What Eating the Rich Did For Japan

The Zaibatsu of Japan practically ran the nation's economy. Over the span of many decades going into the early 1900s, the families who owned these titanic businesses grew to possess plutocratic amounts of wealth.
Unchecked expansionism allowed their industrial combines to become vast mini-economies within the Japanese nation. But then, over a very short period of time, this vast wealth and income inequality abruptly ended. These families lost their control and then their companies.
In this video, we are going to look at how Japan's richest families got to be so rich. How the authorities came to attack and consume their fortunes. And what doing so meant for the Japanese economy post-War.
Links:
- The Asianometry Newsletter: asianometry.com
- Patreon: / asianometry

[@Asianometry]

I really liked making this video. I hope you enjoyed it too. For other videos on Japan, check out the playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLKtxx9TnH76RTpIBp5WGyun3Nn85sQxLK

[@Al-ng2wn]

Maybe Chaebol and Keiretsu might interest you. Also why Taiwan yet to be taken over by large business family?.

[@youxkio]

Excellent video once again. Thank you for sharing.

[@windmill1965]

I have lived more than a decade in Japan and spent a bit of time looking into their history. You did a magnificent job with this overview of the rise and fall of the zaibatsu.

[@DonutSurprise]

Very rare to find well researched info such as this, thank you!

[@williammiao8862]

@@Al-ng2wn Well their are plenty large family in Taiwan that gained overwhelming wealth during the Japanese colonial period, and the old family wealth distribution trusts called “ancestral worshipping committee”(祭祀公業) is still distributing massive wealth to the male descendent of the family, gained though their families mass assets, and due to the fact that the trusts was established during the Japanese colonial period(Japanese civil code at that time allows gender discrimination ), these Trust funds are still legally allowed to discriminate against their female family members to this day.

[@hezu_vt]

Usually oligarchies damage their own countries' interests. It's funny how Americans can clearly spot it when it happens to another countries but not in their own.

[@Sarah.J.Jacobson]

You would think many would notice this in their cable/ISPs and rail.

[@JeradBenge]

Crony Capitalism: A system in which denial is the second largest source of renewable energy.

[@Manicscitzo]

New Deal Americans were a different breed from boomers

[@jordankidd4443]

Really? Is it happening in the US? Can you draw a meaningful comparison between US oligarchies and the pre-WW2 oligarchies described here? Here's a hint: start with market capitalisation.

[@music4thedeaf]

@@jordankidd4443 bro we are owned by a handful of companies.

[@wdwerker]

I remember as a child “Made in Japan “ meant low quality but by the 80’s it meant high tech.

[@cookman2k]

For me it's "My woman from Tokyo" turned up to 11.

[@cozysummer]

Do you think things gonna be the same with "made in china"?

[@wdwerker]

@@cozysummer possibly if the world continues to tolerate their stealing and copying technology.

[@ninab.4540]

Doc Brown is that you?

[@djdigital3806]

I give the Sony Walkman and Discman for example.

[@theprecipiceofreason]

Except the whole thing was a temporary buffer and was done just to appease the US, who were there. MacArthur regretted not being able to get rid of the zaibatsu before he left. The seizure of assets happened but they just rose to power again, aided by ideas of tradition. Now, work culture is all consuming, in Japan, even to the point of abuse that drastically lowers productivity. You'll notice a lot of the names of the original Zaibatsu are still massive corps, known worldwide. This is not an accident, nor a coincidence.

[@mrb152]

But it's not much of a problem given that Japan is a highly developed country with very little poverty and no starving sergs. They've industrialized and diversified. Now the issue is that the country is so developed people are no longer having kids and the population is becoming old.

[@theprecipiceofreason]

@@mrb152 This is the government narrative but it is only true if you squint. There are a lot of starving and homeless people and even a surviving caste system or three. Rural areas are being torn down by companies and the government. It's not all rosey as the offical messaging states.

[@sixwingproductions]

@@mrb152 like in the rest of the developed world old people have blocked promotioin and raises for the young stagnating wages in the prosute of higher profits. this has lead to young people largly not having the money to have kids. there fore they don't have kids. the schools also frown apon dating at a time when a lot of people meet the persont hey will marry, and drive them to spend their peak reproductive years living at work to the point they even have to sleep in the office.

[@binder946]

❤thank you for explaining historical context to Japanese corporation's and development. I think you should make a video about it.

[@sumkindacheeto]

Yeah, I wouldn't blame not wanting to live in a country that's development hurts the working person on so many levels. Even if you do get the job, the comfortable life and the passive income, people still have to tolerate and live in their culture for that. Not to mention the labour practices.

[@BitwiseMobile]

Interesting stuff about early 20th century Japanese economy and politics (they are usually one and the same - don't let anyone fool you). I noticed that many Japanese companies prefer to be vertical. They want to control all aspects of the supply chain from raw resources, all the way to production of consumer products. Nintendo is a good example of that. When GC came out they decided to go with a disc system to compete with Sony and Microsoft's new consoles. Rather than go with a standard like CD or DVD, they created their own format and subsequently controlled the entire production of the discs. Some say that Nintendo does that in order to create false demand in the marketplace, and there might be something to that, but after watching this I realize that it was the way these plutocratic familial based organizations worked in Japan. It was a tradition built into the zeitgeist of Japanese manufacturing since, apparently, a hundred years prior. Excellent video BTW.

[@shauncameron8390]

And once upon a time in the late 1980's, Nintendo had an actual monopoly on the video game market.

[@MrSupernova111]

I worked for a gaming store for many years starting in 2004 and I can confirm your statements about Nintendo. At the time I wasn't aware of other major companies creating false demand through gimmicks. Nintendo also creates false shortages and puts a lot of effort into making sure the public believes there are shortages of new products. Then suddenly, at the last minute over the holidays, our stores would be flooded with their products. It seems many other large tech companies have learned to create false demand through gimmicks - namely Apple. I should add that the automotive industry is now doing the same thing. They have been claiming chip and vehicle shortages since 2020 as they desperately try to maintain inflated vehicle prices. In the meantime, there are reports of remote lots full of new cars due to overproduction and repos are at historic levels. The trick is to release inventory as slowly as possible to prevent prices from crashing. The same can be said of the residential real estate market in the USA. Again, just gimmicks by greedy corporations to squeeze every dime possible out of the working class.

[@plumebrise4801]

@@baronvonslambert "It was on the Old Continent that the company experienced its first major successes at the end of the 1980s. In Japan, it was not a failure but the company did not carry much weight compared to Nintendo. We can say it today without detour: without England and France, the aura of SEGA would not have been the same" "If there is one generally known fact that is valid for the entire decade and a good part of the 1990s, it would be the following: microcomputers were much more successful than consoles as gaming machines in the most European countries. Although this statement cannot be generalized without a little research, it is certainly true for most large markets like Germany, France and the United Kingdom as well as smaller ones like Spain. or Italy. And this is also the case for a good part of Eastern European countries by definition because several of them did not officially discover consoles until the early 1990s." "Nintendo and SEGA, for example, could not then be considered strong brands in Europe because consumers were not familiar with these Japanese companies. Throughout the 1980s, they only achieved relatively low sales overall, even in countries in which their success was significant. SEGA was clearly a brand better known for their arcade machines and, as already mentioned, some of their computers which had reached Europe [Editor's note: Nintendo was best known for its Game & Watch]." The NES sold 8,56 Millions units in Europe (61,91 Millions worldwide ,34 Millions in North America ,19,35 Millions in Japan) while the Master System sold 6,8 Millions units in Europe (18 Millions worldwide ,8 Millions in Brasil ,2 Millions in the USA and 1 Million in Japan) The SNES sold 8,58 Millions in Europe (49,1 Millions worldwide, 23,35 Millions in North America, 17,17 Millions in Japan) while the Sega Genesis sold 6,9 Millions in the PAL Market (So Europe + other country like Australia ,Brasil etc ...) (39,7 Millions worldwide ,20 Millions in North America, 4,3 Millions in Japan) The N64 sold 6,75 Millions in Europe + Australia (32,93 Millions worldwide, 20,63 Millions in North America, 5,54 Millions in Japan) while the Sega Saturn sold 0,97 Million in Europe (9,5 Millions worldwide ,2,7 Millions in the USA ,5 Millions in Japan) The GCN sold 4,77 Millions in Europe (21,75 Millions worldwide, 12,94 Millions in USA + Canada, 4,04 Millions in Japan) while the Dreamcast sold 1,91 Million in Europe (8,06 Millions worldwide ,3,9 Millions in North America ,2,25 Millions in Japan) Nintendo still sold more than Sega in each generation of console in Europe .

