Why Japan Never Became a Superpower 

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Yeah imagine that just 80 years ago, the country that is now synonymous with anime was commiting war crimes that made the Nazis say "calm down"

In order to be a superpower, you need to have a vast quantity of resources you can upon in case of a war. Japan may be rich, but it is still dependent on stuff like oil from the Middle East and grain from America. If Japan was cut off from these things the economy would collapse very quickly.

I love how in the 90s, it was predicted that the US and Japan would have a Pacific War rematch in the 2020s

Considering it has the 3rd largest (and for a while the 2nd largest) GDP, its influence in western culture from ninjas to anime, and the fact that every western household owns a product made by a Japanese company (i.e. Honda, Sony, Toshiba, Yamaha, Nintendo, etc.), Japan has done pretty well for itself for the past 70 years. WWII Japan could never have dreamed of having this much world influence.

The basic needs (ALL must be fulfilled) to become a superpower nation: 1. Having a large land mass that contain a lot of natural resources 2. Knowledge to processing those resources 3. Having a lot of population as your core basic market 4. Having nuclear bombs Seeing those points, I guess Japan never qualified to enter the class of superpower league...

The short answer is population. Their population went from 40 million in 1900, to 70 million in 1937. 30 million in almost 40 years, they expanded massively. Their population went from 80 million in 1948, to 120 million in 1980. 40 million in almost 30 years, they were a global power. Their population went from 124 million in 1990, to 123 million now. -1 million in 30 years, they've stagnated for 30 years.

This lacks commentary on the real cause why Japan stopped growing. Their economy was highly oriented to industrial exports and services. The video does talk about how the service industry suffered from the housing price bubble. The export industry grew since the USA seeked to get cheaper industrial imports than locally. But as wages rose, exports to western countries became less attractive for the buyers, who turned to other industrialized nations to produce cheaper goods, like China. Now, Chinese wages had been increasing due to this export boom, so on the 2010s rich western countries started to swing their demand of exports to cheaper countries like India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Vietnam. Eventually, the next industrial centers will be switched to Africa or some latinamerican countries. Whoever is industrialized and cheap.

"When you look at Japanese traditional architecture, you have to look at Japanese culture and its relationship with nature. You can actually live in a harmonious, close contact with nature - this very unique to Japan" --Tadao Ando

I think you missed out one of the reasons why Imperial Japan surrendered was not entirely because of the Atomic bombs but also because Russia was taking advantage of the situation by using the opportunity to invade Japan too.

Thanks for giving us more of the history of Japan than I expected for this question. Longer than a typical KhAnubis video but worth it.

Pretty crazy to think that we were the only western country that was allowed to trade with Japan for over 200 years. But then again we weren't really into converting others to our religion like the Spanish and portuguese. We just wanted to trade and make money.

Japan is getting older and workers are living in horrible conditions such as 50 to 100 hour work days with no overtime because of the older generation putting stress on the younger generation

Japan is truly something. Pretty much my favorite games are from there, some of my favorite shows, one of my favorite car brands. Their business methods also are a key consideration for business practice. Japan may not be a near superpower anymore but their impact is more than so many great powers countries.

Japan could be, but since USA will not allow it to be a superpower, it will not have chance

The part of "cultural victory" is actually false. Japanese culture and entertainment is made by japanese people to the japanese people. This is unlike the United States where food, music, movies etc have been made to be sold around the globe. When anime and all other japanese stuff started to become big, it wasn't because the japanese producers wanted this, it is because western audiences found it themselves and started to share it amongst themselves. It's more like comparing fetishizing to cultural imperialism. Japanese culture wasn't meant for others to like because of their pretty heavy xenophobis. American culture on the other hand has been showed down peoples throats for decades. And to be clear, I am not condoning any of these ways. I think people should always enjoy whatever they want, be it some obscure Japanes drama or a high budget Hollywood movie. But I think this difference in mindset is also a big part of why Japan never became the great superpower of the pacific.

