Chapter 42 The sequelae of the bubble economy have not been cured yet?

Having said so much, then, why did the Japanese develop such a rare national character? In my opinion, this is mainly because "the collapse of the bubble economy has had a far more profound impact on the Japanese than expected."I have to admit that the aftermath of the bubble economy has not been completely cured until now, and it is still affecting a considerable number of Japanese people. In the late 1980s, Japan formed a bubble economy, and the out-of-control economic situation spread overseas.At that time, Japan was actively following the trend of "internationalization" and became a "depression" in the world. It bought part of the continental United States, Hawaii, and the Gold Coast of Australia.In New York at that time, indeed, one out of every six buildings belonged to Japan, and many Japanese bought villas in Australia and New Zealand for retirement.However, when the bubble economy burst, the Japanese lost everything they had in an instant.What was bought at a high price can only be sold at the lowest price. This memory is deeply rooted in the bones of the Japanese. What a painful experience.

I often take the hotels in Hawaii as an example. When the bubble economy happened, more than 1/3 of the hotels on Waikiki Beach belonged to the Japanese, and this was also said to be "the wish that Japan did not achieve in Pearl Harbor. Here it is realized."But this is just an extremely short-lived dream. Once the bubble economy bursts, such a beautiful dream will probably be unsustainable. Everything will come to naught, and the purchased things will be sold at a few tenths of the original price. . At the time, it was the same in investing in the stock market.There are too many examples of shrewd overseas investors who have to sell everything at the lowest price with tears in their eyes after enjoying all their glory and wealth.

This kind of experience is heart-wrenching, and the sequelae left by the bubble economy are difficult to eliminate in a short period of time.All the Japanese fell into the situation of "punishing the soup and blowing the wind". However, this was 20 years ago, and the generation that controlled society at that time has also left office.Even so, I still often hear people ask this question: Is it possible that what happened to the previous generation will have a sequelae that will remain in the younger generation? To this question, I answer like this: The generation at that time can be said to be a generation that became rich after an arduous struggle.After they have money, they frantically buy American companies and land, buy Columbia Pictures, buy Rockefeller Center... For them, this is just consumption, a consumption behavior that may eventually buy the whole world .In other words, this is not investment, but consumption.

Therefore, their generation is like this: even if an investment has only a 5% success rate, they will invest money in it without any scruples, and the money invested may become the original 5%. They also don't care. And the next generation has become without ideas, and even lost the basic investment IQ. The current generation is both the "deviation generation" and the "juvenile jump-generation".Because of the "cramming education" and lack of flexibility, this generation is very risk-averse. Generally speaking, after a country has experienced a bubble economy, the next generation of this country will sum up the experience and learn lessons from it, so that they can be successful in the future.However, Japan is not such a country.

Instead, Japan's next generation can only learn "risk aversion" from the previous generation.Because after the collapse of the bubble economy, from economists to commentators to the government, everyone is emphasizing the dangers of risk.So it's no surprise that the legacy of the bubble economy persists today.