Japan's Economic Miracle 日本经济奇迹
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In the 19th century, Japan adopted modernization policy in the pursuit of parity with the industrial West. The slogan "fukoku kyōhei," meaning "enrich the country, strengthen the military" was also adopted to encourage its citizens to work hard for their country. Under the policies, Japan was developing swiftly until WW2.
在19世纪，日本采取现代化政策，追求与西方工业同等的地位。“富国强军”的口号也被采用以鼓励国民为国家努力工作。在这些政策下，日本在二战前一直发展迅速。
▲ Ginza, 1945 银座，1945年
After the World War 2, Japan was a broken nation with two of its cities completely burned to the ground by the United States' nuclear bombs. Its economy was performing bad and although America granted Japan direct access to its market, Japan's products didn't match the quality of American products at the time. It was crucial for Japan to undergo major reforms especially in the manufacturing industries.
第二次世界大战后的日本是一个支离破碎的国家，其两座城市被美国的核弹完全烧毁。日本经济往往落后，尽管美国允许日本直接进入美国的市场，但当时日本的产品质量不能跟美国的产品比。对于日本而言，尤其是在制造业中进行重大改革至关重要。
Quality was crucial in establishing Japan as the major exporter in the world, and so japan recruited foreign quality experts such as Edwards Deming and many others. During this time, Japan's suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and banks decided to work together forming groups called Keiretsu. In the 1960s, manufacturing industries boomed and the low-quality reputation of Japan products was increasingly undeserved.
重视质量对于将日本确立为全球主要出口国很重要，因此日本聘请了爱德华兹·戴明（Edwards Deming）等许多外国质量专家。在此期间，日本的供应商，制造商，分销商和银行都共同组成名为Keiretsu的一些组织。在1960年代，制造业蓬勃发展，日本产品的低质量声誉越来越消失了。
▲ 1960s Japanese Electric Guitar
20世纪60年代日本电吉他
Japanese products were beginning to get better than American and European products both in terms of quality and price. Japanese cars and electronics especially were considered of higher quality and their prices were lower than those of their American and European counterparts. Growth exploded and its cities were transforming into urban wonders as they are seen today.
在质量和价格方面，日本产品开始比美国和欧洲产品好。尤其是日本的汽车和电子产品被认为质量最好，其价格低于美国和欧洲的汽车和电子产品。如今，增长迅猛，其城市转变为我们现在所看到的世界奇观。
Japan's growth was fueled by many factors, but one factor that we can't ignore is its postwar generation. Due to the hardship that followed WW2, people who were born or living during this time had an incredible work ethic. In fact, Japan recorded the most hours worked per capita of any country in much of the 20 years from the 1960s to the 1980s.
日本的经济增长是由许多因素推动的，但有一点我们不能忽视， 那就是其的世界二战后一代。由于第二次世界大战后的艰苦生活，在这段时间出生或生活的人们有着令人难以置信的职业道德。事实上，在20世纪60年代到80年代的大部分时间里，日本是世界上人均工作时间最长的国家。
This generation is credited with making Japan's economy strong and building the country that it is today. The Japanese education system also played a part in the economic growth by producing highly skilled and disciplined workers. Japan was one of the countries with high levels of literacy.
这一代人被认为是日本经济增强和建设今天这个国家的功臣。日本的教育系统也通过培养高技能和纪律严明的工人在经济增长中发挥了作用。日本人民变的识字率最高的国家之一。
There are two major eras during the miracle of Japan's economy, the first one is "Recovery," which is from 1945 to 1956. During this time, the average per capita GDP was rising at an average annual rate of 7.1%. The Recovery era focused on rebuilding industries with a great focus being on the cotton, steel, and coal industries.
日本经济奇迹有两个时期，第一个时期是1945年至1956年的“复苏”。在此期间，人均国内生产总值以年均7.1%的速度增长。
At the end of this era, Japan had regained its prewar period’s economic growth. The Recovery era was followed by the "Rapid Growth" era, even though the Rapid Growth era ended in 1973, the Japanese economy continued to grow at a fast rate for almost two more decades.
在这个时代结束时，日本恢复了战前的经济增长。复苏时代之后就是“快速增长”时代，尽管快速增长时代在1973年结束，但日本经济在近20多年的时间里继续保持迅速增长。
The second half of the 20th century saw an increase of Japanese products. As we have already stated, the relatively lower price and high quality of these products began replacing American and European products. One of the biggest markets of these products was the United States. Facing a fierce competition from the Japanese products, American industries were forced to downsize or close down. At about nineteen eighty-five, Japan's foreign exchange reserve was about 50% of the whole world consequently taking over the United States as the largest holder of the foreign exchange reserve.