I will now only refer to the Great Depression as "The Big Time Sad"

Good overview, but your analysis misses what in my opinion is the biggest limiter on Japanese growth, and that's the fact that they more or less ran out of living space, and the home islands are severely lacking in key resources that a major modern economy needs, and even the space to increase food. Relying almost entirely on imports from other sovereign nations does not make a superpower, even if trade links have secured a robust economy. Paying for Japan's rapidly aging population is also going to limit their ability to advance into the new technologies needed to keep pushing the economy forward, potentially creating even more foreign reliance on matters such as utilizing ocean resources.

how can Japan be a superpower if America controlled their military strength

The one reason that Japan cant be a superpower despite being 2nd to US back then its because its the US also thats holding them in the neck.

... nothing about the Plaza Accord? And the anti-japanese prejudice in the 1980s in the US as Japan was poised to take them over

Anyone that says China isn't already a superpower is stuck in 1995

strange but interesting that while Korea and China harbor strong animosity toward Japan for the wars, Taiwan on the other hand is one of Japan's best friends alongside the US, despite being Japan's first oversea colony.

this video will blow up. it doesnt deserve to only have 2k views

For an island country without much natural resources and hundred million or so people, they have done pretty well for themselves. Being world 3 economy is great achievement. There are countries with double their population and all the natural resources that don't come anywhere close. Well done Japan.

Calling the Meiji "restoration" as something lead by the emperor is pretty off. It was yet another Clan rebellion (centered around the Satsuma and Choshu, two clans that were out of favor and had much to gain from trade). The difference was they decided to control the emperor as advisors in the court instead of the usual "bakufu" military dictatorship. Which allowed Japan to transition into a sort of constitutional monarchy (not too different from Prussia, there's a reason they have a "Diet"). Disentangling what was the emperor's "will" as opposed to what was done in his name makes the 1920s and 1930s a real headache to study. Codifying the emperor as "symbol" really wasn't much of a stretch, that's how government had run for 800 years before the "restoration", it just spelled out what was known as fact. Also, tied in with the new constitution was a land-reform act that MADE a LOT of small landholder/farmers. This gave the new government a domestic "democratic" party base. They aren't the most innovative or forward-thinking bunch, but they do act as a counter to corporate interests. The single biggest issue with Japan's economy, is the inability for companies to "die". There were some big risers in the 50s and 60s. (Sony and Honda for 2), but holding off "destruction" is what lead to the "lost decades".

traditional Japanese interpretations of American soldiers look very similar to some of the animated videos of the Beatles, (especially the frame at 3:14). I wonder if this is where they got the idea from.

Korea, China and East Asia: so your going to apologize know right Japan: for what? i did nothing wrong USA: yeah i agree

As Japan was becoming economically powerful and poise to takeover USA as No. One, Japan was heavily targeted with calls for dumping, calls to open up markets, restrictions, tariffs and had to sign Plaza Accord to " correct trade balance". This paved the way for Japan's "Lost Decade" of sluggish growth and deflation. And after this lesson, Japan continue to grow the economy outside of Japan, developing in South East Asia, USA etc to avoid being target again. Now could see similar China being targeted when having potential to overtake USA as economic superpower.

The Japanese did not surrender to the atomic bombs. It was the swift Soviet invasion of Manchuria that made Hirohito finally realize that they could not win the war.

Makes me sad, but the only reason Japan and others (like Germany) will never reach full potential is simply because the US doesn't want it to happen.

Amen, Japan would definitely win the cultural victory. Their influence goes waay beyond just anime. It is indeed crazy

Japan cannot be super power, but I hope it will continue to grow steadily in the future.

Japan lacks the resources and lands to develop itself to become self sufficient, that’s why they sought to expand in to mainland east Asia by annexing Korea, China and the rest of south east Asia by creating a self sufficient empire relying less on foreign powers for strategic resources that would hinder their military expansion and capability.

I’ve admired Japan since I was a kid, having grown playing Nintendo in the 80’s. I’m surprised you didn’t mention Mario, Luigi, or Bowser! 🐲

I had actually wondered about this for a long time, excellent video as always!

