Professional Documents
Culture Documents
12/1/2008
Japan
The Most Powerful Nation on the Planet
The world has changed more so in the past century than it ever has in
the past millennium. Many countries rose to power, and many countries fell
from power. Japan has taken great leaps in all forms of math, science, sports,
health and many more. The list of breakthroughs is unheard of and the
world see the United States of America as the most powerful country in the
world. Just a century ago, the same image was seen of the United Kingdom.
country in the world, the country does not keep that title for long. The United
many others. The list goes on and on. Japan has proven itself to be the most
system. The country of Japan has a national healthcare system available for
screenings for many different types of illnesses. Aside from that, there are
of types of income, especially for the elderly. This allows for the citizens of
were to happen to them, their country would be there to take care of them. ()
The obesity rate around the world is rising every year with the U.S on top.
Oddly, while the U.S is the most powerful country in the world, they have the
highest obesity rate at about 31%. The second most powerful country in the
world, on the other hand, has the lowest obesity rate, at 3%. That’s about
one tenth of America’s rate. The obesity rate is an important factor for any
diabetes, and many other horrible illnesses. If a person is plagued with many
illnesses, they would not live very long, and if a county is filled with people
who are constantly getting sick, or have many illnesses the peoples’
maximum lifespan and quality of life would decline. Furthermore, when the
people of a nation is not healthy, their health cost to the nation increases;
since the people of Japan are healthier than those of the U.S., the citizens
have a lower health cost. Also, the people of Japan have a healthier diet,
mainly consisting of rice and fish, compared to the junk food diet of
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Americans, which generally consists of meat and bread. Also coupled with
this diet is their lifestyle which requires more exercise. Even though the
people of America exercise more than people living in Japan, they are more
powerful country.()
world, and as such Japan has proven itself in this field. Almost everything
technology. Realizing this, the country of Japan has allocated fewer tax funds
to defense and the military, less than 1%, in lieu of other departments of
leads to rapid advancement in many fields, a system that the U.S could, and
should adopt, but has not as of 2008.() Many of the world’s technological
headquarters are moving out of the U.S and moving into Japan because they
believe that Japan will be the technological capital of the world.() Japan is
leading in many areas of robotics; for example, most of the robots sold for
personal use are sold out of Japan. The Japanese have acclaimed such a
into a robot; after this happens, the main character says, “It's a robot. You
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know, like a super advanced robot. It's probably Japanese. Yeah, it's definitely
parts for computers and cell phones, as well as sales of other types of
machine tools. The leading destination for Japanese machine tool exports is
the U.S. while Japan is the lowest buyer of the U.S.’s machine tools when
compared to countries like China, Germany, Canada, and the U.K.() This
means that Japan is selling tons of its machines to the U.S. and Japan is not
buying anything from the U.S. Considering all this, one would to think that
instead of the U.S., because Japan is one of the strongest countries in the
that makes billions and billions of dollars each year, and Japan has proven
strong in this sector as well. The video game industry is a fairly new industry
as the first games started showing up in the early nineteen seventies, but
world. The first video games were coin-operated arcade machines, but that
market quickly rose and was also quickly losing interest. In a desperate
attempt to generate revenue, the video game industry entered the home
market in the late seventies. After only their second iteration of the home
console system, the U.S. based video game industry crashed in 1983
because too many unoriginal games had flooded into the market. The
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Japanese company Nintendo revived the defunct industry with the N.E.S1,
also known as the FamiCom2. () The N.E.S. sold over forty million units, and
the bundled game Super Mario Brothers, in many ways defined how games
were made from then on. () The Japanese continue to dominate the video
the Xbox 360, made by Microsoft, launched on November 22, 2005. The
Japanese iteration into the seventh generation of video games is the Wii,
one year after its completion, the Wii has sold close to thirty-five million
units, compared to the Xbox 360’s twenty-two million units.() () Video games
can help in rehabilitating the elderly, and it can help in schools’ fitness
programs. Video games are very important and highly influential in the
twenty-first century, and the country of Japan has proven time and time
quality of life and Japan has made great strides to improve the quality of life
in many parts of the country. For example, technology plays a huge role in
the quality of one’s life. Millions of Japanese citizens no longer carry any sort
of physical money, any ID, any credit cards or any other form of
1
N.E.S.: Nintendo Entertainment System
2
FamiCom: Family Computer. The N.E.S. was known as the FamiCom in Japan.
