Comments by "Yo2" (@yo2trader539) on "VisualEconomik EN" channel.

  1. Japan's foreign policy decisions are not economic, rather they're always based on national security concerns. Japan signed 3 alliances with the UK, Germany, and the US in the 20th century to counter the encroachment of Imperial Russia and Soviet Union in East Asia. Wars with the Qing Dynasty (1894) and Imperial Russia (1904), full annexation of Korean peninsula (1910), funding of the Chinese Revolution (1911), and establishing Manchukuo (1931)...were all meant to keep the Russians/Soviets out of Korean peninsula and Inner Manchuria. This path was set after Imperial Russia seized Outer Manchuria (aka Russian Far East) from the Qing Dynasty in the 1850s & 1860s. And 1/3 of all Japanese ground forces were stationed in Hokkaido, adjacent to Soviet Union, in preparation of a Soviet invasion during the Cold War. What has changed since the end of the Cold War was that Chinese have become increasingly more imperialistic in their behavior. But what some foreigners fail to understand is that Japan has never had friendly relations with China since the 7th century, when the Tang Dynasty invaded Japanese vassal on the Korean peninsula. Thus far, Japan has fought 5 major wars with whomever was ruling China. After wars with the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century, war with Mongol Yuan Dynasty in 13th century, Ming Dynasty in late 16th century, Manchu Qing Dynasty in late 19th century, and war with Republic of China in the 1930s & 1940s. Sorry to burst your bubble, but the US is just an afterthought. We've never had friendly relations with or trusted the Chinese ever since the 7th century. Be it Americans, Russians or Indians, whatever works, we'll gladly form ties to counter threats to Japan. Again, Japan's decisions are almost never economic, rather they're solely based on countering existential threats to Japan.
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  2. The economic success of Taiwan and South Korea has deep roots in the reforms/modernization in KOSEKI system, taxation, land ownership, mandatory and higher-education system, infrastructure, agriculture, laws and judicial system, healthcare, government institutions, and even cultural indoctrination from Japanese administration. Japan introduced/forced the exact same structure, system, and policies that worked in Japan. As such, it was almost natural and easy for Taiwan and South Korea to emulate Japan's post-WWII economic model. (The South Korean and Taiwanese elites after WWII were mostly educated in Japanese academic institutions.) Conversely, Japan occupied the Philippines for 3 years but there wasn't any time to implement any meaningful reforms. As such, the Philippines got stuck with what they've inherited from the Spanish and American colonial times. It's exactly why the Philippines carries similar social, political, and economic issues to many of the Latin American countries. Crimes, Drugs, Guns, Inequality, Corruption, teenage pregnancy...it's like a mirror image.
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