Japan, Inc.: Optimized to 1960, Stumbling in the 21st Century

oftwominds - Charles Hugh Smith:

If an ossified, self-serving status quo refuses to adapt, collapse is the only way forward.

When everything's going great, nobody questions the nation's core institutions:they must be doing a great job because everything's going great.

The temptation to extend positive expansion to the moon is ever-present. Take Japan's "boost phase" of credit, banking and corporate expansion in the mid-to-late 1980s: pundits extended the soaring growth line and declared Japan, Inc. was going to own the world, or at least its most productive elements.

"Experts" fell all over themselves studying the structure and procedures of Japan, Inc., and hurried back to their home countries to copy Japan's success by copying its corporate structures, managerial culture and quality-control procedures.

Cont....