Do you know what the Asian Tigers are? Do you know why Japan is not part of the Asian Tigers? What role did Japan play in this story? In this article, we will talk a little about the Asian Tigers.
We are not talking about the tigers in the photo, but rather a designation given to a group of countries known as the Asian Tigers. Yes, we will talk about history and economics.
Table of Contents
Who are the Asian Tigers?
In the 1980s, some countries experienced rapid and significant economic growth based on aggressive tactics to attract foreign capital, such as tax exemptions and cheap labor.
Because of this aggressiveness, the countries earned the name Asian Tigers. The Asian Tigers consist of the following countries:
- Hong Kong;
- South Korea;
- Singapore;
- Taiwan;
Oh? But where is Japan? Japan is not part of the Asian Tigers but played an important role in this story. At that time, Japan was already a highly developed country and was the main driver that helped to form these tigers.
How did the Asian Tigers emerge?
After the Second World War, Japan entered a major recession. To combat this, the Japanese government began to invest heavily in public works and tried to force a reduction in interest rates to stimulate new investments in the country.
Favored by the USA, Japan experienced rapid economic growth, accompanied by a policy of birth control and an increase in educational, technological, and financial standards, which allowed it to achieve significant commercial projection.
Some factors that helped Japan’s growth:
- Japan took advantage of every possible space to cultivate and plant;
- The government stimulated productivity by buying all agricultural production and then reselling it;
- The development of agriculture in underdeveloped countries;
- Fishing activities;
- Investment in scientific research and technological development;
- The import of raw materials and energy sources;
- The specialization of the Japanese workforce, which, being abundant, is relatively cheap;
- The use of advanced technology;
- Significant investment in the Japanese industry;
There are numerous other factors not mentioned that contributed to Japan’s growth and its influence on other Asian countries.
Asian Tigers and Japan
From the 1980s onwards, some territories in the Malay-Asian Pacific began to show high rates of economic growth and influence in the global market, thus being called Asian Tigers.
The Asian country that initiated this rapid growth cycle was Japan, with a successful land reform, followed by a rapid increase in farmers’ income, which created a local market for new factories.
Japan acted not only as a stimulus but also as an example. The immense and uninterrupted expansion of the Japanese economy was decisive in creating a dynamic market throughout the surrounding Pacific area.
The union relations in these countries follow the Japanese model of cooperation between capital and labor, subjecting unions to the interests of companies, encouraging worker loyalty to employers and competition among workers.
Other factors that favored the development of the Asian Tigers.
- Investment of foreign capital from Japan and the USA;
- Exploitation of relatively cheap labor;
- More balanced income distribution compared to other capitalist countries;
- Cooperation and transparency of the states;
- Economies fundamentally oriented towards the external market;
- Confucian ethics – establishes a socioeconomic model that emphasizes social balance, group consciousness, hierarchy, discipline, and nationalism;
It was because of Japan that some countries in Asia are known as Asian Tigers.
Videos about the Asian Tigers
To conclude this article, we will leave some videos talking more about the Asian Tigers. I hope you enjoyed the article; if you did, please share and leave your comments. Thank you!
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