Modern Japan History. Who are the winners of Japan’s rise to an economic superpower?

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Who are the winners of Japan’s rise to an economic superpower?
Japan is one of the most developed countries and third-largest economy in the world. Until recently, it was the second-largest economy in the world. By all accounts, Japan despite the economic crisis that rocked her since her asset bubble burst in 1990, she is still an economic powerhouse. However, if Japan is an economic powerhouse there would be winners and losers. Her citizens and trading partners were the winners of economical superior Japan while her poor citizens, adversaries and the environment were the losers.
The biggest winner of Japan’s economic superpower status is her citizens. When a country achieves superpower status there are some advantages that accrue to her citizens. First, there would be very low unemployment. Japan has always been populous relative to her size and her geography and having nearly everyone being employed is an important thing for the county. Japan’s unemployment rate is 2.45% and it has been dropping steadily since 2001 despite a short spike during the 2008 economic crisis CITATION Ple19 \l 1033 (Plecher, 2019). Japan is the 4th largest importer of food and therefore depends on food produced in other countries CITATION Uni18 \l 1033 (United States Department of Agriculture; Foreign Agricultural Service, 2018). Her economic advantage has enabled it to always ensure food security. Japan’s economic superiority favored her balance of trade and she continued to feed her population comfortably despite the growth of population during the same period.
Secondly, her citizens would enjoy better public services especially education and public health services. An economic superpower has the resources to fund public services such as health, infrastructure etc. The standards of living in the country generally rise. Infrastructure also tends to be better and similar to that of other developed countries. Other benefits the citizens might enjoy are reduced poverty as more people are employed and earn a decent income. The per capita income also rises to match that of other developed countries. The population is also likely to enjoy higher life expectancy lower mortality rates across all age groups and better healthcare. These benefits stem from the government economic ability to invest in healthcare. The quality of healthcare also improves and it is consistent with other developed countries. At the moment, Japan has the highest life expectancy CITATION Mar18 \l 1033 (Pitofsky, 2018) which is a true metric of showing her good public health better than that of other developed countries. It because of their investment in healthcare during decades preceding the lost decade.
The first beneficiary for economic growth or becoming economic superpower goes to the citizens of that country. Though Japan has difficult geography which is hardly arable, lacks mineral deposits, treacherous to navigate and build public transport systems because of its mountains and highly susceptible to earthquakes, becoming an economic superpower helps the people to enjoy standards of living enjoyed by citizens in other developed countries. These issues that are weighed down many other countries and make it nearly impossible to become economic superpowers but in the case of Japan they are evened out by economic advantage to allow her people to live like citizens of other developed countries.
Japan economy depends heavily on foreign trade CITATION Chi12 \l 1033 (Harlan, 2012). A very small percentage of her land is arable and the entire country has very little mineral deposits. Japan sought industrialization where she would import raw materials and export finished goods. Japan’s largest exports are machinery, vehicles and electronics. She is a big importer of natural gas, petroleum (crude oil and processed), food, coal computers and electronics. These are some of the things that Japan trades with but the volumes of her trade are astronomical. In 2018, Japan exported Vehicles worth: US$154.1 billion (20.9% of total exports), Machinery including computers: $148 billion (20.1%) and Electrical machinery, equipment: $109.4 billion (14.8%) CITATION Dan191 \l 1033 (Workman, 2019). In the same year, she imported Mineral fuels including oil worth US$174.6 billion (23.3% of total imports), Electrical machinery, equipment: $101 billion (13.5%) and Machinery including computers: $72.9 billion (9.7%) CITATION Dan192 \l 1033 (Workman, Japan’s Top 10 Imports, 2019). This shows that Japan imported mainly raw materials and exported finished goods making it an industrial complex. The afore-noted figures show the volumes that Japan trades with other countries by product. In terms of bilateral trade, the top three countries; China US$144 billion (19.5% of Japan’s total exports), United States: $140.6 billion (19%) and South Korea: $52.5 billion (7.1%) amount to$ 337.1 billion in trade in 2018 alone. Japan’s top 15 trading partners at least trade goods worth over $10 billion per year.
The afore-noted figures show the quantity of trade that Japan trades with her trading partners. They would also benefit from an economically empowered Japan as it would translate to higher volumes of trade. The countries she imports from will get a bigger market for its products hence helping them economically by increasing their imports. Japan imports are mainly mineral products especially crude oil and natural gas. Her natural gas comes mainly from the Middle East and Russia and hence these countries would benefit from higher Japanese imports stemming from her economic growth. The reason why Japan imports a lot of crude oil, coal and natural gas is that she does not have her own deposits and she needs to produce energy. Thus, an economic slowdown, her partners who heavily depend on her for imports would also lose an important importer. On the other hand, when she is doing very well economically, it would also impact the economy of her trading partners positively. Other countries especially those which do not have the capacity to produce cheap machinery, cars and electronics within their borders get to import from Japan while those which are endowed with natural resources especially natural gas and crude oil benefit from selling it to Japan.
On the other hand, one of the biggest losers of Japan’s economic superpower is the environment. As an economy grows, it tends to be a bigger pollutant of the environment. The world’s biggest pollutants are the biggest economies; China and the United States. The other factor that makes these countries similar is that they are the two world’s largest economies. Large economies demand more energy to produce its products and services and therefore if they do not use clean energy, they become more pollutive. This is the case with China which recently industrialized and also earned the spot of the most pollutive country. Japan is not very distant in that list because it largely depends on crude oil, coal and natural gas for energy. Her efforts to use nuclear energy led to one of the worst nuclear disasters in history when one of her nuclear power plant in Fukushima. The disaster which ensued is estimated to have cost Japan $470 billion to $...