Nov 04 2005
Sino-Japo-phrenia
At the urging of class prof. Bachman, read this article on NYT.
Summary: despite acerbic diplomatic relations, China and Japan are becoming more and more dependent on each other through trade and commerce.
- 150,000 Chinese students in Japan
- 100,000 Japanese in Shanghai—the largest expat community overseas!
- You can find all the cats-meow in Shanghai’s Japanese CoC phone book
- Japan FDI in China is over $31.5
Questionable assertions:
“… with the Chinese economy not only outstripping Japan’s in size, but perhaps matching it in sophistication before long.”
—Any proof? Any per capita GDP data as proof? Any case study?
“… while cheap imports from China have driven costs down significantly for Japan’s long-suffering consumers”
—I thought Japan has long had “deflation” problem? What goods from China could make material impact on Japan’s cost of living? It may very well be. But still need proof.
My thoughts: Political tension between the two: neither the two is a liberal democracy. “China is certainly out of discussion in this regard. Even in Japan, where democracy is institutionalized, it is not the “liberal” democracy as in the western sense. I’d argue that the kind of students movement in West Germany in the 60s is unimaginable even in today’s Japan. ” see the whole blog…