Japan

choi

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(1) 在中国成为世界第二经济大国背后. VOA Chinese, Aug. 17, 2010.
http://www1.voanews.com/chinese/news/20100814-China-Controversial-Growth.html
(华盛顿智囊机构传统基金会的中国经济问题学者史剑道(Dr. Derek Scissors)"说，中国应该以它刚刚赶超的日本为鉴：虽然日本的经济规模现在排到了第三，但是它的人均收入水平已经滑到世界40位左右的水平，跟美国最穷的密西西比州的人均收入水平差不多。史剑道说，日本的成功故事已经完结，而中国并非没有可能重蹈日本的覆辙。")

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest. The sentence "它的人均收入水平已经滑到世界40位左右的水平，跟美国最穷的密西西比州的人均收入水平差不多" refers to per capita GDP by purchase power parity, not by exchange rate (Yen has appreciated against American dollar and Euro since financial crisis started in fall, 2008).
(b) CIA World Factbook (2010 edition; for 2009 estimates, in 2009 dollars):

............................................Taiwan ...Japan.....Italy........Spain......US
per capita GDP (PPP) ..........$29,800 ..$32,600..$30,300..$33,700..$46,400
country comparison to world..47 ..........41..........44 ..........38..........11


(2) James Fallows, Japan Surrenders; The author returns to his old Tokyo neighborhood and finds an inward-looking country that has lost its ambition.
The Atlantic, September 2010.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/09/japan-surrenders/8183/
("The most striking changes [in Japan] were of the burnishing variety, consistent with Japan’s steady rise in personal wealth and also manufacturing strength, even through these years of financial-market paralysis. If you know China mainly through stories of its economic successes, you’re surprised on a visit that it’s still so poor. If you know Japan mainly through stories of its failures, which are real, you’re surprised that it’s become so rich")

Note:
(a) Utsukushigaoka 美しが丘
(b) Levittown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown

Photo gallery:
Levittown Throough the Years. New York Times, Oct. 13, 2007.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/12/nyregion/20071013_LEVITTOWN_SLIDESHOW_index.html

(c) Tokyu 東急 電鉄
http://www.tokyu.co.jp/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyu_Corporation
(d) Yasuhiro NAKASONE 中曽根 康弘 (1918- )
(e) Morihiro HOSOKAWA 細川 護煕 (1938-)
(f) Maekawa Report 前川レポート
(g) John w. Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. WW Norton & Company (1999).
(h) shin jin rui 新人類
(i) kokusaika 国際化
(j) Big Red (drink)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Red_(drink)
(the preeminent red creme soda in the Southwest)

I had not heard of it until today.
(k) Blaine Harden, For young Japanese, U.S. degrees lose lure; Students content to stay home, citing cultural, financial advantages . Washington Post, Apr. 11, 2010.
(l) For the past three years or so, the author, Mr. Fallows, is China's correspondent for the Atlantic.


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