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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:43:25 PM EDT
I just finished reading Tom Clancy's "Debt of Honor" and the whole thing was just
 . I'm too young to remember those times but I do remember Japan used to be considered the most technologically advanced country in the world, were they really that much of a threat back then?
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:44:32 PM EDT
[#1]
Tentacles
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:46:03 PM EDT
[#2]
I heard they had special toilets in their submarines.
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:46:05 PM EDT
[#3]
They have Godzilla. Duh.
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:46:24 PM EDT
[#4]
Quoted: I just finished reading Tom Clancy's "Debt of Honor" and the whole thing was just . I'm too young to remember those times but I do remember Japan used to be considered the most technologically advanced country in the world, were they really that much of a threat back then?I remember they bought tons of real estate in the US and movie studios |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:47:03 PM EDT
[#5]
Quoted: I just finished reading Tom Clancy's "Debt of Honor" and the whole thing was just . I'm too young to remember those times but I do remember Japan used to be considered the most technologically advanced country in the world, were they really that much of a threat back then?I'm a child of the 80s and I don't remember any real hate or fear of the Japanese. Maybe from some older folks who remembered WWII more vividly. I'll put it this way- when I played with my planes as a kid my F-14s were shooting down Migs not....whatever the Japanese flew then. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:48:06 PM EDT
[#6]
Boom of the electronics industries and cheap cars made Japan very rich. They began buying up assets in the US as a hedge against a downfall of their economy. China is following suit. They will soon have enough internal issues that they will have a hard reset they can't ignore, just like the Japanese. Then it will be Indias turn.
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:48:22 PM EDT
[#7]
They were a financial powerhouse as well as one when it came to technology. At one point they were buying up famous American real estate such as Rockerfeller Plaza in NYC.
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:48:42 PM EDT
[#8]
The only fear of the Japanese was that they would run our auto makers out of business.
LC |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:49:10 PM EDT
[#9]
Their economy was exploding through the 70s and 80s, they were on pace to pass the US at one point this was not realistically going to happen even without their asset price bubble but still people were losing their minds over it.
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:50:15 PM EDT
[#10]
Yes from buying all the American business and real estate, plus hate for their cars from some UAW as I grew up next to a major GM Fisher Body plant.
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:50:51 PM EDT
[#11]
They were gobbling up all the real estate in NYC and buying American contemporary art sending prices through the roof.
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:51:07 PM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I'm a child of the 80s and I don't remember any real hate or fear of the Japanese. Maybe from some older folks who remembered WWII more vividly. I'll put it this way- when I played with my planes as a kid my F-14s were shooting down Migs not....whatever the Japanese flew then. Grandpa severed in WWII, China, Burma and the South Pacific, he hated Japs. As in loathed them. Other than folks thinking they were destroying the American car industry, I don't recall anything else. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:51:16 PM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I remember they bought tons of real estate in the US and movie studios They even owned the NBC building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. I did some work for a wealthy realty speculator that bought properties back for pennies on the dollar when the Japanese market tanked… |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:52:02 PM EDT
[#14]
Well, you'd have to square it up with Japan being a mortal enemy within living memory of many people (some of whom fought the Japanese directly). This foe we had defeated, was now resurgent. Their economy was going great, and we had just dealt with the stagflation of the 70's and had an uncertain future - Reagan brought hope in the 80's, but American consumers could see Japanese name brands taking over their local marketplace, especially high-tech electronics. A big thing at the time was "emerging markets." That is, investment in infrastructure, trade deals, etc with third world countries. Countries where there were still wild profits to be made off these people who didn't yet own all the consumer goods that Americans took for granted. Japan was investing in emerging markets, and so were we, but you still had the lingering spectre of Imperial Japan hanging over 1980's Japan. Where Imperial Japan tried to take these resources by force and failed, would modern Japan do it with the stroke of a pen? Was there something sinister involved?
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:52:25 PM EDT
[#15]
Fear? There was an embracing of Japan in the 80s and 90s.
Hintsky: Debt of Honor was fiction. 
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:53:21 PM EDT
[#16]
It was widely believe that plinko games would be used to dominate us.