To those who claim the PRC is a superpower… I would respectfully like to make the argument as to why that isn’t the case based on the understanding of comparative geopolitics that show that the gap in capability between the US and China simply doesn’t reflect this (China being a Superpower). The USSR comparatively was for more powerful and influential than the PRC is in a way that is not even comparable. It’s literal client states across 5 continents and central role in geopolitical affairs allowing it the strategic flexibility to operate in any region of the world (the actual definition of a superpower and not just “strong country”) This China is not When you compare that to the US then that has 500,000 troops spread out across five continents has about 56 client states and counting Is head of most most international institutions And is in a grand alliance political, diplomatic and military with 16 of the top 20 largest economies and militaries in the world Calling China a superpower is simply devoid from reality currently (could easily change). One can easily say China is the greatest of all great power no doubt and a potential superpower. Perhaps even claim they are potentially the most powerful single state on earth But they are very much not a superpower regardless of how large they have grown their economy simply because they can’t project that power. And THAT more than anything else is the measure of a superpower. This is why despite the US probably being the most powerful state in earth since the 1920s, it wasn’t really a superpower until 1945. One on one, the US and China a matched. But the fact that the US is NEVER one on one is precisely why it’s a superpower like the USSR was back in the Cold War and China is not. No hate on China, I am not American or even western but I just needed to explain why this often stated claim is widely understood to be false, atleast for now. Take a look to understand what I’m talking about in terms of official terminology of what makes a superpower and you are free to do further reading as well. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superpower

We tried once, our neighbors didn’t enjoy it and we got two bit surprises

Amazing!

I would love to visit Japan some day. I love the food and culture. Not sure I'll ever make it though as I'm fairly poor. -Regards from USA

As usual for Khanubis, this video starts only after first half of the video

To save your time. 2 big reasons that are interrelated: 1, Too few people. They tried to fix this by colonizing others like Britain did, but failed. 2, China is too larger for Japan to become dominant unless Japan can successfully colonize a few countries.

Japan actually tried that 80 years ago and the world saw what they had committed. Better never let them get any chance to commit such appalling atrocities to human race any more.

forgot to mention the plaza accord's affect on the yen and japan's fiscal policy in general.

For anyone interested in the Pacific Theatre of WW2, I can recommend Dan Carlin's series Supernova in the East. It's absolutely harrowing listening at some points, but I highly recommend it

Wait, the video is released a minute ago, yet there are comments from yesterday?

They failed to become the most powerful country on earth because the European countries got a head start, and by the time Japan could make up the difference and surpass them, which it did succeed at, the US was already firmly established and immense in scale, beyond Japan or any other non-continental sized countries ability to compete with. It was doomed to 2nd place at best status. It certainly may have gone on to dominate all east and southeast asia if it weren't for the US, so in another world who knows how powerful Japan could have become. They were very hardcore as well, intending to spread the Japanese, language, ideals, and people across the region outside of the home islands, similar to how the English expanded into North America.

We have many Japanese youtubers in India who speak hindi so perfectly that sometime they can ashame a local hindi speaking guy . Japanese people are accepting of other cultures and so much peaceful people i really like them and of course i have grown up watching Japanese cartoons like doremon , schinchan ,Pokemon etc .

8:11 that particularist rebels lmao. Let the rebel win and you may get a ruler with better stats. The rebel sound effect give me PTSD from my 200% overextention eu4 campaign though. I instinctively press space to pause when i hear that.

The Americans came from the east to Japan but they're still referred to as "Westerners". 😂😂😂

Very well done! Explained perfectly. I remember when their was a great fear Japan would buy out the USA. Japan and the USA are a great example of two Nations who do not understand each other at all, yet are somehow good friends.

Japan did not strategically use the international talent. While USA introduced a genius quota and filled the country with great aspiring minds from around the world. Japan is less diverse which might have limited the scope of their growth.

Times changed, I believe Japan is very right for a rearmament and a constitutional amendment

KhAnubis seems to be an EU4 enjoyer, nice.

Militarily they didn't become a super power in the world like the US but economically and culturally, they did succeed becoming a super power.

