Episode 290 – What Goes Up, Part 1

May 24, 2019

This week, we turn our attention to the 1980s. Japan and the United States find their relationship wracked by increasing tensions over political and economic relations, and turn to the solution of an agreement designed to ease the pressure of Japan’s economic growth. The result? Japan’s infamous Bubble Era!

Sources

Pempel, T.J. Regime Shift

Anchordoguy, Marie. Reprogramming Japan

Jansen, Marius. The Making of Modern Japan.

Images

The murder of Vincent Chin in 1982 was symptomatic of the level of tension (both economic and racial) in the US-Japan relationship by the 1980s.
The negotiators of the Plaza Accord. James Baker III (USA) is at center. Takeshita Noboru (Japan) is at right.
Ginza’s Yonchome in 1955.
Ginza Yonchome in the 1980s. You can see the incredible growth in just two decades and change.
Another shot of the Ginza in the 1980s. By the height of the bubble, one square meter of commercial real estate here cost $750,000.24