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security, or their cash being stolen. This is due to the use of eWallet. This
stores credit card information, identification as well as many and all forms of
security required; when the user wants to purchase something or when the
user is required to provide ID, the only thing the user has to do to is to wave
their phone, and the RFID3 chip built inside the phone sends the information
to the receiver. The phones also have build in GPS4 chips if stolen. This
technology has been implemented, and has been in use for many, many
years; thousands of retail locations all over the country have implemented
Another example of the technologies that improves the quality of life in Japan
revolutionized using the restroom. In Japan, there are toilet systems that do
not require toilet paper for proper hygiene. The paperless toilet utilizes an
automatic water-jet that cleanses the front and rear part of the body with the
push of a button. After the water-jet, an air blower, the same kind used for
drying hands, is used to dry the areas. This system does away with
traditional toilet paper, improves hygiene because the areas are actually
automated, so the user’s hands do not touch those areas. Furthermore, trees
3
RFID: Radio Frequency Identification
4
GPS: Global Positioning System
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are not wasted and turned into toilet paper, just to be flushed down the
use greatly improve their quality of life and put the people at ease, once
again proving Japan to be a very powerful country. There are many other
technology sector.
system of Japan is fantastic. With the post-war education reform, the country
of Japan has proven itself in many areas of math and science time and time
again as the top country in education. The students of Japan are not as
such, they are more enthusiastic to attend, and they are more motivated to
graduate. The students are not exhausted because they spend less time
being lectured in schools and spend more time studying at their own pace.
and levels of achievement.” (Baines, 2008) The students in Japan are also
assigned less homework when compared to the U.S; yet the students still
score higher in Japan on test scores. On the other hand, although the
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students spend fewer hours in school5, but they attend more days of school,
as opposed to the U.S. average6. Quite different from the U.S education
the attendance rate is extraordinarily high. This system of fewer hours, more
days, has proven to be highly effective in Japan because the graduation rate
for high school students is also fantastically high (89%) when compared to
the U.S (75%).() In addition, in some parts of the Japan the attendance rate
for college out of high school is very amazing, 99% in those areas. () The
areas of the country, if a student graduates from high school, the student
The world has changed. The wars never end, and on the one hand, the
United States of America has decided to give a lot of its attention to fighting
wars. Japan, on the other hand, has decided to stay out of wars, and in the
meantime, has been playing the catching up game to be the most powerful
country in the world. So far they’ve been succeeding, and they’ve triumphed
over the U.S. in education and technology. The country has even found ways
to inspire its young generation to high school, graduate, and then pursue
5
The students of Japan spend a total of about 650 hours in school per year. 3 (hours) X 220
(days) = 660
6
The students of the U.S.A. spend a total of about 1100 hours in a school per year. 6 (hours)
X 180 (days) = 1080
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college; more students graduate from high school in Japan then they do in
the U.S. They proved that their machines and robots are better than the
U.S.’s. The country has even excelling in sports for further consolation; they
won the World Baseball Classic in 2006.() The highest import for machines in
the U.S is from Japan. Japan is second in number of millionaires in the whole
world, second only to the U.S. with a higher percentage than the U.S. as
conclusion; Japan is the close second most powerful country in the world.
Works Cited
Anselmo, Joseph C. "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?" Aviation Week & Space
Technology 7 July 2008: 58-58.
Baines, Lawrence. "Learning More By Doing Less." The Educational Digest January
2008: 24.
C.I.A. of U.S.A. CIA World Fact Book - Japan. 20 November 2008. 25 November 2008
<https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html>.
CHASS, MURRAY. "On Baseball; Cuba's Dance Through Classic Ends in Manager's
Missteps." (2006): 5.
Imai, Yutaka. Health Care Reform in Japan. Economic Report. OECD. Paris Cedex 16,
France: SourceOECD, 2002.
Microwave Journal. "E-wallet and GPS Phones on the Rise in Japan." Microwave
Journal August 2007: 47.
Novak, Jeanie. "The Video Game Slump & a New Golden Age." Novak, Jeanie. Game
Development Essentials: SE. New York: Delmar Cengage Learning, 2008. 18.
Records, Guiness World. "Best Selling Video Games." World Record. 1999.
Senaour, Benjamin and Masahiko Gemma. "Reducing Obesity: What Americans Can
Learn From the Japanese." CHOICES 21 4 2006: 1-4.
Takeuchi, Yo. "Myth and reality in the Japanese educational selection system."
Comparative Education 27.1 (1991).
Transformers. By Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Dir. Michael Bay. Perf. Shia
LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky. Prod. Michael Bay. DreamWorks SKG, 2007.