Japan - The Missing Link in the AI revolution

 Japan was touted to take over the world in the 1980s, to become the number one economy.  And Francis Fukuyama wrote the book, The End of History. Japan was the most innovative country in the world. Japan was in everything, everywhere. Consumer electronics, household equipment and machine, office machine, automobiles and whatever, machine, machine tools, ...

Where is Japan today? Consumer electronics, household equipment, office equipment, mobile phones, are now being replaced by South Korea and China. Automobiles are going the way of GM, Ford, Chrysler, the way of British motor industries, the way of German automobile industries. What is there left for Japan?

The Chinese EV industries are everywhere, and the ICE automobiles are going nowhere. The Toyotas, Hondas, Mitsubishis, Nissans...will be history soon. Automobiles are the biggest Japanese exports but turning into irrelevant, obsolete. 

The world is now about semiconductors, high end chips and AI. When is Japan in these fields? Japan may still be a player in semiconductors and chips, but only a small player. Japan is just another small player in the game. In AI, Japan is never mentioned. Japan is not a player in AI, the next industrial revolution. What happens to the innovative and creative Japanese in AI when it used to be the key player in practically every industry in the 1980s. Japan is now no longer a player, not in AI.

What is there left for Japan to make a living from trading with the world when it is being eclipsed in practically all industries it used to lead?  What happens to Japan Number One? What Fukuyama did not get it wrong is the part about the end of history. It is The End of History for Japan. Japan is no longer the innovator, the champion, the country that every country wants to beat and emulate. Japan is History. The economic miracle, the industrial giant of the 1980s is now a midget, a non player, the Missing Link in AI. No one will miss the participation of Japan in AI. There is no Japanese software or hardware to talk about. There is no Japanese in the Who's Who in AI.  The only thing related to AI in Japan is computer games, Nintendo, Sega and Sony. Oops, Sony is now a Chinese company. Japan can continue to play games with their computers. That is what is left of Japanese innovation.

The Rising Sun has forgotten to rise...more like a sunset.

China moving big in agriculture and food production towards self sufficiency

Today, China produces 18% of the world's cereal grains, 29% of the world's meat, 36% of the world's seafood and 50% of the world's vegetables. These are not recent statistics, probably a year or two behind. This makes China the world's biggest agricultural economy, which is definitely creating unease and paranoia among other agricultural economies.

Sure, food imports are still necessary today for China, but having food availability at all times is a National Security issue and China is making sure it will not be exposed to new alliances that will be created to cripple China. With that in mind, China now has the luxury of choice as to who it wants to import food from countries to supplement domestic production without jeopardizing its National Security issue.

For a country that had seen hunger and starvation in the past to what it is today is good planning. 1.4 billion population have massive need for food and China is delivering it in confidence. With aquaculture, land reclamation from deserts, cattle rearing under solar power fields, China has pulled off another miracle quietly under the nose of the world. No loud noise, no gloating and no chest beating.

While the USA and the West keep demonizing about China's overcapacity in manufacturing, there is another sector overlooked by the West and that is agriculture and food security that China is going to dominate moving forward. And the success of China's agriculture and eventual exporting is going to pose huge problems for those countries leveraging on agriculture and exporting food to China and the rest of the world.

Perhaps there will come a day when the USA and the West, through the WTO will demand that China should grow less and export less to be sustainable, just like telling China to export less manufactured goods to the rest of the world. That, by the way is just the stand of the USA and the West, but what about the view of the Global South countries depending on cheap Chinese exports to them? Do they have a voice? I am sure they want China to export more, not less.


Anonymous

When America is dying of terminal stage cancer, no need to slap them

When a person or country is dying of terminal stage cancer, what is there a need to slap him or the country back? China will not bar Trump from visiting if he wishes, which is just diplomatic curtesy. Trump can say anything he likes before any meeting and even afterwards, but he is not called TACO for nothing. The man is just a bully, and when faced with strong leaders, he backs off. Now, he is talking about a measured strike on Iran, which we all know is just trying to save face. He knows the consequences and he has to back off, but not without doing something to save his ego. We sometimes need to read between the lines.

China does not retaliate face to face like a bull in a China shop. China retaliates in ways attached to long timelines that really makes a country wriggle on the ground in pain. Lithuania tried to poke China and is now suffering economic disaster. The Netherlands tried to pull a fast one on China by seizing Nexperia, and that move hurts the whole motor vehicle industry throughout Europe, USA and Japan. The Philippine tried to antagonize China by poking here and there, and what happened to Philippine durian exports to China today? Totally negligible and not knowing what to do with the 60,000 tons of durians left rotting. Japanese PM tried to poke China in the eye, an insult not yet settled, but things are hurting the Japanese, like the cutting off of rare earth elements and seafood imports. More to come if no apology is forthcoming.

