1990s in Japan - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
This article is part of the series: 20th century of Japan
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1980s 1980s in Japan In Japan during the 1980s, the economy was in a boom where buyers found themselves paying the highest prices for goods and commodities. As of March 2010, the unemployment rate in Japan is 4.9%; a very low number compared to the unemployment rate during the height of the 1990s... (1980s)
1990s (1990s)

The 1990s in Japan was the beginning of their economic turmoil and recession

Recession

In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...

for that particular nation; resulting in their Lost Decade
Lost Decade (Japan)
The is the time after the Japanese asset price bubble's collapse within the Japanese economy, which occurred gradually rather than catastrophically...

. While the Lost Decade would finally end in 2000 for Japan, this would become the era where young Japanese salarymen

Salaryman

refers to someone whose income is salary based; particularly those working for corporations. Its frequent use by Japanese corporations, and its prevalence in Japanese manga and anime has gradually led to its acceptance in English-speaking countries as a noun for a Japanese white-collar...

were forced to find different lines of work.

General trends

Technology began to outpace North American standards with Japanese vehicles often getting more MPG than their North American rivals. People in Japan as well as the other oil-dependent nations of the world began to be dependent on high-speed rail

High-speed rail

High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...

networks (and other forms of mass transit like bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

es) as the price of gasoline

Gasoline

Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...

began to skyrocket. The average price of gasoline

Gasoline

at the end of the next decade would rise to $8/gallon on a national level; making it unaffordable for most Japanese people to drive long distances unless necessary. Since gasoline prices have risen significantly since the 1990s worldwide, it will be inevitable for gasoline prices to go up to $20/gallon within the course of the 21st century. After the 1990s ended and the 21st century began, Japanese residents (in addition to other people) will experience a return to local produce (through local farmers' market

Farmers' market

A farmers' market consists of individual vendors—mostly farmers—who set up booths, tables or stands, outdoors or indoors, to sell produce, meat products, fruits and sometimes prepared foods and beverages...

s instead of expensive grocery store

Grocer

A grocer is a bulk seller of food. Beginning as early as the 14th century, a grocer was a dealer in comestible dry goods such as spices, pepper, sugar, and cocoa, tea and coffee...

s), increased use of renewable energy

Renewable energy

Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...

like wind energy

Wind energy

Wind energy is the kinetic energy of air in motion; see also wind power.Total wind energy flowing through an imaginary area A during the time t is:E = ½ m v2 = ½ v 2...

and solar energy, the exodus from the exurbs

Commuter town

A commuter town is an urban community that is primarily residential, from which most of the workforce commutes out to earn their livelihood. Many commuter towns act as suburbs of a nearby metropolis that workers travel to daily, and many suburbs are commuter towns...

to the urban centers, more electric car

Electric car

An electric car is an automobile which is propelled by electric motor, using electrical energy stored in batteries or another energy storage device. Electric cars were popular in the late-19th century and early 20th century, until advances in internal combustion engine technology and mass...

sales, and a major shakeup of the airline

Airline

An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...

industry.

Video games

While new gaming consoles like the Super Famicom and the Sony PlayStation flooded the market, most young people began to move in with their parents, and read manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

. This is because they could not acquire a job

Employment

Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...

that would permit them to live independently and have all the amenities that they are accustomed to. Many video games were released during this decade (especially for the Super Famicom). Popular American titles like SimCity
SimCity
SimCity is a critically acclaimed city-building simulation video game, first released in 1989, and designed by Will Wright. SimCity was Maxis' first product, which has since been ported into various personal computers and game consoles, and spawned several sequels including SimCity 2000 in 1994,...

and SimEarth
SimEarth
SimEarth: The Living Planet, the second life simulation computer game designed by Will Wright in which the player controls the development of a planet. The game was published in 1990 by Maxis...

gained popularity for both Japanese PC gamers and console gamers alike. The 1990s was also the era for Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. Chrono Triggers development team included three designers that Square dubbed the "Dream Team": Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Square's Final Fantasy series; Yuji Horii, a...

, Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy IV
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square in 1991 as a part of the Final Fantasy series. The game was originally released for the Super Famicom in Japan and has since then been rereleased for many other platforms with varying modifications. An enhanced remake with 3D graphics...

, Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VI
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square , released in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as a part of the Final Fantasy series. Set in a fantasy world with a technology level equivalent to that of the Second Industrial Revolution, the game's story focuses on a...

, and Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII
is a role-playing video game developed by Square and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. It was originally released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation and was re-released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers and in 2009...

