THE WORLD CIVILIZATIONS AND INDIA , PART-47

HEISEI PERIOD OF JAPAN – A LOST DECADE

I would fail in my efforts of writing History of JAPAN if I don’t mention about HEISEI PERIOD OF JAPAN here . History with entirety is the best History . And CROCE was right when he said ‘ every history is a contemporary history ‘. Contemporary in the sense that the history should be judged from the view points of the present . Anyway , The HEISEI PERIOD OF JAPAN started with the death of the Emperor HIROHITO in 1969 and the coronation of Emperor AKIHITO . The decade starting with 1990 is generally described by the historians as Lost Decade as JAPAN entered into a period of deflation . The economic bubble popped in 1989 as stock and land prices plunged . Bank’s debts increased enormously that hindered economic recovery . Stagnation worsened as the birth rate declined . Employment rate increased . Economic performance never returned to the level of pre-1989 level . Several corruption scandal weakened the LDP’S (Liberal Democratic Party ) political position in the country .

To improve relationship with countries like CHINA and KOREA , the JAPANESE Emperor and politicians made over more than fifty times formal war apologies but they were considered as inadequate and insincere . JAPANESE politicians visited many times at the YASUKUNI SHRINE to commemorate the people who died in wars from 1868 to 1954 . But the paradox of the fact was that convicted war criminals were among the enshrined . By now the CHINESE economy became the world’s second largest economy and the economy of JAPAN reduced to the third place in 2011 . Despite economic constraints , the popular culture of JAPAN spread worldwide . Video game , anime, and Manga became popular among the youths the world over . The TOKYO SKYTREE became the tallest tower of the world replacing the CANTON TOWER of CHINA as the former was 634 meters high and the latter was simply 604 meters high . Now it is the second largest building only to the BURJ KHALIFA which is 829.8 meters high as such . But the earthquake of 11th March 2011 , one of the largest earthquake recorded in JAPAN , damaged completely the Neuclear facilities in FUKUSHIMA . It was a sort of TSUNAMI due to which JAPAN suffered a Neuclear meltdown and severe radiation leakage adding to its pain further enormously .

REIWA PERIOD OF JAPAN

The REIWA PERIOD OF JAPAN started with Emperor NARUHITO reign in 1919 when his father , Emperor AKIHITO , abdicated the throne on the first May 1919 . NAROHITO was born on 23rd February 1960 in TOKYO as the eldest child of the crown prince AKIHITO and MICHIKO , the crown princess of JAPAN . He attended the GAKUSHUIN school of TOKYO and later studied history at GAKUSHUIN UNIVERSITY and the English literature at MERTON COLLEGE , OXFORD. He married MASAKO OWADA , a HARVARD graduate and diplomat , in 1993 . He was designated as the 126th monarch according to JAPAN’S traditional order of succession . During his period emphasis was made on water conservation . Summer Olympics after 1964 was hosted second time in 1920 which due to the Covid-19 was held from 23rd July 2021 to 8th August 2021 in which JAPAN ranked the third place winning with 27 gold medals as such .