[@masoncnc]

Or like Apple and their stupid proprietary cables.

[@takaakiyamada5451]

That's a ridiculous claim. That's just cherry-picking. There are many exceptions. In fact, there are more exceptions.

[@jfan4reva]

This kind of thing can happen at the local level also. In the (U.S.) town where I live there's a family that was known to be quite wealthy. They owned a bank, real estate companies, and land. The bankers and real estate people unfortunately played a little too wild with their assets, selling land parcels back and forth among themselves (sometimes on a daily basis) to push up the land values and let them reap the profits from so many sales where the selling price was always higher than the purchase price. Eventually that bubble popped, and the real estate and bankers ran out of money. The bank was close and the depositors almost lost their money (the bank was state insured, instead of being federally insured.) The real estate assets were sold off at market value, and that was the beginning of a major real estate and business boom. Tracts of land that had been empty for years while family members sold them back and forth among themselves were suddenly being developed. Businesses were built. Entire residential neighborhoods were built on land that had been unused. No one 'ate the rich', they ate themselves. The family's disaster turned into a boon for the community.

[@phezzanfnord1089]

The real question is why the family failed to employ their assets and instead blew asset bubbles.... Similarly - the Fed for the last 50 years...

[@nahometesfay1112]

@@phezzanfnord1089 because it's easier to blow bubbles than create value

[@dragonbane44]

@@phezzanfnord1089 short term gains

[@cstgraphpads2091]

This is typically what happens. Unfortunately, there are greedy people even among those who aren't "rich" and they would rather demand that the government steal from private citizens instead of letting the inevitable over-extension by these companies/individuals happen.

[@nunyabiznes33]

Them eating themselves is just desserts

[@johnywhy4679]

It seems breaking up monopolies can be pro-capitalist. Not necessarily socialist

[@alvatoredimarco]

It's like a forest fire. Occasionally you have to burn away the accumulated overgrowth in order to let new life and new diversity flourish.

[@reybladen3068]

Yup. Wealth inequality leads to envy and bitterness which then led to civil strife and revolutions. If you don't want communists to ran around the country, the rich have no choice but to agree to redistribution of wealth and property. Plus, when monopolies are gone, small businesses and competitors will pop up and give way to new opportunities.

[@albertalmodal4331]

Breaking up monopolies is supposed to be what a "real" capitalist economy would do, if I remember correctly.

[@woomod2445]

@@albertalmodal4331 According to adam smith who was writing what he saw succesful economies doing, yes. The state in capitalism needs to break up monopolies as it is natural but detrimental for them to form.

[@5353Jumper]

Hmmmm...it is like supporting entrepreneurialism and small business is the real driver of a capitalist economy. And allowing oligopoly industries to bribe and influence government to reduce competition and gain special favor is actually not really capitalist, it is just plain corruption.

[@McMillanScottish]

As an American, I am always very interested in the stories of countries with which we have been at war. Japanese products have been incredibly important to America since shortly after WWII. We respect their engineering and their standards, and if we all could find such appreciable value in our earthly neighbors, the world would be a better place.

[@neptun2810]

Greetings from Germany. After a war, there is always the question of "how do we win the peace". After WW2, humanity got it mostly right, and the conflicts were really over after 1945. Unlike WW1, where everything started again soon after. Or the middle east today, where peace is essentially a short timeout between two wars.

[@udhaydasoar8199]

Really interesting and informative video. Appreciate the effort and time that's been put into making this!

[@MNkno]

One of the aspects that I find fascinating is the fact that unlike many other countries who wanted to unseat their plutocrats, Japan firmly, steadily, maneuvered the decline in a way that left the plutocrats still quite comfortable by ordinary standards, but nowhere as rich as they had been. Nobody dragged them out of their homes and shot them, and they didn't even disband the companies, simply changed parts of the structure so that they were publicly held corporations instead of family-run business interests. The "we will compensate you with X amount of money.. on deposit and you can't touch it for the next 5 years" was brilliant.

[@cageybee7221]

this is because it was done for pragmatic reasons, due to the economic and social problems that the militaristic government had little problem identifying and little conflict of interest eradicating, as compared to the previous liberal and monarchist governments which had closer ties to the wealthy and personal stake in not solving these problems. it was not a revolution of people who felt that their hardships were from the elite class, those tend to be very bloody chaotic affairs. if the military govt. had not have done this, it's very possible japan could have had such a bloody lower-class revolution instead near the end or after the war.

[@bisiilki]

I think there's an intereslng parallel between Japan's Breakup of Zaibatsu power and the UK's end to slavery. In the UK the Government compensated slave owners and traders when they outlawed slaving. Even my family was paid-out for the slaves they owned in Grenada and other parts of the Carribean. Fundamentally owning slaves for many owners was not motivated solely by racism, it was about controlling and exploiting labour for no impact on bottom line profitability. For the UK slave owners they didn't kick up and fight the government because their economic position and societal status was not changed. The same with how the Japanese managed the transition from the Zaibatsu conglomerate monopolies - compensation and respecting social position. Essentially because of both the UK and Japan's underlying social stratification and social hierarchy there was substantial social capital that the slave owners and the Zaibatsu families held, irrespective of the wealth. Compare this to the USA, where there was not a social status system underpinning the economics of aggregation of wealth. Any old poverty stricken nobody could go from ' Rags' to 'Riches' just with an idea or by going to a place and stealing land from Native American Tribes. The wealth and status of the slave owners was entirely dependent on the control and exploitation of slaves. No 'barons', No 'Lords', no 'earls', no long term intergenerational social capital to fall back on. It was a big contributor to the Civil War, both at the individual slave owner family level and at the Slave State political level. This is still true to this day. It's why wealthy Americans are so terrified of anti trust laws, government regulations and socialism. They violently resist any attempts at reducing wealth inequality because their only social status comes from money and accumulated capital. It's no surprise that the chief reason that the US Government is involved in so many countries through both direct intervention (invasions/war/world bank/IMF) and indirect (softer power influence - int'l taxation stuff/trade agreements/WTO/aggressive patent and copyright law) is because it is protecting the economic interests of American "entrepreneurs" and industrialists. These people, as Trump and his wealthy supporters proved, will turn against their fellow countrymen if there is any challenge to their wealth derived social status. Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook definitely need the Zaisbatsu treatment. Chinese Government is giving some 'guidance' to their tech giants at the moment.

[@OneAdam12Adam]

Truly genius. Our only hope is that we can do this now to the oligarchs all over the world especially in the USA.

[@loliloloso]

@@bisiilki ：Ｃhinese method as a guidance? why not New Deal-ism? There are plenty of ideas in American school of thought, a lot of history of left popularism. If these cannot be done, then how is it possible for US government to achieve that level concentration of political power? Trump? but Trumpism is more like Putin's crony capitalism. China has a "Red-Patrician" class. If you don't belong to them and show signs of defiance, then you have trouble. corruption is part of growth stratage, Xi's family is rich. not rich rich. Where do you got the ideal that China offer a model of socialism? even Marxism is banned. For the patrician class , and CCP grip to power, any form of democracy has to be banned.