. These games became multimillion dollar blockbusters in Japan, Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, and North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. However, the Famicom

Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

went to decline and most game companies halved their production of new 8-bit games by 1994.

Even the Nintendo Game Boy

Game Boy

The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

acquired popularity in Japan (spawning a lineup of Japan-exclusive video games) and eventually the Japanese release of the Nintendo Game Boy Advance

Game Boy Advance

The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...

. Nintendo Power

Nintendo Power

Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...

wrote an exposé about Japanese video games (using one of its first 50 issues). The exposé stated that Japanese video games were less censored than their North American counterparts. Video games that were released in Japan employed some form of sexual content, brought forth the invocation of religious symbols, utilized a level of violence never seen in North American games (until the release of Doom in the mid-1990s), and mentioning tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

in addition to alcohol

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

so that the story could have more flavor. These uncensored Japanese games even used vulgar language.

The Sega CD (known as the Sega Mega CD in Japan) first started to offer full motion video outside of the personal computer scene. It became trendy in the 1990s (and in the 2000s) for players to create their own console role-playing games. Game creation software like RPG Tsukūru: Super Dante
RPG Tsukūru: Super Dante
is a program that allows players to design their own traditional role-playing game on Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is available only in Japan. Literacy in Japanese is required to fully understand the creation process...

and RPG Tsukūru 2
RPG Tsukūru 2
is a program that allows players to design their own traditional role-playing game on Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It has only been released in Japan...

made it possible for players to create role-playing games on their Super Famicom systems. While these games were not as graphically enhanced as Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI which dominated this decade for console role-playing games, these "game creation tools" would allow the gamers of the 1990s to become the game designers of the 2000s and beyond. Sequels like RPG Maker 2000
RPG Maker 2000
RPG Maker 2000 is the second Microsoft Windows version of the RPG Maker series of programs developed by Enterbrain and published by ASCII.-History:...

and RPG Maker XP
RPG Maker XP
RPG Maker XP is the PC version in the RPG Maker series of programs developed and published by Enterbrain. It is the first PC version to be officially translated into English and released outside of Japan.-Features:...

provided that the original two games in the series were highly successful.

Sports

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...

continued to decline well into the 1990s like it did in the 1980s.

Races often took place at either Suzuka Circuit

Suzuka Circuit

, Suzuka Circuit for short, is a motorsport race track located in Ino, Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, Japan and operated by Mobilityland Corporation, the subsidiary of Honda Motor Co., Ltd..-Introduction:...

or at Fuji Speedway

Fuji Speedway

is a race track standing in the foothills of Mount Fuji, in Oyama, Suntō District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It was built in the early 1960s and hosted the first Formula One race in Japan in 1976. In the 1980s, Fuji Speedway was used for the FIA World Sportscar Championship and national racing...

. A NASCAR

NASCAR

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...

exhibition race was held in Motegi, Japan during the late 1990s in the hopes of getting people interested in stock car racing.

During the 1990s, it became increasingly rare for Japanese businessmen

Salaryman

to be able to play golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

alongside their employers. Golf course

Golf course

A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...

s began closing up by the bundles and many young men (who would otherwise enter the workforce under a more ideal economy) began only to have golf experience from their years as a student. Besides the sporting aspect, golf was used in Japan in order to adapt to corporate culture.

The 1990s was also the decade that the American film Mr. Baseball
Mr. Baseball
Mr. Baseball is a 1992 American film that starred Tom Selleck and was directed by Fred Schepisi.-Plot:Jack Elliot is an aging American baseball player put on the trading block by the New York Yankees in favor of a rookie first-baseman , and there's only one taker: the Nagoya Chunichi Dragons of...

was released; introducing an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

audience to Japanese baseball

Japanese baseball

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning Professional Baseball. Outside of Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball." The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation of the in 1934 and the...

. The Chunichi Dragons

Chunichi Dragons

The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chubu region of Japan. The team is in the Central League. They won the 2007 Japan Series and 2007 Asia Series.-History:...

and the Yomiuri Giants

Yomiuri Giants

The are a professional baseball team based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The team competes in the Central League in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top level of professional play in Japan. They play their home games in the Tokyo Dome, opened in 1988. The English-language press occasionally calls the...

became popular teams after the Mr. Baseball movie made mentioned of them. Nippon Professional Baseball was one of the sports to watch in Japan in addition to Formula One

Formula One

Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...

