy need your help!!!

THNK YOU!

Answer 1

My goodness. Mao brutally suppressed virtually all capitalist economic activity. Japan encouraged it.

Answer 2

Well lets look at the differences between China and Japan post-WW2:

- After WW2 China was effectively engaged in a civil war won by the communists at the end of 1949. China had a huge population even back then with many at subsistence farming level. Rampant corruption basically led to the defeat of the previous regime and needed time to be suppressed. Later Mao institutes the "Cultural Revolution" in 1966 which kills off many of the educated and intellectuals or forces them to work in the fields or in prison-like re-education camps. There is no democracy and emphasis is put on manual labor. Very little trade with other countries Until the 1970s. China's recent economic successes are largely attributed to tacit acceptance of wide-spread capitalistic practices in a nominally communist country.

- Japan has a reduced population from WW2 which they lost and millions were killed by the 2 atomic bombs and their after-effects. However, Japan still has a large enough population and the technical gains made during their war push were not forgotten. Although Japan doesn't really experience true democracy, they begin to trade more with other countries. The U.S. makes some investments and helps keep order during their occupation after WW2. Based on cultural practices from feudal times, Japan establish close knit capitalist industrial groups that include strong unions called keiretsu. During the early 1950s U.S. investment is further increased due to the Korean War as Japan play a crucial jumping off point and repair point for U.S forces. Japanses economic growth continues unabated through the 1990s as it becomes one of the first major suppliers of goods to the U.S. and the premier consumer electronics supplier to the world. Discipline is one of the hallmarks of Japanese society.

I don't think the many of the situations that differentiated China and Japan can be applied to the other Asian Tigers, except maybe the use of capitalist practices, cheap labor, continued investment by first world economies, and the almost endless thirst for cheap goods in the U.S. (and europe). You will notice the most successful asian nations tend to have stable governments, but not necessarily much democracy. China has none, Japan has had the same ruling party for over 50 years, South Korea has had military dictators upt to the late 1980s, Thailand just recovered from a coup, and Indonesia has only had a semblance of democracy for 10 years. Most of the other Asian Tigers (Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore) were all island nations that just got lucky that none of their larger neighbors decided to take them over. Of course, Hong Kong was not so lucky in 1999 and has diminished ever since the takeover.

Answer 3

because china is communist and japan is not.

Answer 4

number one most important difference.... china continued its isolationist policies while japan eventually realized they needed to be open to the global arena.

two, china remained a communist economy while japan went to capitalism (and allowed land ownership, thats a big one)

three, china did not develop a large middle/mercantile class, japan did. (a middle class is needed for any revolution)

four, china remained under a dictatorship, japan opened its government.

five, after wwII, japan allied itself with the major power countries, china continued to allign itself with their enemies. (global political suicide)  

six, japan shifted to an industrial/manufacturing/technological society.  china didn't

seven, china is overpopulated, japan is not.

eight, and lastly, after the U.S bombed Japan we turned around and helped build them back up,  we did not do this for china

there are lots of reasons.  and yes, these reasons tend to be universals,  dso if you are applying them to other examples (pac. rim countries)  you will largely find the same results.

Answer 5

Amish...and scontrasted?

Answer 6

There are several reasons for Japan's high economic growth (although they may also be the reasons why it crashed in the 90's), also known as the Post-War Japanese Miracle. Here are the reasons at a glance:

- The "Neo-Merchantilism" or "Export-Driven Economy" policies of the Japanese Ministry of Trade, or MITI. Japan researched products that made the US and Europe prosperous, and applied them to itself (initially steel, then cars and electronics). In addition to subsidizing the home industries (i.e. Toyota car corporation), MITI also set very high tariffs and quotas for foreign products, sheltering the home companies from foreign sales. Thus the home companies were able to grow inside that safe haven MITI has created, and extend to the rest of the world when the tariffs and quotas were taken down.

The so-called Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea) followed this system as well, and shared its benefits and downfalls (i.e. 1997 Asian Financial Crisis).

- The fact that anti-Communism raged during the times that Japan's economy boomed (late 50's to mid-70's), and the US heavily traded (and gave them one too many benefits) with Japan to make it as anti-communist as possible, while ignoring China for being communist. This gave Japan the largest open market in the world for it to sell its cars, electronics, and other goods to.

- Another reason looked at is Japan's company organization, known as the keiretsu, where business are connected as a whole group of companies (i.e. the Sumitomo Group). Not only are these companies heavily helped by MITI, but their organization offers almost absolute employment (almost no layoff, until the 1997 AFC), and each component company is funded most indefinitely by that group's financial institutions (i.e. Sumitomo Bank). This way, any component of the company stays afloat, and if one component closes the employees are usually shifted to another component.

Again, the keiretsu system were never heard of before they were developed in Japan.

- Finally, to put it the simplest, you can chalk it up to Japan being an export-driven hypercapitalistic state versus China being an isolationist communist state.