[@liucyrus22]

Locked in cash during a hyper inflation hike. That is the catch that sort of made the government responsible for confiscating wealth. Could be fair if they were kept as gold or other value-retaining-low-growth assets.

[@JonasVilander]

One problem I have with this analysis, is that it completely ignores the fact that Japan's economic miracle began as soon as some of former Zaibatsu groups were able to rebuild their holdings as financial groups now known as Keiretsu. Must like the Zaibatsu of old, the Keiretsu utilizes vertical integration, where huge portfolios of major companies across different industries are owned and coordinated(supply eachother) by a few banking groups(most of which have Zaibatsu origins). Despite in some ways being more informal in nature, in the US they would be considered highly illegal trusts under the loosest definitions. The only thing that ever really changed was the shift in focus from a more closed economy, to an export-focus economy, and a large amount of foreign(chiefly US) subsidies and investment.

[@silent_stalker3687]

Japan had 250 years of no war- but because people were afraid to stand out because it was very traditionalist and absolutists. This also meant for no developments for 250 years until they were conquered- which then lead into all types of shake ups and… yeah 250 year old stuff being removed- what do you think would happen? “Hey let’s hunt with muskets and see how many deer we can bag- what’s that sound?” Twin mini guns mounted on helicopters winding up….

[@dakotathacker3821]

i agree Jonas, that really is a glaring oversight considering the direct influence and active participation then and now

[@blakebrown534]

You have companies like Sony, Toyota, and Panasonic that all formed right around WW2 (or earlier, but took off closer to / a little bit after WW2) that started from humble beginnings in the 20th century that fit with what he's described in this video, no?

[@NeostormXLMAX]

what did you expect? this video is propaganda, of course they would leave out convenient facts

[@lovfro]

I agree. The 'Reverse Course' is very pertinent to this history and the reforming of the zaibatsu into keiretsu.

[@qastaX]

Great video, well researched, and fantastic narrating. Thank you!

[@BLITSFRAPPS]

Amazing ! I work in japan IN marunoichi in one of those buildings on the left of the imperial palace gardens. The level of depth in the video is appreciable ! Thanks 👍🏽

[@problemat1que]

If you read Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, you'll find he already argued that land owners have a vested interest in keeping their country less developed, as developed economies have much smaller profit rates.

[@unknowninfinium4353]

Ma man predicted all that during his days?

[@eridaskunt1856]

@@unknowninfinium4353 yea, but capitalism is good tho.

[@YamiSilaas]

@@eridaskunt1856 Okay I gather you probably don't read so I'll keep this short. Marxism isn't dogma. It isn't a religion. It isn't "feels based politics". Marxism is a scientific explanation for why capitalism will, inevitably, begin consuming itself. To oversimplify: In capitalism, profit is all that matters. Stockholders require growth, or else their stock loses value and they lose money. A product cannot be innovated forever. Eventually, it will become so efficient that the only options left become dividing the product to sell each piece individually (See Apple removing functions of their smart phones to sell them separately at inflated prices) or to engage in labor violations (forced overtime, cutting employee benefits, lower pay). Eventually, this becomes a society-wide issue, as it is right now (for their time, French peasants in the 1700s were wealthier than most American workers today). These labor violations do two things: they cause further efficiency in the creation of products, but they destroy the consumer-classes ability to purchase. This is why the housing, vehicle and education markets are getting buttfucked right now. The consumers simply cannot possibly afford them. This means the only people engaging with the economy are now middle-class and wealthy people, which is an increasingly small number of Americans. I do not have to explain why 80% of a country being unable to meaningfully engage in capitalism is a death sentence for capitalism. Once this gets bad enough, poor people will begin killing wealthy people. I am not saying this is a good or bad thing. I'm saying it's AN INEVITABLE thing. This is all the more likely as capitalism is also uniquely responsible for the impending climate disasters. There will be climate rebellions, and a lot of wealthy people who enabled the polluting companies for their own pocketbooks will die. A cursory glance at history tells you this is inevitable, and it is because of this country's blind worship of capitalism. That is the hyper-simplified basis of Marxism. "Capitalism has inherent contradictions that will cause it to consume itself, and the result will be terrible violence."

[@miguelzavaleta1911]

@@YamiSilaas More generally, Marxism is the attempt to describe events/history through the lens of its participants' material conditions.

[@eridaskunt1856]

@@miguelzavaleta1911 Marx is flawed.

[@Heapfael]

Destroying old and lazy company structures by privatization led to more success for the economy. Decades later, destroying old and lazy company structures by nationalization led to more success for the economy. I see a pattern here :-)

[@santiagoperez2094]

Yep, germany its the biggest eu economy because it specializes in medium size companies for specific products.

[@eddiemarohl5789]

69th like

[@tenshi1333]

@@eddiemarohl5789 Now do 420 funny man.

[@Emppu_T.]

Tragedy of the commons anyone?

[@kiethhammer6882]

@@santiagoperez2094 Except for the "defence" industry. Rheinmetall.

[@ew6546]

Japan had a very centralized economy during the early 1900s Zaibatsu era, and it was government restrictions on who can own businesses that gave the Zaibatsu their monopoly status, allowing them to get so powerful.

[@DragonSlayer6398]

And who do you think it was paying the government to make those beneficial decisions?

[@ew6546]

@@DragonSlayer6398 Please provide some source or piece of useful information. I'm not here to answer your silly questions.

[@MNkno]

If you look back a bit on who it was forming the gov't, and how the Zaibatsu had come about, basically it was a slightly opened-up ruling class protecting their own after the country did away with the rank of Daimyo. The Tokugawa leadership class (those nimble enough to adapt) were the class in charge under the Meiji. Zaibatsu had been based in specific fiefs, one per fief, run by Daimyo. Meiji opened that up to action on the national scene. The Daimyo had the habit of recruiting talented people from almost all class strata, which kept them from stagnating.

[@connormullin4547]

@@DragonSlayer6398 The point he is making is that government restrictions are used to create most monopolies. It is very rare for a monopoly to form without government regulations being involved. There is really only one situation where that can happen, some types of businesses become more efficient the bigger they are and eventually one company becomes so much cheaper and better than all of their competitors that all of the competitors pretty much die out. Amazon is a good example, nobody wants to pay an extra $20 in shipping and wait an extra week to buy off of another site when Amazon can deliver it for free the same day it is ordered. Those types of monopolies are not really a big problem in the same way that government supported monopolies are. Government created monopolies like internet and cell companies in Canada suck because they can charge as much as they want and don't have to worry about being efficient because nobody else is allowed to compete with them due to government restrictions. The you end up paying $300 a month for a cell phone plan with 1GB of internet because you need a cell phone and there are no other companies. When you compare that with a "natural" monopoly where one business is just better than all of the others you can see how one is more problematic than the other. Obviously the company supports politicians or does other shady stuff to get the laws passed by the government, but that doesn't change the fact that it is a natural result of government regulation. Recently some state government (backed by John Deere) was trying to get regulations passed to ban other companies from repairing tractors so farmer would be stuck overpaying the manufacturer to fix it instead. Usually these types of regulations are pretty popular with most voters because they are pitched in a way that makes it sound good for people by the government, and people are generally ignorant, sometimes they will play on peoples spite towards large companies and pitch them that way. Instead of saying "we want to extort farmers" they will talk about "dangerous" shady third party repair places that will destroy your equipment, or crazy farmers supercharging their tractors with parts that increase emissions and destroy the environment. Then most voters think that sounds good and the regulations pass. Or Sherwin-Williams invests to produce paint that doesn't contain VOCs before any other company and then lobbying the government to ban paint with VOCs "for peoples health". Then the government says the big mean companies want to put poisonous VOCs in your paint and they are here to protect you and you go overpay 90$ for your next gallon of paint at Sherwin-Williams because no other store has that product yet. A lot of the time it isn't even corruption and the government gets nothing out of it. Most politicians are about 90 years old and dont know how to send an email. It isn't hard to convince them of pretty much anything.