(featuring Japan's Satoru Nakajima

Satoru Nakajima

Satoru Nakajima is a former racing driver from Japan.-Career:Nakajima was born into a farming family living just outside Okazaki, Japan. He began driving cars in his early teens in the family's garden with his older brother giving him tips, careful that they were not caught by their father...

who retired early in the 1990s but gained respect worldwide). The only perfect game of the 1990s for the Nippon Professional Baseball league came on May 18, 1994 with the Yomiuri Giants shutting out the Hiroshima Toyo Carp

Hiroshima Toyo Carp

The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Central League. The team is primarily owned by the Matsuda family, led by , who is a descendant of Mazda founder Jujiro Matsuda. Mazda is the largest single shareholder , which is less than the portion owned by the Matsuda family . Because of that,...

by a score of 6-0.

Television and movies

Anime like Dragon Ball Z (shōnen) and Pokemon
Pokémon
is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video...

(shōnen) developed an international audience after being created in Japan. Girl-oriented (shōjo) anime like Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon, known as , is a media franchise created by manga artist Naoko Takeuchi. Fred Patten credits Takeuchi with popularizing the concept of a team of magical girls, and Paul Gravett credits the series with "revitalizing" the magical-girl genre itself...

also became of age during the 1990s. This show would be the inspiration for the 2000s anime Tokyo Mew Mew
Tokyo Mew Mew
, also known as Mew Mew Power, is a Japanese shōjo manga series written by Reiko Yoshida and illustrated by Mia Ikumi. It was originally serialized in Nakayoshi from September 2000 to February 2003, and later published in seven tankōbon volumes by Kodansha from February 2001 to April 2003...

(known in North America as Mew Mew Power). J-Pop

J-pop

, an abbreviation for Japanese pop, is a musical genre that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in 1960s music, such as The Beatles, and replaced kayōkyoku in the Japanese music scene...

continued to be popular among Japanese female teenagers.

Social

Employment

While people were losing their jobs, technology still was advancing at an exponential rate—making more jobs obsolete as new technologies replaced the old. Manufacturing

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

jobs were being replaced with service sector jobs just like they were doing in the Western countries—leading to people being underemployed

Underemployment

Underemployment refers to an employment situation that is insufficient in some important way for the worker, relative to a standard. Examples include holding a part-time job despite desiring full-time work, and overqualification, where the employee has education, experience, or skills beyond the...

in either minimum wage

Minimum wage

A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...

or near-minimum wage jobs. There was some economic recovery after this decade; but the spending on cars

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

and whiskey

Whisky

Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and corn...

had not return to the levels that were reached during the Japanese economic boom of the 1980s. Japan made up for the labor shortages in the 1990s by hiring temporary work

Temporary work

Temporary work or temporary employment refers to a situation where the employee is expected to leave the employer within a certain period of time. Temporary employees are sometimes called "contractual", "seasonal", "interim", "casual staff", "freelance", or "part-time"; or the word may be shortened...

ers without security or job benefits. The American economy

Economy of the United States

The economy of the United States is the world's largest national economy. Its nominal GDP was estimated to be nearly $14.5 trillion in 2010, approximately a quarter of nominal global GDP. The European Union has a larger collective economy, but is not a single nation...

under President Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

in the early 2010s is currently facing the same problems Japan had faced in the 1990s.

As of March 2010, the unemployment rate in Japan is 4.9%; a very low number compared to the unemployment rate during the height of the Lost Decade.

Population decline

The 1990s would be the final decade where the birth rate

Birth rate

Crude birth rate is the nativity or childbirths per 1,000 people per year . Another word used interchangeably with "birth rate" is "natality". When the crude birth rate is subtracted from the crude death rate, it reveals the rate of natural increase...

in Japan would exceed the death rate. Young people lacking money and living space to properly reproduce is just one of many reasons the birth rate plummeted during this decade. However, the rest of the world's population will increase slowly until 2040 reaching 9 billion people. The population of the world will eventually reach 9,202,458,484 people by the year 2050. This would become the world's highest population ever in recorded history; many young people today would refer to the 2040s as the "peak of human civilization."

It has been suggested that the population of Japan will fall from over 100 million in the 1990s to a mere 50 million by the year 2090. However, the most recent rise in the national birth rate of Japan happened on February 2007. Japan will see a 0.9% decline of their population after the year 2025—lowering their labor force while countries like Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

will see a rise in their labor force by that same year.

General trends

Video games

Sports

Television and movies

Social

Employment

Population decline

See also