A nostalgic look back at the half-decade when Japan was No. 1, sort of

Japan Today

28-05-2025

In 2023, Japan's nominal GDP (gross domestic product) dropped one notch, to fourth place in the world, as Germany moved up to occupy the third slot. Japan's GDP had exceeded Germany's for nearly half a century up to then.
"The figures have been influenced to some degree by the yen-dollar exchange rate," points out history researcher Ban Atobe, "But considering that Germany's population (and working population in particular) is two-thirds that of Japan's, the drop has serious implications."
"Japan's nominal GDP had been surpassed by China in 2010. While this should not be surprising considering China's population is about 10 times greater than Japan's. And Japan still leads China on a per capita basis. But the drop overall from third to fourth place can be seen as indicative of the country's economic decline," is how Atobe sees it.
The news wasn't always bad, however. "The members of Gen Z might not be aware of it," says Atobe, "but there was a time when Japan's economic power led the world."
He's not exaggerating. In 1987, Japan's per capita GDP reached $21,248, surpassing the $20,001 of the U.S. by a significant margin.
"What would have been no more than a pipe dream by the heroic mid-19th century figures who brought feudal Japan into the modern era became a reality," Atobe observed.
In terms of the value of their common shares, around 30 companies out of the world's top 50 were Japanese, with Japan's NTT holding the top position.
The Nikkei-Dow average reached 38,915 yen -- with the total value of shares roughly 15 times that of Wall Street's. By one metric, the assessed property values of the 23 central wards of Tokyo were said to have surpassed that of the entire continental United States.
There was even talk of Sony acquiring Apple Computer.
"I wish we'd done it," a former Sony executive was quoted as saying.
During the 1970s through the 1980s, an obscure Kyoto-based company named Nintendo emerged from nowhere to dominate the game market. By 2016 its Pocket Monsters had eclipsed Disney's Mickey Mouse and ranked world's first, with revenues of $92.1 billion.
Remember the 1985 hit film "Back to the Future"? There's a scene in which time traveler Michael J Fox tells people back in 1955, "All the good stuff comes from Japan now."
The "good stuff" Fox was referring to included items like Casio wristwatches, Aiwa personal stereo players and JVC video camcorders. Then there was the Honda Civic, whose lean-burn engine easily met the tough new emissions standards while U.S. manufacturers were still struggling.
Japan also impacted significantly on the world's diet. Along with sweet, sour, salty and bitter, Japanese discovered a fifth flavor category called umami (savoriness). Described as a brothy or meaty quality, it adds depth and complexity to flavors. The Ajinomoto Group, which pioneered monosodium glutamate seasoning that imparts umami, now operates subsidies around the world.
Then there's Nissin's cup noodles, which have taken the world by storm. In February 1972, shortly after its introduction, TV viewers watched news coverage of the siege of the Asama-Sanso, a violent weeklong hostage stand-off between the riot police and armed student radicals at a villa in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture.
While the contents of boxed meals froze in Karuizawa's subzero outdoor temperatures, the policemen on site could be seen consuming hot meals thanks to the Nissin noodles.
Not long afterwards, the noodles were dispensed from vending machines, which also supplied boiling water. They appealed in particular to the youth market and were sold packaged with plastic forks instead of chopsticks.
"It became fashionable for guys to be seen eating walkaway noodles," entertainer LaSalle Ishii recalls.
Unfortunately, Shukan Taishu notes, the myopic trend of paying short shrift to academia and science continues, with the House of Representatives on May 9 passing a bill that will privatize the Science Council of Japan.
Will the sun, Shukan Taishu wonders, ever rise again? Let's keep hoping that the Japanese people, who achieved a miraculous recovery from the ashes of war, will once again demonstrate their latent strengths.
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