[@aidanaldrich7795]

​@DragonSlayer6398 Business men making political donations is inevitable. It's the politicians' responsibility to not allow that to influence their decisions

[@pluckybellhop66]

Geez you put a lot of work into this! Thank you so much 🙏

[@jeffj2495]

Good info. But I think you downplayed WWII. Most countries go bankrupt when they fund huge militaries. Japan bet on the war, and they lost their industrialization progress as a result of misguided warmongering.

[@MrHarumakiSensei]

Yeah. Japan did well post war with everyone working hard on a (more) level playing field. But it's difficult to claim high taxes were the cause of this when the county had just been literally levelled with firebombing and nukes!

[@TomatoTomato911]

many countries decided to go to war as the last resort before they become too poor to start a war. yes it is a huge gamble always been since ancient times.

[@deborahciampa9285]

Putin is now doing this to the Russian people.

[@peterciurea7771]

The idea that Zaibatsus are no longer around is purely fiction. They are perfectly alive and kicking, and larger than ever before.

[@kj_H65f]

Yep, it's like the idea that slavery and Jim Crow ended in the US. It just has a different name now.

[@What-he5pr]

@@kj_H65f what's it called now?

[@AH-vc3hb]

@@What-he5pr the republican party

[@What-he5pr]

@@AH-vc3hb oh no, please tell me how.

[@AH-vc3hb]

@@What-he5pr 13th amendment, 6th word And redlining

[@joeblo7309]

I really love this channel. Really intellectual thinking and i always learn things with interest. Cheers

[@tehpanda64]

I don't know what is more impressive: the levels of far reaching collusion in these extended families, or how effective busting them up was for improving Japan's economy afterwards. I like that we all know most of these family names despite the companies being mostly broken up. Another great video, I was really looking forward to this one after it was teased.

[@tacticlol]

It helps to be flexible and undogmatic. Private property is not some sacred covenant with the creator.

[@fusion9619]

@@tacticlol I think it is. But where private property is unjustly acquired, or unjustly kept, society must find ways to deal with it. But fundamentally, private property is a human right.

[@prathameshdusane2619]

@@fusion9619 I agree, although Sumitomo, Mitsubishi & Kawasaki are still going strong.

[@fusion9619]

@@prathameshdusane2619 Kawasaki and Mitsubishi are really good examples of companies that reformed their market and their image after a nasty period. Idk anything about the other one, though.

[@clocktower1164]

If Japan 'ate' their rich and came out stronger, why can't USA do the same ? The Jeff Bezos, the Elon Musks, the Bill gates, the George Soros, the Warren Buffets, all of them, must have all the wealth taken and re-distribute to all the Americans !

[@saltymonke3682]

The original Keiretsu families are still ruling the group secretly via subsidiaries in some of the group. Mitsui and Sumitomo still have strong family representatives that are still called as "Sachou" aka President, even though formally they aren't the president. The original family members will gather annually in Kyoto with all CEOs and presidents of their subsidiary for a planning meeting. It's not uncommon that public KKs in Japan are secretly owned by 1 entity/family well above the ownership rate that is allowed by the government. They have managed to do this by using various webs of companies. Zaibatsu/Keiretsu and Japanese military have long ties because most of them are former Samurai, both for the merchants and officers. For example, during the Russo-Japanese war, Admiral Togo received the intelligence report on the proximity of the Russian Baltic fleet from the Sumitomo and Mitsui Shipyard directors in Shanghai and Singapore. All military equipments in JSDF are still made by those Keiretsu until now, mainly license built. So it's not merely because they ate the rich, but the rich managed to fly below the radar (and mostly were spending their wealth in Japan) and had very strong connection with METI-JETRO-JICA aka Politicians and Bureaucrats.

[@1schwererziehbar1]

Such a unique Japanese phenomenon. This certainly doesn't happen in Western countries at all. Western companies are definitely not owned by complex and opaque webs of investment management companies which are owned by wealthy families that trace back to medieval aristocracies.

[@saltymonke3682]

@@1schwererziehbar1 Some do, especially the Swiss. Italian families have faded. Rothschild still have annual meeting. You can be expelled from the family if you don't attend the meeting. They will share their experience on business, life and everything on that meeting. So other family members can learn from mistake and success of others. They also have their own internal financial planning and capital/loan access to grow their family assets and business through internal lending to their own family members. They have the access to cheap credit but they have to return it to the family funds with low interest. Just to show their responsibility to other members. I'm not going into the conspiracy theory side because it's mainly BS. Since there were 2 world wars in Europe. It was harder for othe families in other European countries to maintain the business. Sweden had a chance, but 1970s socialist policies messed them up. Families had to give ownership to the union who couldn't manage business at all. Therefore triggering 1970s Nordic Stagflation. In America, Johnson family has similar gathering like Rothschild, but smaller. There are other families that are not on Forbes list, mainly because they will sue Forbes to keep them out of it. Stealth wealth is the best wealth.

[@KindaJadedish]

I noticed sumitomo and a name Yamasa seems to transact a lot of houses in the US. Do you know any other family names that have grown like this?

[@saltymonke3682]

@@KindaJadedish Asano family still have several foundations, Yasuda clan is still functioning, Furukawa is still there (5th generation head of the family had died in 2018, but his son Junichi took his place. His mother Noriko is the aunt of the current emperor) but some have changed their names to Nakagawa (common Japanese name), Ito family is still strong politically. The current diet member and former minister of defence Taro Kono is one of the grandchild of the main branch. but it's getting harder to identify them because many family branches from the original main branch have changed their family name to fly below the radar or due to marriage. And as you can see, they have managed to gain links to the Imperial and political families as well.

[@charmate661]

@@saltymonke3682 This begs me the question. How do you know all of this, how did u study?

[@jasN86]

Thanks for making this video! It was very interesting!

[@alheno5423]

Great content! Thank you for this!

[@capmidnite]

Manchuria actually became a testing ground to nurture new companies outside of the influence of the Zaibatsu. The IJA that ran things was suspicious of the zaibatsu but knew the talent of private entrepreneurs was necessary. Thus Yoshisuke Aikawa, the founder of Nissan, was tapped to help establish the Manchurian Industrial Development Company.

[@ZontarDow]

And the results was Manchuria producing only 2% as much iron as expected and the colony being a resource drain for its entire existence, as virtually all colonies where.

[@Rangerage]

@@ZontarDow Do you have any citation for that? Japanese investment in Manchuria was extremely profitable from what I am aware of.

[@ZontarDow]

@@Rangerage Not that I can find easily, was 7 years ago I did a small project in college on the matter and had to compare the output that they got during the 1930s with what the projections where. However it being profitable would be shocking given just about the only colonies that where profitable where South Africa and a very small handful of others during the colonial period. Colonies in general are a drain.

[@aaronhpa]

@@ZontarDow spanish weren't

[@ZontarDow]

@@aaronhpa Actually the Spanish had one of the worst cases of it which is why their empire fell generations before WW2 did the British, French, Italians, Dutch, Belgians and Portuguese in.

[@zenastronomy]

you missed a big point in your video. the disbandment of zaibutsus was driven by USA. as part of their surrender agreement, usa demanded japan dismantle its zaibutsus and fracture the companies up. it wasn't driven by the Japanese government as much as demanded by the occupying allied forces. as they saw the zaibutsus modelled on western banking families as direct causes of japan's ww2 ambitions and abilities. imperialism and capitalism always went hand in hand.

[@bitcoinzoomer9994]

I just wrote this exact argument too. I'm not against redistribution when it becomes absolutely necessary, but the problem is that "eating the rich" requires a government much more powerful than the rich, which will then go on to oppress the people just as the rich elite did before them.

[@noop9k]

But USSR being an brutal oppressive empire is totally not a problem..

[@Emidretrauqe]

@@noop9k An empire that was built and collapsed within a single human lifetime. Imperialism and capitalism might go hand in hand, but imperialism and communism do not.

