Japan: Miracle In Asia (1963)

[Music] [Music] the this is Tokyo over 10 million people make it the world's largest most densely crowded most rapidly growing city heart of the economic Miracle which has made Japan the only Modern Nation outside the West since 1952 Japan's national income has tripled her industrial production and Industrial exports are five times what they were no nation has ever before achieved such a phenomenal rate of growth this is extraordinary success story in all recorded economic history a story of Japan and a mirac in Asia [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Tokyo By Night a blaze of light more neon signs than any city in the world more movie theaters more [Music] [Applause] cafes traditional Kabuki theater plays to eager thousands bent on diversion [Music] entertainment and leisure activities boom as never before television covers the nation by night and by day Tokyo is an appalling Jam choked with people and vehicles the number of cars and trucks increases by thousands each month and still there are not nearly enough to satisfy the demand major traffic jams of 2 and 3 hours occur daily Tokyo is a jumble of signs and shops inadequate streets with no names wooden houses packed tightly together with meaningless numbers or none at all how in of all kinds in acutely short supply department stores smart shops Fashions appear on the Ginza in Tokyo the same day they do in Paris or New York anything in all the world you may wish to buy is here more books are published sold and read per capita in Japan than in any any other [Music] country new buildings rise wherever land can be found to build them on the city pushes upward and outward growing wildly space becoming more and more precious each [Music] day on trains which carry three times their capacity commuters travel farther and farther many spend five and six hours a day going back and forth to work the overwork Japanese Railways are marveles of efficiency super Express trains travel up to 156 mph a park an island of Serenity amidst the clamor of the city silent Stones huddle in memory of crowds Departed the Imperial Palace grounds in the heart of Tokyo home of a constitutional Emperor the diet government buildings Tokyo is the capital of a democratic Nation firmly committed to a system of free enterprise and thoroughly aware of its benefits the vast Tokyo Yokohama industrial complex accounts for 30% of the nation's industrial output the important industrial centers of Japan are all located near the sea for Rapid handling of exports and imports scarce in natural resources Japan must import most of the materials needed by industry the aat Maru has just dropped anchor in Yokohama Harbor aboard a cargo of chemicals from San Francisco akiton shimura is worried his son Hiroshi is worried an impatient customer a textile manufacturer needs these chemicals today or a factory must shut down for want of raw materials go out to the ship arrange to discharge cargo now instead of tomorrow as scheduled try to do in a day what would normally take [Music] [Music] three akiton nishimura works for one of Japan's giant trading companies which import raw materials from all over the world and Port manufactured goods in exchange hirosi spends time learning the trading business when he's not in school trade is the life blood of Japan the indispensable heart of the economy if Japan could not trade with other nations her economy would collapse and her people could not live it is the caros of vessels like the a tamaru which have built modern [Music] Japan check the Manifest see how much can be unloaded and delivered before nightfall problems like those faced by Akito nishimura are commonplace in a nation almost completely dependent on other countries for the raw materials necessary to feed her [Music] Industries a textile mill manufacturing synthetic fabrics can stay open because basic chemicals from America ared on time unload the iron ore from India the scrap from the United States coal from Australia get the materials quickly from ship to Mill make steel steel the backbone of Japanese industry symbol of the radical shift from light to heavy industry since the war steel Japan's number one export replacing cotton textiles Japan is now the world's fourth largest steel producer despite the fact that she has practically none of the raw materials from which steel is made steel for buildings and bridges steel for building ships a freighter delivers iron ore The Ore is conveyed directly to the mill sheet steel is rolled in one of the world's most completely automated plants and sent next door to the company Shipyard from Iron Ore to a steel plate on a ship only a matter of hours this is the kind of efficienc which has made Japan the world's number one ship Builder build a ship launch it sell it overseas build another ship import manufacture export export or die say the Japanese without the overseas sale of the products of Industry Japan could not pay for the raw materials she must purchase abroad and there would be little industry and few jobs for 95 million people who live on a land area only about the size of the state of Montana the land cannot support such an enormous population and so most of the people depend upon manufacturing and trade for their [Music] livelihood a portable transistor television set a transistor radio germanium the raw material of transistors imported from the African Congo transistor production the electronics Industry Japan's great post-war expansion has been largely in new so-called advanc advaned Industries like [Music] this television sets are mass-produced for both a large domestic and Export Market three out of four Japanese families now own television [Music] receivers color television of excellent quality in mass production digital computers for complex calculations office management the automation of factories radar to provide Moment by moment information on weather conditions up to 400 m away wind tunnel test equipment for aeronautical [Music] research instruments for the study of nuclear energy for the treatment of cancer Atomic reactors for research for Atomic [Music] power revolutionary machines for manufacturing light bulbs one lamp completed every 2 seconds these are only a few examples of the ability of the Japanese to move on to producing more advanced type Goods as less developed countries take over their traditional functions and markets pre-war Japan depended almost completely on such traditional exports as toys Footwear and textiles to be able to buy abroad the raw materials she needed now other truly low-wage areas in Asia can outproduce an under sell Japan on world markets in such traditional Goods the textile industry is no longer as important as it once was with the growth of completely new [Music] Industries Japanese lenses and cameras have come to be admired the world over for their precision and many unique features while once Japanese manufacturers followed and copied the products of other nations they now often lead the [Music] way Japan is the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles and bicycles half of them for export the automobile industry recorded a 72% increase in production in one year alone cooperation in many and special forms has helped spur the growth rate significantly government cooperates with industry manufacturers cooperate with each other and with Western firms and all seem to [Music] benefit new factories rise as rapidly as land can be created to make room for them desperately short of space Japan literally manufactured Acres of new