Thank you. The moment I saw the title of this video, I was going to say "Now hang on just a minute! Japan not a superpower? Nonsense!! Of course Japan is a superpower - a _cultural_ superpower." You were way ahead of me on that one.

Imagine asking a track star why he never went pro after blowing out his knee caps

I think the biggest problem is that Japan started too late. Maybe if Japan started colonization instead of isolation, it could be more powerful.

I think this video does a great job of explaining how Japan grew in stature prior to the war, and how it's post-war economic miracle propelled it to being the second largest economy in the world. However when talking about the decline of Japanese economy, I believe some key points have been left out. Chief among them is the impact of the Plaza Accord. The Plaza Accord was a 1985 agreement among the G-5 nations-France, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan-to manipulate exchange rates by depreciating the U.S. dollar relative to the Japanese yen and the German Deutsche mark. While the Plaza Accord solidified Japan’s presence as a major player in the international market, an unintended consequence of the Accord, however, was that a rising yen may also have contributed to recessionary pressures for Japan’s economy. The strong yen led to a major short-term shock to Japanese export-based industries. To offset the effects of this shock, the Japanese government embarked on a massive campaign of expansionary monetary and fiscal policy in a bid to boost the domestic economy. This massive macroeconomic stimulus, in combination with other policies, created equally massive credit and asset price bubbles in Japan's financial and real estate markets through the late 1980s. When this bubble burst, Japan experienced a prolonged period of low growth and deflation, lasting through the 1990s and 2000s. Thus, the Plaza Accord helped propagate the “Lost Decade” in Japan. Source - www.investopedia.com/terms/p/plaza-accord.asp

Damn, wish I had this video 4 months ago. Had to write a paper on this and it was due on the day this video was released.

2:46 ayyyy ayyyyy you can't just skip past that

12:40 yeah you have to keep in mind that no country can really grow that fast If your country can starts growing at an insane speed you should prepare for an eventual collapse rather then the further investing witch will most likely create bubbles

Because of nuclear bomba. Japan is a superpower in its own right right now if you ask me.

You missed the islands north of hokkaido that were ainu then japanese. Then expanded to all of them and sakhalin after the russian war.

So the answer to the question in the video title is at 12:56 tldr 'because of real estate and stock market bubble'

It was a good brief history of Japan, but with a title like that I was expecting more about the post-war constitution, the Plaza Accord and globalization which can be blamed for Japan's relative weakness today

japan could have become it and at a time it was batter in every way and it use that to make it own empire but japan decided to eat more then it can chew and attacked the US and then the rest is history but it still kinda is a power full country in east asia but it influence is not much because of china

0:32 best part

“Super power”. USSR was a super power but much poorer than Japan. Japan had little interest In being a military or geopolitical leader so that’s why it didn’t become a super power.

Japan lacks independent foreign, military and geopolitical strategy, which prevents it from threatening the superpower status of US.

Whatever that Joji guy next to McArthur had in his tea - it had to be pretty good by the looks of it 👌🏼

They won the appreciation of people all around the world because of their cool culture. I'm sure this plays a big part why are they successful.

Damn when the whole of asia fear you 80 years ago but now when u hear the country name the one thing that always been associated with you ANIME

They lack the land, resources, and population to be a super power. England (a comparable isolated island state) had similar restraints, but made up for it with colonization & trade. Japan really only tried colonization efforts twice, but both efforts failed. TLDR: America & 16th Century Korea: "What can we say except. *You're welcome.* "

Did you put in the sound of an eu4 uprising? Im playing it rn and this srsly confused me haha

Something that's not mentioned is why the zaibatsu raised again. I'm no historian but i've heard it was the Korean war, Marshal wanted japan to be an agrarian country, but then the korean war happened and industry was raised again in japan to support US millitary in the korean war effort.

Japan’s land area is small plus they’re being hit by natural disasters like tsunamis and earthquakes … despite all these I always have high regard of the japanese people.

Imagine if Japan did become a Super Power.

And this is how you do an ad, at the of a good video. Not at the start and certainly not in the middle of the video.