[@noop9k]

@@Emidretrauqe Empire called Russia existed for about 300 years and only lost some of the colonies by now. Bolshevik regime fell because commie economy couldn't work without capitalists sponsoring it and Reagan put a stop to it. Chinese economy will collapse too as soon as the other countries stop pumping it with money.

[@alexandermedia5402]

Legit channel. Legit episode! Great job on all your hard work. Amazing!!

[@ewarioevan783]

Thxs for the subtitles!

[@gj1234567899999]

There’s still plenty of rich in japan. In fact the old nobility just got into business and became conglomerates. There’s still plenty of poor Japanese living in tiny apartments only able to afford cheap ramen.

[@metagde6402]

Yep this You wont ever see any new players getting big in Japanese market at all Its all rigged in there no wonder their tech growth is stagnated unlike korea,China

[@ClickBeetleTV]

Japan's CEO to employee compensation ratio is still ten times lower than the United States while going back and forth with China as the second or third largest economy in the world

[@shazmosushi]

Japan's off-book compensation is way different though. Like for many companies even organize which apartment their employees live in. And for CEO's this can mean company private jets for personal travel etc.

[@ClickBeetleTV]

@@shazmosushi You don't think large-cap American companies also do that for their CEOs on top of the tenfold compensation? 'Cause they do.

[@dionysianapollomarx]

@@metagde6402 S Korea is likely to reach the same point. Imo, only advantage they have is willingness to shift to paperless work and good UX/UI design in most of the software they use and in their websites. Also, corporate boards are more receptive to customer base criticisms. Most companies in Japan are unproductive because they do or have the opposite. Japanese websites and UIs in hightech machines are generally stuck in the 2000's in terms of design. You'd think this won't do harm. If you look at their tech, they don't have good user-friendly tech made by them. So they don't export their tech when they're supposed to be up there in terms of hightechness. Add the fact that their bureaucracy has so much bottleneck, and it's a recipe for stagnation. They're not innovating in the right places, at least South Korea does that, but Korea has a different set of problems, related to unemployment and labor rights. Things have been escalating in that area over recent years, and if Moon doesn't deliver which he won't, it will only get even worse over time.

[@remyhocage9854]

"Greatly reduced " basically means still rich. In the "good old days," America corporations were taxed at 60 %. People now complain the economy but do not vote to increase corp. taxes. The adage about history being forgotten is true. Thanks for posting.

[@floydlooney6837]

Corporations just collect taxes from their customers

[@remyhocage9854]

@@floydlooney6837 Yes and instead of passing down their savings from their low taxes to customers (Trickle Down Theory) Corp.s keep the extra money for the Corp.

[@elimgarak1127]

@Remy HocAge Which has everything to do with meaningless government regulation, creating the issue to begin with. Your arguing low corporate tax doesn't work when less government involvement does work. Corporations love rules and taxes. Means nobody else can get big enough to play the game with them. Sound familiar?

[@MrMichaelBCurtis]

too much ignorance, first Corporate tax is stupid, as you cannot tax corporations, you are taxing the customers. Better to tax them directly, it is much more reliable and honest. Floydlooney6837 is correct. Trickle down is NOT removing tax from corporations, that is ignorant, it IS investment, when investment occurs then the entire economy improves at all levels, like it did under Reagan, until Bill Clinton sent it to china, where is has been doing quite well, the average living standard for chinese citizens has exploded. Trump did it for a short time when he lowered the repatriation tax, that is how he earned record government revenues until the democrat covid lockdowns. and lastly, when the government is doing it's job, it eliminates monopolies, Disney buying Lucas Marvel and FOX, should NEVER have been allowed, nor them having Disney Plus. Soon that will be broken up, it needs to be very soon. without real competition, everyone loses.

[@floydlooney6837]

@@MrMichaelBCurtis Disney taking on that much debt was also stupid. Government should not bail them out.

[@XtroTheArctic]

Awesome Info. Thank you!

[@tacticlol]

It’s messed up that the US sponsored land reform in Asia, but when Latin American governments tried it Uncle Sam dropped the hammer.

[@josephdestaubin7426]

It was not the case that we sponsored it as much as it is that we punished the families who had owned it and used it to wage war against us. There's a difference.

[@fusion9619]

It's also messed up that the US utilizes 3-4% of it's land, but land is still unaffordable. I got that figure from a Google search, so if it's wrong, blame the gewgol.

[@cdralda]

@@josephdestaubin7426 From what I've read on this matter, SCAP very intentionally supported the reforms, to abate marxist sentiment in Japan. In Latin America, these reforms never took place, and were actively fought against by the US backed oligarchs. Which would partially explain, why Latin America is still to this day, so sympathetic to socialist/marxist ideals. The people want to break up the control of the oligarchs and have some economic prospects.

[@hieuphungminh6690]

US: Say it with me, *inhales*, COMMIEESSSSS

[@ogc9649]

@@fusion9619 it’s misleading, far more nuanced and complex.

[@pjacobsen1000]

Fascinating! It made me realize how little I know about Japanese history.

[@danibot3000]

The question is: Do you know much about your history?

[@pjacobsen1000]

@@danibot3000 I know my history pretty well. I've lived it. For the very early years I can ask my mother.

[@mistachorazy6929]

@@danibot3000 how is that relevant

[@danibot3000]

Wonderful - that's nice to hear. Some people don't reflect on such, own, things and prefer looking at things in the outside. I just wanted to point in that direction in case you wondered - maybe a bit silly to this in a medium like this..

[@antonioc3743]

@@pjacobsen1000 《 The History of Peter Jacobsen: An Inner Retrospective Vol. 1》

[@baliyev1]

Kudos for such a great summary!

[@gwillis01]

Thank you for an informative, detailed video.

[@peterfranz286]

The end of the script where you voice changes back to more causal always makes me chuckle. Great stuff 10/10

[@MyargonautsJason]

I'm sure others have pointed this out, but in the very beginning there is a minor mistake when you labeled Tokugawa Ieyasu the "first Shogun." He was the first Shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, but the first Shogun of Japan was way back in 1192.

[@eldermoose7938]

Minamoto no Yoritomo founder of the kamakura shogunate

[@loturzelrestaurant]

@@eldermoose7938 I ask around if someone wants some nice Recommendations, whetever it's about the Topi of Science or Atheism or Socialism or just the vague 'Concept' of 'Tackling Issues'.

[@riks081]

@@loturzelrestaurant jeez, get over yourself

[@loturzelrestaurant]

@@riks081 Do you sometimes stop, think for a second, and realize you shouldnt write something cause it would massively-embarass-yourself at least thx to the common sense rule ‚Rude=Ebarassing; Extra-Bonus is given if it’s your first-ever comment to someone’? At least?

[@UnknownSend3r]

@@loturzelrestaurant honestly your first comment was cringe and embarrassing.

[@fr_schmidlin]

Thank you so much for this video! It's only sad that the channel targets Asia only, as I would love to see the Brazilian history of the same period being told this way.

[@mikenim9164]

Great video. very informative!

[@Misterz3r0]

Breaking up large concentrations of wealth isn't just an implementation of socialist principles, but can also unleash underutilized resources and actually increase overall growth and wealth of a nation. Wealth concentrations can act as productivity sink, like a cancer that consumes resources, through rent-seeking behavior. At a certain point, a large corporation or an extremely wealthy family functions equivalently to a parasitic entity and the monopolistic prices they charge are are effectively a tax. But unlike a government, the taxes don't go towards national security, public services, or social programs, and also unlike a competitive market, the profits aren't reinvested into innovation, they, instead, go into the bank accounts of the wealthy who often decide not to lend that money since the interest is inconsequential to them or the capital is itself locked in the form of hard assets that are largely unproductive (e.g. art, luxury vehicles, large tracts of land, and mansions). So, there isn't just a socialist case against dynastic wealth, there is also a market-based argument against it.