land each year fleets of dredges pump sand from the floor of the ocean and pipe it back to shore to fill in the sea year after year the Japanese have been able to put more than a quarter of their national income into new investment into new plants creating new jobs new products the percentage of the national income invested in Industry considerably surpasses that of most Nations and is an extremely important factor behind Japan's achieving its high rate of economic growth perhaps one of the reasons that so much can be invested in industry is the fact that Japan spends little on defense the United States having assumed much of this responsibility the manufacturer of giant generators and turbines not only have the Japanese learned to produce highly Advanced type Goods but equally important they have proven their ability to sell on fiercely competitive World Markets successfully competing with the most highly developed Nations heavy industry was completely devastated in Ruins at the end of the war now completely re built new factories new equipment new technology have helped Japan undersell and outproduce other countries which often suffer from Antiquated plants and methods Japanese industry is divided into two sorts of companies one is large and modernized one in which the productivity of the labor force has been greatly increased by large capital investment in machinery and Advanced Techniques the average worker is relatively well paid receiving twice the wages of the worker in the more traditional type firm the Sato Bag Factory operated in the Sato home has little capital investment and in sweat shop fashion relies on cheap wages and long hours to make its products competitive great inequality exists in almost half the labor force as remnants of old ways and an old Japan persist yet in spite of low wages there are luxuries the Japanese possess more consumer appliances per family than the people of any other country except the United States of tremendous importance in their economic growth is the fact that the Japanese have created the first genuine Mass consumer Market outside the Western World the 95 million people of Japan now enjoy a national income second only to the United States and the more prosperous nations of Western Europe the Japanese people themselves are able to buy the products of their industry Akito nishimura is typical of the urban White Collar worker his income is about the same as that of the better paid laboring man the old traditions are still much a part of the nishimura way of [Music] life a bath in the evening and the cility of a gentle wife are rewards for the day's hard work and worries Mr nishimura earns about $2,000 a year plus numerous fringe benefits to be presentable outside the house the nishim moras are likely to make many sacrifices at home they will occupy perhaps two drafty sparsely furnished rooms the budget allows but a cup or so of the cheapest saki or rice wine a [Music] day the traditional meal is chiefly rice fish and veget vegetables often attractively served major changes however are taking place in the Japanese diet with more meat and dairy products being consumed each year at night the table is pushed to one side and bedding spread on the straw mats three times as much money is spent on clothing for the family as is spent on rent most Japanese economize rigidly on food and housing and indulge a modest craving for luxuries elsewhere the nishim moras have television and a washing machine and may soon buy an automobile on credit Hiroshi attends one of the nation's best universities entrance into certain highly regarded universities is extremely difficult still every third or fourth young man of 20 is now in college only the United States and Israel have a larger proportion of their young people in higher education education is one of the most important single factors responsible for Japan's very rapid development the nation is nearly 100% literate a large percentage received training at the University level the labor force is highly skilled let's tape our lesson tonight shall we education continues in hundreds of companies employees meet at noon hour or after work to study languages mostly English today we study lesson 14 uh first question is what do we do when we want to see our friends uh we call on them usually we make appointment by telephone call but uh when in case of cross friends we may attack them second question young people grow in a world vastly different from the one their parents and grandparents knew with ideas customs and methods drawn from the Western World a new kind of society a new kind of life has been imposed upon a very old [Music] one festivals and pageants recall the feud past and centuries of medieval isolation for 250 years Japan deliberately and purposely secluded herself from all the rest of the world little knowing or caring what men thought or did elsewhere few foreigners were allowed to come in few Japanese permitted to leave not until 1853 did the doors open to the outside to the West with its Advanced ideas and Technology Japan's development into a Modern Nation becomes all the more remarkable when it is remembered how very recently she entered the modern world how late her Industrial Revolution began only a 100 years ago the Palaces and castles of feudal Lords who ruled harshly still stand in Koto and Osaka [Music] the traditions and Customs which developed over these centuries of isolation were peculiarly their own uniquely Japanese little influenced by other [Music] nations in the dramatic arts in architecture which produces such a feeling of Harmony and tranquility in painting in the various arts and crafts the Japanese contribution has been so important that the world is the Richer for its presence a peculiarly Japanese feeling for things has survived a 100 Years of westernization the culture and essence of an older Japan remains today amidst violent change old institutions go on and the Japanese Spirit much of which is so admirable remains Timeless and tranquil as the meditations of a [Music] monk serious problems arise out of the conflict between tradition and new Western [Music] ways the rising young urban generation has set about turning the old social order upside down a newfound Spirit of Independence for the young conflicts often violently with the old accepted Norms of subservience to parents and unquestioning obedience to their wishes confusion restlessness and serious social problems result as people who work dress and think according to Western custom feel sharply at the same time the influence of their own history and culture which is fundamentally non-european uniquely Japanese there is a feeling of being always at Arts with oneself Mrs nishimura is expected to be modern and Western but to be so often means a denial of much that she holds sacred a denial of much that is best in her own tradition the people of Japan are trying to learn how to be Western and how to be Japanese at the already a Modern Nation Japan now must prove that she can become the first Society in the world both truly modern and yet fundamentally non-european as Asia's Prime symbol of industrialization the Japanese have tested Western methods and values and proven that the policies of a free economy and democratic form of government can generate very fast Economic Development on nonwestern soil they have achieved a standard of living far beyond that of most of Asia's poverty-stricken Millions Japan a proud example to Asia and to all the world that freedom education and hard work can accomplish miracles [Music] [Applause]