1980s in Japan
Examples of Japanese products created and distributed during the 1980s included Donkey Kong,[2] Super Mario Bros.,[2] and classic anime like Astro Boy and Akira.
[3] American-based Atari struggled to compete in Japan but they couldn't defeat the Sega-Nintendo duopoly in the video arcade realm.
Award-winning live action films released during the 1980s include Zigeunerweisen (1980), Kagemusha (1980), Station (1981), Fall Guy (1982), The Ballad of Narayama (1983), The Funeral (1984), Gray Sunset (1985), House on Fire (1986), A Taxing Woman (1987), The Silk Road (1988), and Black Rain (1989).
[6] Idols included Seiko Matsuda, Akina Nakamori, Hiroko Yakushimaru, Yōko Oginome, Yoko Minamino, Chisato Moritaka and Wink.
Because the incidence of chronic disease increases with age, the health care and pension systems are expected to come under severe strain.
Recognizing the lower probability that an elderly person will be residing with an adult child and the higher probability of any daughter or daughter-in-law's participation in the paid labor force, the government encouraged establishment of nursing homes, day-care facilities for the elderly, and home health programs.
Government statistics show that in the 1980s significant numbers of people left the largest central cities (Tokyo and Osaka) to move to suburbs within their metropolitan areas.
However, the prefectures showing the highest net growth are located near the major urban centers, such as Saitama, Chiba, Ibaraki, and Kanagawa around Tokyo, and Hyogo, Nara, and Shiga near Osaka and Kyoto.
This pattern suggests a process of suburbanization, people moving away from the cities for affordable housing but still commuting there for work and recreation, rather than a true decentralization.
Economic growth averaging 5% between 1987 and 1989 revived industries, such as steel and construction, which had been relatively dormant in the mid-1980s, and brought record salaries and employment.
This development involved fundamental economic restructuring, moving from dependence on exports to reliance on domestic demand.
The boom that started in 1986 was generated by the decisions of companies to increase private plant and equipment spending and of consumers to go on a buying spree.
In the decades following World War II, Japan implemented stringent tariffs and policies to encourage the people to save their income.
With more money in banks, loans and credit became easier to obtain, and with Japan running large trade surpluses, the yen appreciated against foreign currencies.
This allowed local companies to invest in capital resources much more easily than their competitors overseas, which reduced the price of Japanese-made goods and widened the trade surplus further.
[citation needed] Currency speculation caused the dollar to continue its fall after the end of coordinated interventions.
The recessionary effects of the strengthened yen in Japan's export-dependent economy created an incentive for the expansionary monetary policies that led to the Japanese asset price bubble of the late 1980s.
The signing of the Plaza Accord was significant in that it reflected Japan's emergence as a real player in managing the international monetary system.
In addition to merging the former plans, the 1986 reform attempted to reduce benefits to hold down increases in worker contribution rates.
Despite complaints that these pensions amounted to little more than "spending money," an increasing number of people planning for their retirement counted on them as an important source of income.
About 90% of firms with thirty or more employees gave retirement allowances in the late 1980s, frequently as lump sum payments but increasingly in the form of annuities.
In the late 1980s, government and professional circles were considering changing the system so that primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of care would be clearly distinguished within each geographical region.
During the 1980s, the Japanese economy shifted its emphasis away from primary and secondary activities (notably agriculture, manufacturing, and mining) to processing, with telecommunications and computers becoming increasingly vital.
As a result, Japanese auto manufacturers took advantage of their vehicles' superior MPG (miles per gallon) rating.
On May 26, 1983, a tsunami caused by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in the Sea of Japan killed 107 people, including three in South Korea.
Zenkō Suzuki was appointed LDP president and Prime Minister following the sudden death of Ōhira, who died of a heart attack during the 1980 general election campaign.
The sympathy vote generated by Ohira's death resulted in a landslide for the ruling LDP, handing Suzuki the largest parliamentary majority any Prime Minister had enjoyed for many years, and silencing inner-party opposition.
On foreign policy, he sought close alignment with the United States maintaining a personal friendship with U.S. president Ronald Reagan.
[18] Nakasone was replaced by Noboru Takeshita in November 1987, and both were implicated, along with other LDP lawmakers, in the Recruit scandal that broke the following year.
In June 1989, Sōsuke Uno became Prime Minister only to resign less than three months later in August 1989 amid a sex scandal revealed by a geisha.