[@addanametocontinue]

Yep. As an extreme example, imagine 90 cents out of every dollar generated by a city's economy just goes into a bank account and sits there. There's very little left to spur spending, etc. That's the problem when you have very wealthy people who keep most of the profits and, instead of spending it, just put it in the bank. It's really bad for the economy.

[@qjtvaddict]

So smart capitalism is the solution

[@bogdanpanek3481]

Observations correct, conclusions less so. Wealth does not sit in a bank account, it is always lent out for economic purposes even if the owner does not wish it. Privately owned monopolies will always be more productive to society than state owned monopolies. Luxury good production will always be more beneficial economically than more national security, public services or social services. Those are all overhead to running our national enterprise and those cost should be kept to a bare minimum. More government spending is not better, its the exact opposite.

[@Dwightstjohn-fo8ki]

A timely point right now, right here in N. America and it's current "Supply Chain" and ongoing concentrations of extreme wealth.

[@L4Z3RF4C3]

That's why we need to incentivize productive investments and entrepreneurs. When government regulations throw off the risk-reward metric of entrepreneurs the result is for people to hoard wealth in the most liquid form. Liquidity and complex investments do not go together. If you try to tax this wealth rather than encourage spending it will simply look for an even more liquid offshore place to hide. There is no scenario where Bernie Sanders busts open the billionaire'ss banks and everyone gets to share the spoils.

[@ninny65]

The Zaibatsu was used for war production, it wasn't necessarily Japan "eating the rich" but more converting their economy to a post-war economy. The Zaibatsu was centralised on purpose for this reason of war production

[@TomatoTomato911]

similar to what china is doing, they have big state owned companies and they have public companies runned by ccp agents. the communist party gathers wealth from investments and sales all around the world but have tight control over expenditure. as such money availae in the market became scarce and econimies outside china suffers. they are now hoarding raw materials with the money they have gathered. more big companies will eventually suffer and be forced to sell to chinese owned corporates like what we have seen with many once famous and top corporates. wont be far from the day everything is produced and owned by china.

[@onetwothree4148]

The model being followed here is the model of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. That was their main proposal. Dismantle the globalist capitalists and regulate those businesses to promote only the good of the country.

[@RingoBuns]

Loooved this video specifically. Very well done!

[@nicholasstephens1349]

Well done, I subscribed!!!

[@paul-akers]

amazing commentary thank you!

[@maxfmfdm]

Man your videos are really something else. This is a very interesting subject. Thank you.

[@Stadtpark90]

Watch “Princes of the Yen” for the post-war story, and the role of the central bank in it.

[@Stadtpark90]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pmaklGqXpcSAd7s

[@randomrandom316]

I saw it some years back and have practically forgotten all of it, thanks for reminding will watch it again.

[@fusion9619]

I watched that... It was one of the few times that I forgot I was pedalling on an exercise bike for like an hour...

[@Stadtpark90]

@@randomrandom316 tbh: first time I watched it, I felt enlightened. Just like after watching “The secret of Oz” by Bill Still (When I first learned that 99% of money is created as credit by banks). But 2nd time I watched “Princes of the Yen” I started to be confused: it’s like playing Victoria 2 - after you carefully constructed all your factories and production lines for 80 years you just switch to a libertarian party, and half your economy goes belly up, disrupting everything you had spent 80 years building: the whole premise of the video only makes sense as a switch of ideology - as if they really suddenly started believing that using window-guidance was wrong and thus had to be ended, because the wizards / princes who used it were going to die and did not trust anyone from the next generation to use it competently, and thus the steering of the ship had to be switched from careful manual steering to autopilot. Not seeing that capitalism on autopilot leads to disaster. I still don’t get it. What is the alternative why they did it? Central Bankers must be the steward of their economies - how could they just willfully produce boom and bust cycles? It also leads to a concentration of wealth: assets change hands for a dime on the dollar. How is the structure afterwards any better than before? Sure: assets end up with the strongest hands / the richest families with the deepest pockets, but how is that a better result than what they had with window-guidance? They wrecked their hand-woven economy for more globalization? I still don’t get it. Did they sell out to an international class of private bankers? Goldman Sachs all over again? That the US Empire and their tools at the IMF continue to work on world domination is expected, but why did the Central Bankers in Japan help? How is their loyalty not with their country but with all Central Bankers over the world? What are they the stewards of, aside from their own power? Power for what? What would you need a one world government for, if it’s not working for the people in the end anyway? Edit: I just rewatched it, and the “grab the central bank snakes by the head” images are really strong towards the end. I find it quite ironic, considering how their power applied correctly was shown to produce better living conditions and high equality in post-war Japan at the start. They could do good things with reasonable goals, but instead they fight an ideological war no matter the suffering for generations in between... - the most important question is: what is newly created money used for, how much is created, and who has the power: and by the end it’s all on its head: the power question dominates, the boom and bust are just means to get and keep the power, and the most important question: what it is used for in society seems no longer relevant. It’s perverted, rotten from the head. We need a reform of money creation. Money reform movements have sprung up in all countries, yet they are so weak.

[@pannychanman]

lol, I did a ctrl-f to see if anyone mentioned it in the comments. Highly recommend the watch, it's easily searchable on KZbin.

[@ConnoisseurOfExistence]

Awesome info, thanks!

[@mikebowman9844]

Excellent summary. Thank you.

[@youxkio]

Excellent video once again. Thank you for sharing.

[@kirbyarmstrong9174]

Yes, this highlights the fact that capitalism can be beneficial for a nation as long as it is not allowed to be completely self serving for the families involved. Just like when corporations were first formed in England, they were allowed by the King to exist as long as they served the overall interests of the people. Today's corporations need the same throttle. If they don't serve the public interest they should be dissolved.

[@andyb2977]

The early corporations in western history were chartered for only a limited time and not intended to exist in perpetuity like today's. They were meant to fulfill a certain objective that required a lot of capital to undertake, then have the profits distributed and the assets liquidated once the charter was complete.

[@Feroste]

The first corporations came from many city charters, and it was only by the will of the people that they were given the power that they had.

[@eminencerain848]

Corporation and Capitalism are not the same, you are confusing the terms.

[@MrCrunch808]

The corporations are the government in North America. To actually change things you would have to destroy how modern politics works and eliminate any and all electoral rules that get in the way of proportional representation for each area.

[@kenny4957]

capitalism is always beneficial

[@rufuspipemos]

The author seems to have confused "eating the rich" with "ending monopoly."

[@Skyfoogle]

there's no difference. rich people love monopolies. the end goal of any capitalist is to monopolize as much as possible. do you eating eating the rich literally means cooking them for dinner?

[@rufuspipemos]

@@Skyfoogle , no, when the US broke up the trusts they did not confiscate weath. The rich had the same amount of money after, as before. They simply had their monopolies broken up and could only keep one of their parcels. Eating the rich usually means taxing or transferring their wealth to others. Very different.

[@Pattern-Recognition]

Thank you - for so much substance!

[@stealths15]

“I’ve never seen such discipline”-the last samurai. The attitude of the common people is the core how a certain system works.

[@23Lgirl]

The last samurai is not an accurate history movie.

[@nolanolivier6791]

@@23Lgirl putting it mildly...

[@tasunkewitka8769]

It was filmed back in 1870s what u mean it's a historical? Was a live documentary smh ... Kennedy in 1955 is quoted to have said "The Last Samurai is my favorite Historical Artifact from pre war Japan." Later they re released this epic historical record using modern digital image editing to add full colorization and to brush the central characters face to look like Tom Cruise. This was done by Hollywood in a Joint Effort with Japan's imperial family (who own the rights to the original document). This was done both to mainstream acceptance of Japanese culture, and to help fund Palace renovations, as well as to help Restore an abandoned temple at the foot of Mt Fuji. One interesting piece of trivia is that most of the original footage was allegedly filmed by the great grand father of Lebron James. As taking footage during war time was considered a risky business, Hollywood decided to use recently freed slaves with minimal training instead of well trained and professional Jewish filmographers. This unconventional choice went a long way to racially integrating the social and cultural institutions of Las Angeles. The Director of this amazing film (original footage) was none other than the Father of George Patton. He taught his son much of what he learned from the Japanese, most notably in the Arts of War.

