Effect of Japan's Post-War Economic Development on the Changes in Social Patterns and Attitudes

Introduction

Economic growth in japan after the post-world war two eras resulted in the Japanese economic miracle. During this period, the country grew rapidly to be the world's second largest economy after the United States. This led to various changes in the country's social patterns. By 1990, Japan's demographic patterns began stagnating, and there were no longer expanding workforce levels as it were in the previous decades, despite the consistently high per-worker productivity.

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The post war Japanese economic development was a catch-up process that was associated with industrial economies. However, the economic policies and corporate strategies were conducted with the utmost mandate of catching-up. Their general goals were shared by all economic agents with a national consensus. Economic development was enhanced by the use of macroeconomic policies and in particular, the monetary policies which provided funds for the country's strategic sectors.

However, the characteristics of the Japanese population that distinguished them after the post war include adjustments in the social patterns that involve corporation among manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, and banks. This led to the establishment of closely knit groups, powerful enterprise unions, proper government relations, and bureaucrats and a guarantee of lifetime employment in well-established corporations and unionized blue-collar firms. This led to the establishment and strengthening of the attitude of international competitiveness of tradeable-goods-producing industries.

The macroeconomic policies led to the creation of the Japanese-style-market systems that functioned in a fairly strong international competitive market of tradeable-goods-producing firms. The country's economic development during the post war period led to the establishment of social patterns and attitudes that fostered aspects of the catch-up process, market system Japanese style, drive for structural reforms and globalization and IT revolutions that helped Japan's immense growth.

Prospects and Challenges

Japan faces various environmental, demographic and social challenges in the 21st century.

Environmental Challenges

Japan has been experiencing environmental pollution challenges which can be attributed to its massive industrialization since the Meiji period. The 2006 environment annual report by the ministry of Environment reported the current main environmental issues that included global warming and ozone layer preservation, conservation of the atmospheric environment, waste management and recycling and water and soil preservation (Smith, 2006). Other factors that also form part of environmental pollution and also contribute significantly to it include nuclear power, fishery and whaling, urban planning and electronic waste management.

Demographic Challenges

The long term economic struggles in japan results in profound demographic changes that showcase a combination of low birth rates and long life expectancy. This results in rapid greying and shrinking of the country's population. These demographic changes have had eminent effects on the macroeconomic conditions and consumption levels and the health of the society. It has greatly affected communities outside of Japan's major cities since the rural areas age faster than the country as a whole, which threatens their future viability. To showcase the country's demographic crises, the country's birth rate stands at 8 births per 1,000 people in 2013, recording the lowest globally. Moreover, the population over 65 years form 25% of the population, which is the highest globally. As per 2010, the country's population was at its peak at 128 million, and future projections show that it would drop below 100 million by 2048 and go as low as 61 million by 2085.

Social Challenges

Some of the social problems affecting Japan include:

• Low birth rate levels due to the rise in the elderly population and people failing to have enough children to keep the population steady and balanced.
• Overworking that result in long working hours and causing many people to suffer the health consequences that are associated with it.
• Gender inequality ranging from the workplace to home set up. Women are far from achieving equal footing with men than they are in other developed countries.

Solutions to the Problems

Environmental problems can be solved by implementing stricter regulations on waste management by the Japanese government. It does this by forcing the residential population to establish creative ways of disposing of their trash - the policies set by the government aim at reducing water usage, air emissions, and municipal waste generation. The government is also strongly supporting research and development towards the adoption of clean technology after shutting down its nuclear reactors of the Fukushima disaster.

The government can address demographic challenges in the country by providing incentives that would encourage the citizens to give birth and establish large families to increase the population of the young generation. Moreover, in the meantime, the government encourages regulated immigration to help cover up the gap and control various economic aspects of the country.

To address the social problem of limited labour sources, the country is encouraging innovation in firms by encouraging the design and use of robots to replace humans. It is also encouraging regulated immigration to enable immigrants to provide cheap and affordable labour. The problem of gender equality can be solved by introducing the quota system which ensures that there are equal representations of males and females not only at elections but also at the workplace.

Bibliography

Menju, Toshihiro. 2017. "Immigration The Solution To Japan'S Population Problem." East Asia Forum. http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2017/10/26/immigration-the-solution-to-japans-population-problem/.

Otsubo, Shigeru. 2003. JAPAN'S POST-WAR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: MACROECONOMIC AND MACROECONOMIC AND MICROECONOMIC STORIES MICROECONOMIC STORIES. Ebook. Nagoya University. http://www.gsid.nagoya-u.ac.jp/sotsubo/Japanese_Development_Model_Notes.pdf.

Sakuma, Koji. 2018. The Labour Market In Japan And Its Demographic Problems. Ebook. 10th ed. Institute for International Monetary Affairs. https://www.iima.or.jp/Docs/newsletter/2018/NL2018No_10_e.pdf.

Smith, Brett. 2015. "Japan: Environmental Issues, Policies And Clean Technology". Azocleantech.Com. https://www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=539.

Yoshioka, Shinji, and Hirofumi Kawasaki. 2016. Japan'S High-Growth Postwar Period: The Role Of Economic Plans. Ebook. 27th ed. ESRI Research. http://www.esri.go.jp/jp/archive/e_rnote/e_rnote030/e_rnote027.pdf.