What Noah Smith thinks about Japan
Economics writer; author of the Noahpinion newsletter.
Noah Smith did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Only Noah Smith on Japan. See everyone on Japan
3 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Noah Smith has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsthe 2020s should be an absolute flowering of Chinese pop culture like the 90s were for Japan, but it won't, because CCP censorship is just bad enough to make Chinese pop culture boring af
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Their wordsIn other words, “Confucian” is lazily applied to Japan as a racial category, rather than any kind of a useful description of the culture and society.
- 3 weeks earlier
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Their wordsIn the 70s and 80s, Japanese companies could get cheap plentiful bank loans to develop new products and explore new markets. Today, they can't. Innovation is downstream of finance.