The boosters on the financial pages are agog with Japan. The Wall Street Journal calls it the ‘most existing market in the world’. The Financial Times tells ‘why Japan’s demographics scream “buy”’.
Fair enough. Having been the sick man of Asia for so long, Japan deserves a break. But how well does the world know this rising Japanese generation? They may well be more open-minded than their parents and grandparents, and maybe also more determined to avoid anything like a repeat of the lost decades. But are there enough of them to fill the demand of a growing economy? If not, does their alleged open-mindedness extend to welcoming the immigrants that such an economy will need? Or will Japan be the first real successful test case for the AI-driven labour market?
Talleyrand remembers, perhaps a bit unfairly, a conversation he had with a member of the yutori generation some time ago. The young man glanced around the room at the sober old men gently repeating mantras about pacifism, nuclear non-proliferation, and such. The young man then said, sternly but sincerely: ‘you must know something: my generation think differently’. It was not meant to be reassuring.