Essay: Much has been made of China moving past Japan as Asia’s leader. But a Beijing-based Japanese writer says Japan’s relative economic decline in the past 20 years hides the fact that it has built a model society for its citizens
By Daisuke Kondo*
经济观察报E.O./Worldcrunch
BEIJING - SMAP, a popular but aging Japanese boy band, recently preformed in Beijing, immersing their Chinese fans in days of ecstasy. SMAP is one of the most popular bands in Japan, and has been the guest group, for 18 straight years, on NHK Japan’s New Year Eve broadcast. The band has sold more than 20 million albums, and their best-selling single “The One and Only Flower in the World” has long been on the lips of young people all over Asia.
Early this year, Uichiro Niwa, Japan’s Ambassador to China, said that SMAP’s Beijing concert should be regarded as “the most important activity representing Japan”. Over the past six months, the Japanese Embassy fully mobilized its staff to prepare for the concert.
Today, recalling that passionate concert, I’m thinking “What remains of my motherland Japan?”
Since the beginning of 2011, talk of the “Japanese Decline” is everywhere. China’s GDP has bypassed Japan’s to become the world’s second largest. Not only has Japan lost its second position behind the US, but the gap between China and Japan is as much as $721.9 billion.
March’s devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, left more than 20,000 dead and missing. Japan’s northeastern coastal region collapsed economically.
Coupled with the Fukushima nuclear plant accident, the country, which used to be proud to be “the safest nation in the world” suddenly became the most dangerous.
In 2010, China’s foreign investment also surpassed Japan’s for the first time.
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