How did East Asia become rich in a single generation?

[fromthbottomofmyheart]

It's always perplexed me as to how several disparate economies with disparate strengths (and economic models, it seems) managed to develop so rapidly. I could ask the same question about the West, but we have popular explanations for that (first to industrialise, colonialism, etc.)

How about East Asia? How did the economies of Japan, HK, Taiwan and S. Korea develop so fast? And with China catching up apace? I don't think they are abudant in natural resources. Either, unlike the Gulf states.

Japan is quite a different story. They were decimated after WW2. They had a lot of infrastructure set up for the machinery of war...had lost and their economy was fucked.

The US wanted their reparations and also knew a Japan in poverty could be destabilising and dangerous. They assisted Japan to switch over to other manufacturing industries.

A guy called Deming went over to teach them about the current best management practices. They really bought into it and developed it even further at companies like Toyota...

That, combined with the insane (to us) attitude to work meant they overtook the US in terms of quality in cars, then electronics, etc.

So not that recent...more 60s-80s that made the difference.

The management practices they developed from what Deming taught them were 'Lean' and 'the Toyota Way'.

They're very imperialist and also very much run for Japan by Japan. Put the two together and you have a nation that will grow at a real pace.

That applies to most countries - surely we're run by the UK for the UK?

I thought we sell everything off to other countries & welcome immigration

So interesting this thread I was asked to house a young lady from Zimbabwe this week she has been recruited to a care company here her visa is 38 hrs per week plus she can work an extra 30 which I absolutely have no doubt she will I think British people are on the whole quite workshy definitely not up for 68 hrs a week work - she was left in Zim by her husband she has two children 3/6 and is here to send money home as she can’t make enough there to support them all. We are going downhill rapidly -UK

I don't think working 68hrs a week should be the goal tbh.

@watersprites its not the goal it was an example of how some people will work vs British not working as well hence the recruitment drive abroad

No. We operate within the European Union. We are not even close to being as nationalistic as Japan

Japan industrialised between what, 1895 & 1935? That is crazy fast.

South Korea, Singapore, also benefited from overseas investment.

Have come on a lot but still a long way to go: Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Philipines, Malaysia, Indonesia ...

@Parsley1234 I think immigrants have different motivations though particularly when they have family back home. I know a few people who have gone to Singapore/UAE, worked liked trojan's for a few yrs & then come home.

Plus salaries here are pretty shit now for many which is a disincentive. My local beautician was Polish & her husband was a plumber. They came here to make money to build a house back home which they did. By the time Brexit came round that was the final push as economic conditions had improved quite a bit back home so the UK was no longer attractive.

Attitude to work? I thought that the US was hard working?

How does a young lady from Zimbabwe coming here for a better life make us "going downhill'?

Interesting

I wasn't thinking of SEA

They became rich because the much richer (in the 60s onwards) west could afford to buy their products.
They had lower wages so our industries moved there. They had no unions.
Now China buys our designer handbags -their the rich ones.

It may just be a coincidence but both Germany and Japan had exceptional economic growth in the decades following WWII. Now it could be down to things like work ethic, attitude, engineering prowess etc. Or, it could be that having serious restrictions on how much you can spend on "defense" coupled with 10s of 000s of foreign troops stationed in your country, at great expense to their home nations, gives a rather nice economic boost.

There isn’t a single factor. They all developed separately. Hong Kong benefited economically as a British colony, was also ( and still is) a free port. Their port has now been eclipsed by Shanghai and Singapore but was the region’s largest for decades. Was a manufacturing hub for cheap goods that the west wanted and then became Asia’s financial hub and a link to a liberalising China ( H shares and A shares etc). Also benefits from migrant domestic labour from Philippines and Indonesia which made 2 wage families the norm.

Arguably China got rich when the government decided to take the brakes off, but predominantly as a manufacturing hub.

Yeah- I think when Poland joined the EU unemployment was close to 50% and now it’s 5%. I do agree that Brexit was bad but at the same time there are structural factors behind UK’s ( and to be fair, developed Europe’s) labour shortage. And it’s mainly about improved economies of the old eastern bloc countries. Those workers disguised a long term structural issue with labour shortages in the Uk, Germany etc.

@illiterato I agree & we are in for interesting times (if that's the right word) with shifting demographics

Post-war Japan, France, Germany and Britain received huge amounts of aid from the US under Marshall and MacArthur - with Britain being the largest recipient by far. Germany and Japan spent it on rebuilding their industrial base using the latest technology and techniques. Britain and France pissed it all up the wall trying to prop up their failing empires.

Generally through export orientated industrialisation and increasing skills / value. So making good tech products and selling to the west.

Huge numbers of people working twenty hour days for pennies with no pesky employment rights

@fromthbottomofmyheart because companies have to recruit from overseas as brits won’t do they work or can’t

companies could pay higher salaries though...