[@horelpit7]

@@tasunkewitka8769 this has me dying right now hahahahah.

[@tasunkewitka8769]

@@horelpit7 happy to help!

[@ravianantharamaiah7567]

Yet another great contribution to knowledge. Thank you John!

[@katiez688]

Great vid!

[@markbarber7839]

Very interesting thanks for the video!

[@gevons]

You learn something new everyday! Awesome stuff thank you!

[@cram805]

I recently discovered your channel and I subbed off the first video - keep up the great work! Would love to see some videos on the Philippines, their post war economy and maybe even something on the Ayala Corp. Cheers!

[@roninpharaoh]

Fantastic video. Comprehensive and succinct

[@519MaLoNeY]

This was outstanding man thanks for sharing! I love coming across random videos from people I haven’t heard of before and learning so much! You got a new sub for sure! I look forward to watching more of your videos.

[@culturalliberator9425]

*Looks at modern Japan* Hmm, why are all of these extremely large and powerful companies named after ancient families?

[@burkebridgman8661]

The heads of the Zaibatsu were, '...sucked like meat from an Alaskan king crab leg at a boiling crab restaurant in Southern California' has to be the clumsiest metaphor I've ever heard. A smile for your simile! : )

[@JackdeDuCoeur]

Nice work

[@ryanferrier9964]

So you're saying it's not good when 1% has 50% of a nations wealth??? This video is awesome btw.

[@ogzombieblunt4626]

That would just be a fixed pie fallacy...

[@coreygardner1371]

Slight misconception... 1% of the WORLDS population controls 50 of the worlds wealth...

[@hanselhuistra3132]

Did it make them full? (sorryy... )

[@andersjjensen]

They were pretty fat, and as we can see, there was enough to feed a nation.

[@halcyonzenith4411]

Yes but they got hungry again an hour later

[@buzzyinurface]

This is in incredibly interesting, thank you!!!

[@dfend451]

Excellent Work A+++

[@dulio12385]

I guess this is what they meant by a rich and filling meal.

[@eliasbouhout1]

Thank you very much for this, I've been interested in the Zaibatsu for quite a while and this video gives a lot of context I didn't know

[@rickmcdonald1557]

It seems we need to do a little Eating The Rich here also~!!! Great video and very informative~! New Sub.

[@danielscott1409]

Excellent and very interesting, thank you!

[@StanEby1]

I don't have the expertise to judge the accuracy of this report, but it was certainly well-done and fascinating. Thanks for presenting critical subjects it would behoove us seriously to evaluate.

[@silent_stalker3687]

Actually it’s out of context- there’s a video ‘bushito of Japan’ or ‘should we save bushito’ you can probably find it faster because I’m at work. Japan had 250 years of no war- but because people were afraid to stand out because it was very traditionalist and absolutists. This also meant for no developments for 250 years until they were conquered- which then lead into all types of shake ups and… yeah 250 year old stuff being removed- what do you think would happen? “Hey let’s hunt with muskets and see how many deer we can bag- what’s that sound?” Twin mini guns mounted on helicopters winding up….

[@aazdu03]

This video was really cool and informative, love the channel you do very factual analyses and do a very good job at summarizing monstrous amounts of history. Really nice

[@remixisthis]

Great video! Loving your stuff. Very clear and nuanced view on important and often uncovered international news

[@TommyShlong]

From the 40s until about the 80s, not allowing companies to gain too much market share even on a regional level was the norm for US courts, all the way up to the Supreme Court. That's because too much market share, let alone a monopoly is antithetical to a well regulated free market system. It stifles economic growth and innovation, reduces or eliminates competition, necessarily leads to price fixing and leaves consumers without choice.

[@AaronGarton666]

I applaud your research. However, I think your conclusion that the dissolution of plutocrats in Japan led to Japan's economic rise in the '60s and '70s is a bit glib. There are important facts left out of your analysis. Conventional interpretation of this rise accepts that it occurred due to the agreements reached with the U.S. post war and the status of its decimated infrastructure. Japan rebuilt its industries to a modern standard whereas obsolete factories predominated in the U.S. and elsewhere. Furthermore, Japan was more receptive to the consumer than U.S. industry at the time. Japan strove to build better products; the Made in Japan label became synonymous with quality. Further, because the U.S. and its allies were wary of a rearmed Japan, the U.S. absorbed the cost of defending Japanese interests. Avoiding the costs of raising and maintaining a military allowed Japan to invest its assets elsewhere. The conventionally accepted factors explaining Japan's post-war economic rise are more convincing. Whether the breakup of the businesses and assets of the Japanese ultra rich had a significant effect on Japan's economic growth is questionable.

[@wannabehistorian371]

Yeah, this exactly. It’s as if the whole-ass war that happened is being ignored.

[@wannabehistorian371]

@Jo Actually yeah this is accurate. But comparatively the video’s point is far more dumbfounding. I would have sworn this was a Socialist channel and not an Asia focused channel but it seems to be the latter. People seem to think Zaibatsus don’t exist anymore; they do. They’re just smaller. But despite us supposedly eating the rich our country is still super capitalist in culture lol. I think it’s the 70s/80s bubble that did that.

[@mrb152]

Yea seriously there was a luck friggin more that happened post war. I mean virtually every democracy supported by the US post war became wealthy within a few decades. South Korea actually was poorer than North Korea but now it’s one of the richest economies in the world.

[@blackjew6827]

@@mrb152 The US made them modern world, if not for them you all still be poor. even the USSR are saved be the US number of times after the war.

[@onetwothree4148]

This video also completely ignores that Nazi Germany and fascist Japan both used the "Eat the rich globalists" to gain control of previously independent private industries and direct their money and objectives into the political objectives of their ruling parties- both of which were exceptionally psychotic and murderous. I honestly expected this to be a warning message and lol'd at this video's idiotic conclusion. This kid might want to go back and read the 1940s section of his history book. He must have skipped that part.

[@humperdinckfangboner9749]

This is such a great video, incredibly informative without being bloated

[@soiltek2015]

Great video, John. Let me know when you are back in SoCal and we can grab a bit.

[@pamelahomeyer748]

This was an exceptional video thank you

[@beverlyhills7883]

Unquestionably one of the most informative videos about Japan that I have ever had the pleasure to watch. Kudos to you. Lunch is on me if I ever get to Taipei, where you are.

This is an excellent video. But it left a wrong impression. The centralization and modernization of Japan actually increased financial burden of the country. The previous samurai class despite enjoyed privileges, also lowered the burden of commoners in defense services. Once military service became commonplace, war became total and everyone must pay and bleed.

[@mattslowikowski3530]

So it's trading prosperity for military service. Also, the Samurai class represented a dying way of war. Even Russia beat them.

[@ShawnJonesHellion]

was the last financial overthrow after ww2?

[@silent_stalker3687]

Actually it’s missing more context Japan had 250 years of no war- but because people were afraid to stand out because it was very traditionalist and absolutists. This also meant for no developments for 250 years until they were conquered- which then lead into all types of shake ups and… yeah 250 year old stuff being removed- what do you think would happen? “Hey let’s hunt with muskets and see how many deer we can bag- what’s that sound?” Twin mini guns mounted on helicopters winding up….

@@mattslowikowski3530 I don't remember one time the Russian had a conflict with Japanese Samurais.

@@silent_stalker3687 You need to study the history of Japan under Tokugawa shogunate . It was by no means a time of no development. Business flourished. Arts flourished. The famous Japanese painter KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI lived under that era. And he combined western style with eastern style in his work - which means information flowed freely and cultural exchange happened.

