IKIGAI means a reason for being. IKI means life and GAI means to value or the thing and a reason for you consider yourself worthwhile.

1867

The process first began during the Meiji Restoration (1868-1890), as Japan tried to reshape itself as a European-style empire, and lasted into the early 20th century. Every nation handles industrialization differently, and for Japan it required two separate periods of rapid growth.

The Japan of today is amazingly prosperous. Japan has a per capita income comparable with the United States, but its 20-year growth rate has been anemic. Its birth rate is well below the average for developed nations, but its savings rate remains among the highest in the world.

Why is Japan so rich ?? The most striking fact about the economy of Japan is that the extraordinary prosperity has been achieved in the conditions of an almost total absence of minerals. The country has developed one of the world’s most powerful economies based entirely on imported raw materials. And that’s not all.

The largest industries are agriculture and fishing, manufacturing, and tourism among others. Japan’s GDP per sector is as follows: services 71.4%, industry 27.5%, and agriculture 1.2%. 0.2% of the population of Japan lives under the poverty line of under $1.90 a day. The unemployment rate is 2.90%.

Japan’s Lost Decade in Detail Economist Paul Krugman blames the lost decade on consumers and companies that saved too much and caused the economy to slow. Other economists point blame at the country’s aging population demographic or its monetary policy — or both — for the decline.

Japan’s industry was soon providing the required munitions and logistics to the American forces fighting in Korea. The demand stimulated the Japanese economy enabling it to recover quickly from the destruction of the Pacific War and provide the basis for the rapid expansion that was to follow.

About 953,000 households, or 1.8% of Japan’s total, can be classified as affluent—with savings, property and other assets valued at ¥100–500 million. In addition, some 54,000 households worth more than ¥500 million account for the rarefied 0.1% super-affluent sector of society.

Foreign: $7.07 trillion (in September 2020, Japan owned $1.28 trillion and China owned $1.06 trillion of U.S. debt, which is more than a third of foreign holdings3. Federal Reserve and government: $10.81 trillion (December 2020)

The increase in Japan’s holdings is its largest since 2013. The low and negative yield market in Japan makes holding U.S. debt more attractive. Japan now makes 18% of foreign-owned U.S. debt.

Debts of the US Government. Americans are bombarded – by the news and their government representatives – with the fact that foreign countries owe us a lot of money. Despite substantial debts that America owes to countries like China and Japan, they owe us money as well.