20世纪下半叶，日本产品不断的增加。正如我们已经描述，这些产品相对较低的价格和较高的质量开始取代美国和欧洲的产品。这些产品的最大市场之一是美国。面对来自日本产品的激烈竞争，美国工业被迫缩减规模或关闭。在大约一九八五年，日本的外汇储备约占世界的50%，因此接管美国作为外汇储备的最大持有者。
During the second oil crisis, industries and economy in countries like USA were affected but Japanese economy were still growing unaffected. Brands such as Honda, Toyota, Panasonic, Canon, Toshiba, Mitsubishi, Sharp, Suntory, etc. dominated the whole World. However, USA claimed that Japan was keeping its currency artificially low, so they forced Japan to appreciate Japanese Yen through the Plaza Accord. The Plaza Accord or Plaza Agreement was an agreement by five major industrial countries at the time, i.e. France, West Germany, Japan, USA, and the UK.
在第二次石油危机期间，美国和其他西方国家的工业和经济受到了影响，但日本经济仍然没有受到影响。本田、丰田、松下、佳能、东芝、三菱、夏普、三得利等品牌在全球占据主导地位。随后美国声称日本故意压低日元汇率，因此美国和盟国通过广场协议迫使日本升值日元。广场协议是当时五个主要工业大国，即法国、西德国、日本、美国和英国达成的协议。
Appreciation of the Japanese Yen forced the government to reduce tax and increase more capital to different industries in the country. But Japanese people were worried of the risks involved in doing businesses. Most of them saw that real estate and stock markets were safer, this created a big demand and thus increased stock and land prices.
日元升值迫使日本政府减少税收，增加对国内不同行业的投资。但日本人民在担心做生意的风险。他们中的大多数人认为房地产和股票市场更安全，这心态造了巨大的需求，从而增加了股市和房地产价格。
For example, the price of land in nineteen ninety-one became 5.36 times more expensive than it was in nineteen eighty-three. A good example is given when 29 villagers sold their land for eight million Yen, but regretted later because after only 5 months, it was valued at 1.1 billion Yen. Japanese got extremely rich but the housing bubble was just waiting around the corner.
例如，一九九一年的地价是一九八三年的5.36倍。一个最好的例子是：29名村民以800万日元的价格出售了他们的土地，但后来却后悔了，因为仅仅过了5个月，他们刚卖出的土地价值就达到了11亿日元。这时日本人变得非常富有，但房地产泡沫不久就要开始了。
As Japan was flourishing, America was declining, and Japanese were moving abroad buying properties all over the world. One of the famous examples of Japanese buying the World was coined as "Japanese buying the America," this was manifested as they started buying American banks, supermarkets, and Hollywood’s Colombia Pictures and the Rockefeller Center all became owned by Japanese. To many people, the property and stock market was and will always be rising, thus the more you invest, the more you will get richer. But this was not the case because in 1990s the Japanese Government advisers and economists started to notice the bubble in the economy was about to burst.
随着日本的繁荣，美国正在衰落，日本人正在海外购买世界各地的房产。日本人购买世界的一个著名例子被称为“日本人购买美国”，这个事实表现在日本人开始购买美国的银行、超市、好莱坞的哥伦比亚电影公司和洛克菲勒中心。在这个时候，对许多人来说，房地产和股票市场将来都会不停的上涨，因此一个人投资越多，他就会变得越富有。但事实并非如此，因为上世纪90年代，日本政府顾问和经济学家开始注意到经济泡沫即将破裂。
In order to prevent the bubble from bursting, the government had to put some measures such as increasing interest rate, adjust land income tax, introduce land value tax, etc. By 1990, the stock market value lost almost 44% of its value, many companies were at risk of bankruptcy, house prices were lower than before but no one was willing or could afford to buy anymore. The first real estate bubble bursted in Tokyo and spread to other cities across Japan. In 1993, 21 banks reported major loss and were badly in debt due to real estate business.
为了防止房产市场泡沫破裂，政府采取了加息、调整土地所得税、开征土地增值税等措施，到1990年，股票市值缩水近44%，许多公司面临破产的风险，房价变成了比以前低了好多，虽然价格低但没有人愿意或买得起了。第一个房地产泡沫在东京爆发，并蔓延到日本其他城市。在1993年时，有21家银行因房地产业出现重大亏损，债台高筑。
▲ Ginza, 2012
银座，2012年
Japan's economy went into a dreadful stagnation measured in decades. Nevertheless, the Economic Miracle had transformed the country into the modern nation with a thriving middle class that it is today.
数十年来，日本经济陷入了严重的停滞状态。但是，经济奇迹已使该国转变为如今的中产阶级日益繁荣的现代国家。
Japan is among the world's most literate and technically advanced nations; its economy is a highly developed free-market economy and the third-largest in the world by nominal GDP. But it is also the most indebted country in the world, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 235%. The nation's main export goods are cars, consumer electronics, computers, semiconductors, copper, iron, and steel. Other key industries in Japan are petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, bio-industry, shipbuilding, aerospace, textiles, cosmetics, and processed food.
日本是世界上文化水平最高，技术最先进的国家之一。 它的经济是高度发达的自由市场经济，按名义GDP排名世界第三。但它也是世界上负债最多的国家，债务占GDP的比重为235％。该国的主要出口商品是汽车，消费电子产品，计算机，半导体，铜，铁和钢铁。日本的其他主要行业是石化，制药，生物工业，造船，航空航天，纺织品，化妆品和加工食品。
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