Japan Trip Notes and Reflections

The Rise of Japan

In the 1980s, there were people in Japan holding 50,000 yen just to take a taxi. Five minutes of travel cost 50,000 yen, which works out to 10,000 yen a minute.

That's the wild Japan of the 1980s. Young people were all full of energy, a totally different generation from the Heisei-era shut-ins of today.

Why? In those days, any university graduate didn't have to worry about finding a job. When you went to a company for an interview, whether or not you were hired, the company would give every interviewee a souvenir gift. Companies cared about face, too. If you dared not to give a gift, others would see it as a lack of manners. If word of that spread through the graduates' circles, who would still come interview at your company next year?

Not coming would be fine. Could the company really go out of business? Actually, yes. In that era, one of the common reasons a Japanese company went bust was that it couldn't find enough people to hire.

After the interview, if you were lucky enough to get an offer, you'd face at least three months of training. You want to contribute your talents to the company quickly? Sorry, I know you're in a hurry, but hold on. First, get used to the company culture. First, learn how to use all the allowances and benefits the company gives its employees. At least two months of paid leave a year, and a uniform 15 months of salary. Pension contributions paid at the highest tier.

Why treat employees so well? Isn't the company afraid they'll quit? As a member of a prestigious kabushiki kaisha, you were guaranteed lifetime employment from the day you joined. Compared with the decades you'd work until retirement, what was the small upfront investment?

With benefits this good, must the work be very intense? As one cog in the machine, many tasks simply needed a person sitting in that seat, even if all they did was sign papers or put together reports. Where did the confidence come from? In that era, who didn't know Mitsubishi, Sony and Suzuki? Japanese cars, electronics and home appliances sold all over the world without any problem. Whatever Japan produced, there were people eager to buy. Japanese industrial goods flooded toward Europe and America like a tide. How fast the money printing press ran depended only on the company's production capacity.

The decade from 1980 to 1989 is also known as the Showa boom. Japan's GDP growth averaged 8% a year, and for Japanese listed companies, the average wealth-creating power corresponded to about US$10 million in revenue per year. (This is based only on data from Japanese listed companies.)

Japan's stock market entered a golden decade, with an average annual return of 10%. Market value rose every year. Invest US$10,000, and you'd earn US$1,000 a year.

On top of that, the yen kept appreciating.

People in that era traveled all over the world, going to xx in March and xx in May. Many team-building trips were organized by companies. Money was so plentiful that people had almost thought up every kind of allowance there could be.

There were transportation allowances and phone allowances, which were already quite normal. Even more outrageous was the xx allowance. The message was obvious: the company had too much money, so go find a way to spend all of it. Every year the company's accounts sat permanently swollen with surplus.

In an interview from that era, a reporter asked a company boss what annual profit would be appropriate. He answered directly: "One billion? I can earn 100 million every minute."

Japan of that era, with the oil crisis hitting, and the gentlemen of Europe and America fed up with gas-guzzlers

Company revenue kept rising year after year

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