Xi is playing a game that few people understand. If Xi says we still want to buy USA soya beans today, it does not mean he is has given in to Trump. Xi is just making sure of continuing to be able to maintain some leverage by allowing the USA farmers to continue to grow soya beans, not cut them off completely which means losing the leverage altogether.

We have yet to see how Xi will respond to Trump when they do meet in April and not just basing our judgement on what Trump is gloating today. This is a bad habit of USA politicians, thinking of having the upper hand with such crowing on a dung heap before every meeting or visit. In fact, this is the nature of the Anglo-Saxon Whites, with behaviors that borders on being barbaric and blunt, unlike Asians. Perhaps still with the colonial thinking that they are a class above Asians.

In all the negotiations in various place around the world, Trump always boasted about his pressured done deals with China, but when China puts the whole picture later in front of the world, it shattered Trump's loud boasting. The proof is not there, the agreements have not been signed, so where is the done deal.


Anonymous

China Is RUNNING CIRCLES Around America In Every Way

 

5 min of  Kyle Kulinski Show telling the Americans to wake up and look at the real China and the real America. One is running ahead into the future, one is running back into the future. Kulinski is getting frustrated at the clowns leading America into the 1960s.

 

Coming attack on Iran is a matter of life and death for Iran and also the Arab and Muslim states

 What is this coming attack on Iran by the American and Israeli terrorists? To Trump, it is about going there to bomb Iran to Stone Age, hit anything, anywhere he likes, kill as many Iranians as he likes.  What was his real reason? Told by the Israelis to do it. Trump is sending two Carrier Strike Groups, USAF planes and infantry soldiers, paratroopers into American bases in Arab and Muslim lands for the attack...ordered by his handler, Netanyahu. The POTUS is working for Israel!

As far as Trump is concerned, it is all about killing the Iranians. Trump does not think the Iranians can hit back, does not think that he is sending his aircraft carriers and warships, aircraft and American boys and girls to be destroyed and killed by the Iranians. In hi simple mind, Trump thinks he holds all the cards and he is there to bash the Iranians like before. Whack, whack and whack. He does not bothered or cared about being hit by the Iranians. In his pea brain, there is no such things about his warships and aircraft being hit and destroyed, or American boys and girls coming home in body bags. These things are too complicated for Trump to understand, and thinking about them would make him go bonkers. He chooses to ignore them, not to think about them. After all he has no choice.

In the case of the Iranians, so far it is a case of a sitting duck waiting to be bombed and killed. This seems to be the thinking of the Iranians. Just wait for death and hoping to survive if lucky. And try to defend like hell to bring down some attacking missiles or aircraft, bombers. Just put up all the defensive systems, hardened all military and vital installations and pray to Allah.

What is troubling is the mindset of not hitting back at the first instance, or at least get ready to hit all the American bases, aircraft carriers and warships, and Israel. By hitting these targets first, it would reduce their ability to send more missiles and aircraft at Iran. Attack is a better defensive option. Why aren't Iranian forces be targeting and zeroing on all the targets in Israel and at the Americans, and at the first sign of an attack, push all the buttons and let them fly? Why the Iranians are afraid to flatten Tel Aviv and all the big Israeli cities when the Israelis are all out to annihilate Iran and Iranians? Firing the first shot may not be in Iran's favour. But Iran must not be waiting until the enemy's missiles and bombs landed on Iran to hit back.

At this moment in time, with the Israelis and Americans all ready for the attack, is Iran still undecided? Or leg soft, knee weak, afraid to hit back, only hit back when the damage in Iran is bad enough? This kind of military posture only encourages the enemy to go for the kill, knowing that they have the first strike advantage, the surprise element, and the choice of hitting where they like...and Iran only blocks, blocks and blocks.

It is looking like the Iranians are preparing to run into air raid bunkers and hoping for the best, hoping that after the American and Israeli attacks, they will be lucky to be still alive. All contingencies must be ready and at a moment's notice to hit back if they ever think of surviving this existential attack by the Americans and the Israelis. The Americans and Israelis are going for the kill, to wipe out as much as Iran as they can, and to kill as many Iranians as they can. This is not masak masak, or a child's play. This is life and death. There must be no hesitation, no second guessing. It must be all in from the word go. When intelligence reports said aircraft, bombers or missiles have lifted off, Iran must do the same, no need to wait to see and say hello to the bombs and missiles in Iranian airspace.

What about the rest of the Arab and Muslim states? Also waiting in their pens like sheep, waiting to be led to the slaughter house one by one?