japan got rich because america used it to funnel wealth into developing east asian markets instead of doing it themselves, because they wanted japan as a bulwhark against communism. some elements of japanese culture contributed to their success like an insane work ethic and obedience, relatively high iq, but japan didn't have the capital, ability or ingenuity to become as rich as they did. it's an artifact of their role in the us empire. the system was breaking so the us cooled it off and japan crashed. it's been leveraging off of that share of the "us imperial wealth" since the 1990s. japan races to the bottom slightly faster than the us and this basically lets them keep a portion of the imperial tax (i.e.: global financial manipulation and inflation). america's economy will die very soon and japan will fall on its face very hard.
United States