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:54:20 PM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Grandpa severed in WWII, China, Burma and the South Pacific, he hated Japs. As in loathed them. Other than folks thinking they were destroying the American car industry, I don't recall anything else. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: I'm a child of the 80s and I don't remember any real hate or fear of the Japanese. Maybe from some older folks who remembered WWII more vividly. I'll put it this way- when I played with my planes as a kid my F-14s were shooting down Migs not....whatever the Japanese flew then. Grandpa severed in WWII, China, Burma and the South Pacific, he hated Japs. As in loathed them. Other than folks thinking they were destroying the American car industry, I don't recall anything else. Yeah that's understandable. On the other hand I interviewed an Iwo Jima vet and he volunteered to stay in to occupy Japan and told me about all the Japanese broads he banged 
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:55:36 PM EDT
[#18]
It was driven in part by the auto workers unions. Japan was making inexpensive fuel efficient cars that lasted, while Detroit threw pieces of shit out the door that wouldn't last four years.
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:56:10 PM EDT
[#19]
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:56:46 PM EDT
[#20]
They were doing then, what china is doing now.
With the exception that they were not really flexing for more territory. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:57:02 PM EDT
[#21]
Sony was a media and tech powerhouse then.
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Posted: 6/17/2021 1:58:46 PM EDT
[#22]
I know when I was in Hiroshima in 1991 there were a whole lot of Japanese young people flashing the number 2 sign at me.
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:00:03 PM EDT
[#23]
Ninjas!
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:00:12 PM EDT
[#24]
reciprocity...
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:01:05 PM EDT
[#25]
I don't think there was fear. But through the 60s and part of the 70s there was a "Japanese make crap" thought that wasn't entirely either true, or false.
During that time, post war recovery, Japan embraced Deming where, most visibly, Detroit did not. The quality of their good rose significantly. Today, I wish I could find more goods made in Japan. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:01:09 PM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted: It was driven in part by the auto workers unions. Japan was making inexpensive fuel efficient cars that lasted, while Detroit threw pieces of shit out the door that wouldn't last four years. I had a friend who’s brother worked for GM and he told us about all the empty liquor bottles they’d find stashed and trashed around the factory… |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:01:32 PM EDT
[#27]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I know when I was in Hiroshima in 1991 there were a whole lot of Japanese young people flashing the number 2 sign at me. 
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:02:49 PM EDT
[#28]
For a lot of Americans, it seemed like they were taking over economically basically overnight. Still a lot of resentment about WWII in those days too. Put the two together and a lot of people were worried.
Of course, I’m geopolitical terms, they were pretty committed to being on our team. They just really liked our money and knew how to earn it. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:03:41 PM EDT
[#29]
They were a massive economic powerhouse that appeared unstoppable at the time.
Primarily due to strength in automotive and technology (especially semiconductors.) They were seriously kicking US ass in both, and because they were bringing in so much money they had to turn around and re-invest it overseas, so they ended up buying lots of very expensive real estate in the US. The company I worked for at the time was involved with semiconductors and the Japanese were very good at some things (particularly DRAM) and more or less wiped out non-Japanese suppliers. It turned out part of the growth they experienced was due to financial engineering by their central bank (sound familiar?) and that ended up triggering a financial implosions and created a zombie economy with a lot of large, too big to fail companies that stopped generating monster profits. They've never recovered. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:04:51 PM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The only fear of the Japanese was that they would run our auto makers out of business. LC They almost did. They did successfully run a whole bunch of the Western motorcycle manufacturers out of business. They did kill all of the British brands until Triumph got revived. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:06:38 PM EDT
[#31]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Their economy was exploding through the 70s and 80s, they were on pace to pass the US at one point this was not realistically going to happen even without their asset price bubble but still people were losing their minds over it. In 1981 the Japanese Yen was about 217 versus the US dollar. At the same time, in the Philippines, it was almost six hundred to the dollar like 570 Pesos to the US dollar. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:07:11 PM EDT
[#32]
Along with the previous comments, this book was very popular and appeared to be a plausible scenario at the time as Japan was concerned about the same issues that faced them in the early 1900s.
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:07:53 PM EDT
[#33]
Quote HistoryShit, we were turning Japanese…lols  The Vapors - Turning Japanese |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:09:48 PM EDT
[#34]
Quote HistoryQuote History |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:10:05 PM EDT
[#35]
Nobody in the US was afraid of Japan back in the 80s or 90s, except for the WWII vets.
In fact, the opinion of Japan was overwhelmingly positive, especially from GenXers growing up. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:11:50 PM EDT
[#36]
After WW2, we sent some very good Quality people over there to help Japan rebuild. Think W. Edwards Deming and industrial statistics.
