Why do the history of Germany and Japan mirrow each other?

[buritobr]

These two countries are very far away one from another. These countries are located in different continents. But their history is very similar.

Both had late feudal economy until the early 19th century. Then, in the second half of the 19th century, they had a very strong economic development. One can compare the Bismarck era to the Meiji era. Germany and Japan became industrialized very fast. Unlike the United States, where government policy was antitrust, Germany and Japan had pro-trust government policy. The large German and Japanese conglomerates, which are big until the presente day, were created in the late 19th century and in the early 20th century.
Both countries had nationalist, authoritarian, racist and militarist governments in the 1930s and in the first half of the decade of 1940. Both governments commited atrocities. Both countries were destroyed in the WWII.
Both countries had fast recoveries after the war. They had the economic miracle. Their GDP growth rates until mid 1970s were very high. Both countries remained industrialized, while other developed countries had a de-industrialization process since 1980.
Both Germany and Japan had stagnation in the 1990s. Their economies grew again in the first decade of the 21th century.
Cosmopolitan life in Berlin and in Tokyo in the presente day don't remember us the conservative, authoritarian, nationalist and militaristic past of both countries.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Japan being sealed off to the outside world and Germany being divided had similar impacts in keeping a uniformly high populated country behind the curve in the Imperialist chess game. Neither had a democratic tradition, bother stated out ruled by authoritarianism and both wanted to "get their fair share of the pie". They grew fast and wanted to grab their piece once they did.

After the war they built more modernized manufacturing and they had both a technological advantage as well as possibly the a currency advantage too (dollar was solid), that allowed both to attract export markets away from the US. Both wanted to repudiate their dark pasts and thus embraced a more open society and culture after the war.

[Beet]

They are both countries that, for different reasons, joined the industrial world during the Belle Époque, and thus were outsiders to the Anglo constructed world order that has dominated the world since Waterloo. They tried to overturn it, and failed.

However, in the present century the fates of the two countries have diverged: for Germany finds itself at the center of a forward-looking internationalist project, whereas Japan finds itself mired in a region filled with the dictatorships and nationalistic rivalries and hatters of the 19th and 20ty centuries, whose political development has been suddenly frozen and retarded. The chief reason being, the decisions of 1989, which were a miracle for central Europe but quite the opposite for East Asia. This today, I think, Germany stands with genuine independent influence as a regional hegemon, whereas Japan remains essentially a client state of the U.S., more so than almost ever.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's time for another pointless waltz down the Sonderweg!

[RINO Tom]

They're the most efficient and industrious cultures in their respective regions, and they believe that about themselves more than anyone.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Coincidentally, I remember that I attended an entire seminar on this very topic during my university years.

Back then, they seemed to place a big emphasis on the fact that both Germany and Japan happened to constitute themselves as modern nation-states pretty late in the game (1871/1868). Everything that followed was a result of that "late birth".

[ingemann]

I really don't see how they mirrow each other, yes they're both known as being militaristic and industrious, but honestly so was a lot of other states, if you had asked somebody in 1913 France and Italy would be seen as more militaristic than Germany, and historical France was also seen as quite industrious.

But let's look it in a greater context, if I mention Belgium, Switzerland, Netherland, Austria, Denmark and Sweden and asked how industrial products made in these countries are in quality. Most people would usual say they produced medium to high quality products. This is because they're export oriented developed economies just like Germany and Japan, they lack the internal markets, raw material production and/or the size to produce low quality products, when their wages rouse and their competitiveness fell, and they was later comers so they had to compete with the already established industrial economies and outcompete them in either quality or quantity, but preferable both.

Korea and Taiwan are already developing the same way and in a few decades all the new producers of cheap and shoddy consumer products will develop the same way.

[buritobr]

I really don't see how they mirrow each other, yes they're both known as being militaristic and industrious, but honestly so was a lot of other states, if you had asked somebody in 1913 France and Italy would be seen as more militaristic than Germany, and historical France was also seen as quite industrious.

But let's look it in a greater context, if I mention Belgium, Switzerland, Netherland, Austria, Denmark and Sweden and asked how industrial products made in these countries are in quality. Most people would usual say they produced medium to high quality products. This is because they're export oriented developed economies just like Germany and Japan, they lack the internal markets, raw material production and/or the size to produce low quality products, when their wages rouse and their competitiveness fell, and they was later comers so they had to compete with the already established industrial economies and outcompete them in either quality or quantity, but preferable both.

Korea and Taiwan are already developing the same way and in a few decades all the new producers of cheap and shoddy consumer products will develop the same way.

Sure. Many other countries had the same events. But in Germany and Japan, these events took place at the same time.
Industrialization of France was slower than the industrialization of Germany. Industrialization of France started earlier and was never so complete as the industrialization of Germany.
South Korea and Taiwan had a Japanese-style industrialization, but later.