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Human development and life expectancy are both very irrelevant metrics, at least amongst developed societies. Hong Kong and Korea have a higher HDI than Austria or France, but I'd definitely rather live in either of the latter, not the former; America has a lower life expectancy than Cuba does, but you don't see people flocking the doorways of Havana.
And I don't see how gold medals at the Olympics have anything to deal with quality of life. Russia (+Soviet Union) has more medals than Korea and Japan combined, does that make it a good place to live? I don't think so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fayewongfan
No, the 4 Asian dragons do not have a population decline problem as there are people moving in from other places. But they and Japan have low birth rate.
Take Hong Kong for example, a lot of people moving in include children born outside of HK to a HK parent, spouse of a HK person, legal immigrants with no relative in HK, illegal immigrants etc. For Singapore and HK, they are cities with a tradition of immigrants arriving with large numbers of residents who were not born there.
In South Korea and Taiwan, there are still some immigrants, mainly from China and Southeast Asia.
Of course we are facing population decline. The birth rate is barely half of replacement level in all four.
HK and SG are city states. Singapore in particular has loads and loads of foreigners who work there. This problem is easier to manage in a city than in a bigger country.
Taiwan and Korea are on the edge of demographic collapse. The population over 65 is touching the 15% ceiling and is increasing at a very fast rate, by 2050 it's going to be a smashing 40% and the national population would be 2/3 of the number today.
There are some SE Asians (who are treated like crap), but they barely constitute 3% of the population, and they don't even get citizenship. Most of them are here for work and nothing more.
Last edited by Greysholic; 08-02-2016 at 09:43 PM..
The hard-working and adventurous youths in China and Korea love learning foreign languages and having overseas experience. Most Japanese don't bother to learn and experience foreign cultures. This is one main cultural difference between the Japanese and other East Asians.
Large areas and number of building without electricity supply when a typhoon lands in Japan.
This is extremely uncommon in Hong Kong and Macau. But still occured yesterday in Mainland China, for example in Shenzhen yesterday.
Earthquakes are more common in Japan.
Japanese women are more afraid of men than Chinese and Korean women. They are very careful with strangers, including both Japanese and foreigners. Japanese are the most conservative people in the region about relationship and people interaction.
Stories of foreigners being denied services are very common in Japan. Japanese make excuses like language and cultural barriers as the reasons to refuse foreigners. In many other countries, local people will still try to help when there is a language barrier.
Japan has territorial disputes and historical issues with all its neigbors. Old people of Japan'
s allies, in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and NZ, still hate the country a bit.
HDI is irrelevant when deciding to move a new country thinking about possible discrimination and or adapting new places and cultures. An East Asian should expect frequent stares and more discrimination in Austria and France than in another East Asian country. In Japan, a non-Japanese East Asians do not experience discrimination until the Japanese finds out he or she is not a local. They cannot easily tell people are Japanese or not from their hair and skin colors.
Taiwanese probably are less discriminated in Hong Kong and Mainland China than in Taiwan. Most Japanese still think they are better than the Taiwanese.
When a country with less than half of Japan's population gets more gold medals, it means something.
Countries with less population than Japan but perform better in the Olympics include UK, South Korea, Germany, France and Australia.
1United States (USA)‡4628291032China (CHN)‡382921883Great Britain (GBR)*291719654Russia (RUS)‡222532795South Korea (KOR)1387286Germany (GER)111914447France (FRA)111112348Australia (AUS)‡8171237
[quote=Greysholic;44993587]^I'd rather live in Japan than Hong Kong.
Human development and life expectancy are both very irrelevant metrics, at least amongst developed societies. Hong Kong and Korea have a higher HDI than Austria or France, but I'd definitely rather live in either of the latter, not the former; America has a lower life expectancy than Cuba does, but you don't see people flocking the doorways of Havana.
And I don't see how gold medals at the Olympics have anything to deal with quality of life. Russia (+Soviet Union) has more medals than Korea and Japan combined, does that make it a good place to live? I don't think so.[quote]
Japan is an inward looking culture and I don't think it will ever become an immigration country.
That being said, Japan will be OK. It will shrink, probably considerably, but it will still be rich, although not powerful. It will cease to be a UK in Asia, but more like an Austria, which is fine.
Japan is an inward looking culture and I don't think it will ever become an immigration country.
That being said, Japan will be OK. It will shrink, probably considerably, but it will still be rich, although not powerful. It will cease to be a UK in Asia, but more like an Austria, which is fine.
Japan was never meant to be a powerful great power. It's rise as a great power for a few decades was a fluke of history that should never happen again.
Japan cannot provide enough good, full time jobs for the citizens it already has. There is no labor shortage in Japan. Why in the hell would they want immigration? Immigrants would drive wages down further.
Japan is a great power because of its engineering and scientific capabilities; but who really wants to be considered a "great power". Being a "great power" is a propaganda manipulation of the population. People are called to war by their government, because the government tells them to fight wars if they want to be a "great power". I would rather be a country that is a "good" power, as in avoiding war, than being a "great" power that is always searching for new wars; think the US.
Japan was never meant to be a powerful great power. It's rise as a great power for a few decades was a fluke of history that should never happen again.
Agreed.
I think militarily its maximum potential is to take Manchuria back then. Anything further is doomed to fail in the long term.
Some people might call that pride xenophobia. Japan is not known for its outward looking attitude. It has always been very insular because it was always a tiny set of island states now combined into one country. They've never really had a long experience with being an empire (their brief modern empire leading to its collapse in WWII is too brief to bring any sort of cultural influence). They do not have an open and tolerant mind.
Who cares what some people might call it? Certainly not the Japanese... good on them. They've built a wonderful nation and culture and should protect it.
Who cares what some people might call it? Certainly not the Japanese... good on them. They've built a wonderful nation and culture and should protect it.
Yes, a culture defined by morbidly obese sumos wrestlers, koi carps, borrowed ideas like bonsais (Peng Zai is Chinese) and dirty women's underwear from vending machines....oh and don't forget the bludgeoning of dolphins and flouting UN court decision banning the hunting of whales (for scientific purposes, of course).
Yes, a culture defined by morbidly obese sumos wrestlers, koi carps, borrowed ideas like bonsais (Peng Zai is Chinese) and dirty women's underwear from vending machines....oh and don't forget the bludgeoning of dolphins and flouting UN court decision banning the hunting of whales (for scientific purposes, of course).
Westerners tend to have a romanticized (and false) image of Japan, largely based on ignorance. Can't help with that. They think manga, sushi and AV stars largely represent Japanese culture.
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