By the 1970s & 80's, Japan was killing Ford, GM & Chrysler with high quality cheap cars. The big 3 got a well-deserved scare and wake-up call to improve quality and price. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:11:53 PM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Keep 'em coming. Japanese was a big influence in pop culture..the whole new romantic movement.  Japan: Life in Tokyo |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:12:09 PM EDT
[#38]
LOL there was a huge fear the Japanese were going to buy up everything in America and their cars were going to put Detroit out of business. There was a case where some auto factory workers in Detroit beat a guy to death and badly injured his father because they were Japanese. Turns out they were Chinese, but hey, all good, we all look alike, right? The Detroit courts acquitted them but the feds said the murderers violated the victims' civil rights and they ended up going away for life. I seem to remember.
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:12:17 PM EDT
[#39]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The only fear of the Japanese was that they would run our auto makers out of business. LC |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:12:48 PM EDT
[#40]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Nobody in the US was afraid of Japan back in the 80s or 90s. In fact, the opinion of Japan was overwhelmingly positive. US manufacturers were absolutely afraid of Japan in the 80s. There may not have been any legitimate military concerns, but the news was absolutely filled with economic ones. Consumer opinion was overwhelmingly positive, which is one of the reasons US manufacturers were so worried. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:12:54 PM EDT
[#41]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Ninjas! This guy knows and likely lived through it. When I was a kid ninjas ?? were known to be around in the shadows everywhere. Before the US military owned the night, it was owned by ninjas. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:14:12 PM EDT
[#42]
The bottom line is that there are elements in EVERY country that hate the USA and if they were able to seize power in their countries AND have a credible shot at doing us harm AND surviving the ensuing result.....they just might take the shot.
The number of countries that could check those boxes can likely be counted on one hand....and that's even if you've had a couple of bad days in wood shop class. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:16:20 PM EDT
[#43]
The Japanese have darn near perfected manufacturing of goods. Toyota production system comes to mind.
Most all current US manufacturing uses at least some of the Japanese improvement & management tools. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:17:59 PM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Their economy was exploding through the 70s and 80s, they were on pace to pass the US at one point this was not realistically going to happen even without their asset price bubble but still people were losing their minds over it. That's right though, papa-san was in his financial prime and was living it large too. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:18:44 PM EDT
[#45]
Quote HistoryQuoted: US manufacturers were absolutely afraid of Japan in the 80s. There may not have been any legitimate military concerns, but the news was absolutely filled with economic ones. Consumer opinion was overwhelmingly positive, which is one of the reasons US manufacturers were so worried. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Nobody in the US was afraid of Japan back in the 80s or 90s. In fact, the opinion of Japan was overwhelmingly positive. US manufacturers were absolutely afraid of Japan in the 80s. There may not have been any legitimate military concerns, but the news was absolutely filled with economic ones. Consumer opinion was overwhelmingly positive, which is one of the reasons US manufacturers were so worried. I will agree with that. Americans needed to get their shit together which the Japanese helped motivate. As a kid growing up in the PNW during this time, families were very positive, but electronics and the auto industry were not a part of our regional economy. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:19:17 PM EDT
[#46]
They made such damned good cameras.
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:19:47 PM EDT
[#47]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Japanese was a big influence in pop culture..the whole new romantic movement.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsbrw9Y6_ngQuote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Keep 'em coming. Japanese was a big influence in pop culture..the whole new romantic movement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsbrw9Y6_ng Shonen Knife-Twist Barbie |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:20:11 PM EDT
[#48]
Quote HistoryQuoted: They were a massive economic powerhouse that appeared unstoppable at the time. Primarily due to strength in automotive and technology (especially semiconductors.) They were seriously kicking US ass in both, and because they were bringing in so much money they had to turn around and re-invest it overseas, so they ended up buying lots of very expensive real estate in the US. The company I worked for at the time was involved with semiconductors and the Japanese were very good at some things (particularly DRAM) and more or less wiped out non-Japanese suppliers. It turned out part of the growth they experienced was due to financial engineering by their central bank (sound familiar?) and that ended up triggering a financial implosions and created a zombie economy with a lot of large, too big to fail companies that stopped generating monster profits. They've never recovered. This...and demographics. They stopped having kids, and didn't really allow immigration, so they got old and less productive. A good warning for the anti-immigration crowd in the US. If your population is declining, you have to import more. Hopefully, you can do that w/o destroying the culture that made you successful. |
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:20:27 PM EDT
[#49]
Art and architectural influence at the time was peak too. Crossover stuff like Patrick Nagel’s blending of Japanese and Art Deco print making…
 Blade Runner’s Asian heavy future.. 
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Posted: 6/17/2021 2:21:10 PM EDT
[#50]
Whatever feelings certain elements of Japan MAY have had about us back then are most certainly overshadowed by their very real fears about China...
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