Why does overcrowded resource-poor East Asia succeed--lessons for the LDCs?

This conference examines East Asias success in analytical terms: by types of economy by comparative cultural-historical background and by factors that drove the modern East Asian growth machines such as emphasis on human capital formation agricultural development outward-oriented industrialization and a presence of stable environment for investment created by a strong purposeful government. All sorts of apparent discrepancies and paradoxes come to ones mind. Chinese in the old China did not do well; they thrived in Southeast Asia. Everybodys shoe is now on someones elses foot it is said. Japan is now in the Americans shoes of the 1950s and 1960s: overvalued currency low and declining domestic investment rising investment overseas high and rising unemployment delining international competitive position sluggish growth and large trade surpluses. The symmetry on the US side does not hold as well. While East Asia used its trade deficits of the 1950s and 1960s to build new and technologically advanced industrial capacities the US is using its unprecedented trade deficits to cover its budget deficit that is to enable the country to consume beyond its means. Meanwhile the very forces and policies that have brought Japan unprecedented success and prosperity now confront the country with unprecedented problems. Nominally high incomes do not buy much in Japan. Urban amenities in general are equally shocking for their inadequacies. The country has no full modern sewage system not even in Tokyo. Under its effective 2-party system the US has a greater capacity for hold reformist acts and for seeing their need. It is also plausible to suggest that group conflict is certain to sharpen when the Japanese national pie ceases to grow at the accustomed pace if at all.