Japan recovery from a recked nation to an economic juggernaut is an insparation. I wish nigeria, ghana and angola could of followed japan's footsteps but of course the mentality of the people plays a big part.

this video completely ignored the fact that the lost decade was entirely caused directly by the plaza accord, which resulted in the economic bubble mentionedin the video. in place of japan, korea rose to the world stage in at the same time. auto manufacturing, shio building, electronics investments all went to korea instead. the yen was allowed to rise in value which was disastrous for its export competitiveness

Hmm, no mention of the Plaza Accord? In 1985, a very worried US (+G5 members) fearful of exactly a newly forming Japanese world superpower, *forced* Japan to appreciate the yen by a whopping 46% against the dollar, directly causing the economic bubble that eventually crashed the Japanese economy. Although the US probably did not intend for things to go that far, their move was a stroke of genius amounting to wildly successful economic sabotage. It wasn't the only link in the chain, of course, but it definitely set the ball in motion, as the Japanese export market and GDP growth completely stalled after that, leading the authorities to issue massive macroeconomic stimulus which then led to the rapid rise in real estate prices and credit growth. Failing to mention this key piece of history shrouds the very reason of the economic bubble in mystery. The reasons in the video are not enough. For example, Japan didn't need to invest in a military? But average military spending by country's % of GDP are nearly all in the low single digits, or fractions of 1%. Furthermore, other countries with growing economies did not witness such a bubble for precisely the reason that their currencies weren't forced to appreciate in value. This staggering blind spot in American historiography (at least amongst the lay public) of this aspect of the US's role in Japan's historical woes ranks almost as highly as the hubris that the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were "necessary" to end the war - when, in fact, we now know that US military intelligence was keenly aware that Imperial Japan had ran out of oil and was going to surrender anyway, but Truman and the US military rushed to use an atomic bomb before then simply in order to demonstrate US power to Stalin and thus scare off Soviet USSR which was, at the time, rapidly encroaching onto Western Europe (and would have expanded into northern Japan), hence striking the first blow in the subsequent US-USSR Cold War, even before the end of WW2.

It’s currently the 3 largest economy in the world. 🎌

I say give it time their economic capabilities I believe still have room to grow

Japan has the 3rd largest economy by a fairly wide margin, and has enormous cultural influence as you mentioned. I think the main reason it isn't a world power is because the Japanese don't want it to be one, and generally aren't very involved in foreign politics. The German economy is 1.2 trillion USD smaller GDP than Japanese economy, but Germany has much greater influence because it is the leader of a larger EU coalition. Its influence over foreign nations is what grants it a world power status. Similarly, Russia has a large amount of influence over countries in its region, so despite its relatively small economy, it has superpower status. If Japan assembled a coalition of other nations (eg. ASEAN nations), then it could be a world power.

Imperial Japan: *Warcimes, Nangking and Unit 731* Nazi Germany: Whoa, calm down. I know we're doing evil stuff but not THAT evil.

love the videos, but the rotating maps makes me dizzy

Well, japan is superpower in Anime Culture.

Daddy KhAnubis at it again

2:42 sneaky cars reference

0:48 Sana Momo Mina's impact! 😍

Maybe Japan still can become a superpower. If the world goes to war with Russia over its actions in Europe, Japan could pick up some resources in its region. Maybe there will be a new East Asian great game to snatch up the ruins of the Russian Federation. Half joking with this one, but the probability isn't zero.

The same reason it became an imperial power. Resources and influence. Every country is Asia that Japan colonized in WWII have a bad view of them (as they should)

The answer to the question in title starts at 12:58 and ends at 14:20.

They didn't become a superpower because they didn't have control over the Founding Titan.

Thank God Japan didn't become a super power

When other people nuke you it kinda hinders your development as a super power

You failed to mention the plaza accords

Koreas Comeback was even more impressive than Japans. They got completely destroyed not just some cities. Theyre much smaller than china and Japan but Always defended well and are now almost more powerful than japan nowadays.

2:35 The Mexican land was won in war, it was not stolen, and in fact Mexico received $15,000,000 in return for their territory.