[@edwardhewer8530]

Great video. Thanks.

[@undeadkitty334]

great video thank you.

[@joshuaosborne9203]

The only reason why I recognize any of this is because of Hearts of Iron 4.

[@antpoo]

Is that a game?

[@joshuaosborne9203]

@@antpoo yes

[@fanllawf]

Computer games are great tools for learning history. I learned a lot from Age of Empires.

[@antpoo]

@@fanllawf I learnt a lot about trade and war from that game also, including the ancient ppls.

[@DafyddBrooks]

hahah my freind plays that all the time :)

[@mpclair]

This is a fantastic documentary! It brings to light an aspect of the Japanese economy about which I had no idea - and I’ve read lots about Japanese history. Congratulations on the great research you did for this video and on the way you put it together!

[@thelast1900]

Great video!

[@MarinaReznik]

Very interesting and very well made 👍

[@tigertiger1699]

Dude you are incredible.. how long did it take to research this🤯👍

[@max4750]

depending how long it took him to read a few wiki articles and read two general history books on japan. I'd say 2 weeks maximum

[@tigertiger1699]

@@max4750 🤔 I wonder, but you assert to know… Tell me do you publish?

[@czechmeoutbabe1997]

It's almost like the American Government is actually keenly aware of what policies to implement for societal benefit (i.e. Land Reform, Monopoly busting, etc.) when they want to, and actively suppress those same efforts when it comes to specific geopolitical threats (South American governments implementing those same policies and giving their citizens and workers decent, dignified lives). It's almost like we know exactly what to do in order to make the world objectively better and corruption is literally the only thing getting in the way. Imagine if we applied this level of Government aggression to fixing Climate Change.

[@imachangedname2978]

It would still exist

[@ShawnJonesHellion]

everytime you fart the room gets warmer. One of yall should figure out how to stop this before we destroy everything

[@TIMEtoRIDE900]

There is no evidence that taxing industry and mandating behavior will successfully reduce the Planet's average temperature.

[@UTO7]

@@TIMEtoRIDE900 If one side could at least admit it was a problem, maybe the debate could actually start on the way to deal with it. Maybe that isn't the answer, but as long as yours is simply to do nothing, you give the other side monopoly over the solution.

[@imachangedname2978]

@@UTO7 A solution they never had and only claim to give a fuck about, at best all the government does on climate change is posture about how they're gonna do something then place a penalty tax on something like driving which ends up making emissions go up in some "Unforseen way" Climate change legislation for the most part is a way for government to catch dumb flies with cheap honey

[@theeyeofthebeholder7099]

Very interesting, thank you!

[@richardjohnston9522]

Excellent! lived there five years I didn't know nearly as much as I learn from you about such history. And I studied at university.

[@taiwanisacountry]

Sumitomo group. One of the big 4. They are a huge company, second largest real-estate company by volume in Japan, second largest titanium company, 3rd biggest steel producer by volume, 4th biggest glass producer by value. Glass is of course much more different from steel and titanium.

[@kailexx1962]

... and I like their tires.

[@GTRNights]

The brake system on my 1992 GT-R is from Sumitomo lol.

[@ktkace]

Dunlop's Asian motorcycle tires are made by sumitomo, mind blown!

[@seidrondaer2093]

Yes! Best video ever. This is why Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil and Russia will never get rich - wealth remain stagnant in the hands of the elite. These families spend their time and effort keeping the poor down so that there is no competition to their conglomerates.

[@honkhonk8009]

Exactly. America got so succesfull in the first place, because of the massive decentralization the country went through. Monopolies hurt the economy, and monopolies dont work. China sooner or later is gonna figure that out, but right now, we gotta fix up our own countries.

[@contrafax]

That was interesting. Thank you.

[@tokyoh2811]

Having lived in Japan since '94 I loved this video and your archival photos of old Marunouchi/Otemachi (which I can recognize by the red-brick buildings overlooking the Emperor's Palace) where I worked most of my life as a young man. Our skyscraper was brand new but used the existing facade of the red-brick for the first 3 floors. It was the most beautiful building I've ever seen. And this video joined a lot of the dots for me about the history of my adopted country.

[@Cotswolds1913]

So a big take away from this (and other historical examinations) is that it's better to create an environment where more spontaneous and meritorious market forces can determine the accumulation of commercial power, rather than a state-dominated economy essentially handing the keys over to a handful of families.

[@Cotswolds1913]

Still, the auctioning off process is probably essential for any state-controlled industrial system, so being an important step (Japan did experience some of the best growth in the world 1890-1930), perhaps the question becomes A: how to better handle the initial privatization process, and B: failing that, make sure you can restructure the political economy away from their exclusive control, at some point in the medium-term future, which ofc Russia has failed to do.

[@ahhwe-any7434]

Thx for the summary.

[@ogzombieblunt4626]

Yes, less federal government, less lobbyist control.

[@vidard9863]

it is one if the ironies in modern economic debates, because communists demand the most government involvement their systems end up functionally working like monarchies, socialists, who demand less government involvement than communists, create systems that functionally work like mercantilist systems, and as these two groups push for more government regulations in originally fairly capitalist systems they create systems with more mega corporations and fewer small buisnesses.

[@naberville3305]

@@vidard9863 my guy I'm not sure you know what either communism or socialism is. All of the "communist" nations you are thinking of are socialist nations. The "socialist" nations your likely thinking of are capitalist "social democracies" There are no communist countries. Every country that is run by communists calls themselves a socialist nation. It's us westerners who can barely speak our own language that label them communist. Communism is the mode of production in which there is neither class, state, or monetary exchange. Socialism, is the transitionary state from capitalism to communism. It's when the working class seizes the state, and then uses the power of the state to seize the means of production. And works towards developing those means of production to the point of satisfying the material requirements for communism. The state of socialism is not the desired end state of being and is definitely a system marked by numerous contradictions due to it having adopted the inequalities of capitalism.

[@chuckwiller1638]

I believe there is a fascinating story about Korea's industrialization involving the government and the popular mobilization of capital.

[@chuckwiller1638]

For some reason, West Germany recruited nurses and miners from Korea. Their earnings were repatriated to Korea. The S. Korean government used this inflow of currency to help finance the early construction of its steel industry. See 5 minute and 41 seconds portion of this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHuTmYCoarmGoas

[@chuckwiller1638]

@Matthew Park Your explanation makes sense. The video I posted says the repatriated wages were used to guarantee loans. So it makes sense that West Germany would have made the loans.

[@sociolocomtsac]

@Matthew Park Incorrect. The biggest influx of capital came from the US when S. Korea helped the US fight the Vietnam War, which is what jump-started the Chaebols and infrastructure spending under Park Jung Hee. Japan similarly got a windfall during the Korean War.

[@sonicluffypucca96]

The Philippines was the second richest country in Asia after Japan in the 1960s

[@genghiskhan5701]

@Matthew Park Wrong, the Philippines was doing quite well in the 50s and 60s until when Marcos stiffled the free market by installing cronies to run the economy and began procuring a shit ton of debt. Also unlike South Korea and Japan, the Philippines was and is still dealing with a Maoist and Jihadist insurgencies which didnt help.

[@jtveg]

Thanks for sharing. 😉👌🏻

[@pushslice]

One of the best videos I watched in a while. just stumbled upon your channel. thank you for sharing this piece of history! I’ve always been impressed at how fast Japan’s economy recovered after the war but never really realized some of the critical underpinnings to enabling this…

[@nemo4evr]

Excellent History lesson, is been a trend through time in most countries that when a few people control and have the power to steer the economy, they will do it for their own benefit to the detriment of the country and humanity in general, we saw it in Italy with the Medici, in England with the Devons and Suttons or the US with the Robber Barons of the time Vanderbilt, Ford, Carnegie. To much power, combined with greed with no depth and a total disregard for fellow humans and you have the dark side of what can become of Humanity.