Hang on one second please, I dont think all of what you have said is totally correct.
First off there is a very old saying that is very true - Dont believe everything that you read, not everything is as good as it looks.
Let's take definite stock of this. You need to seriously apply this statement to everything you say after it.
As for Japan, I see a country that is way in advance of America and europe in terms of technology.
The tech is superficial. There is demand for it. The Japanese refine tech, but they don't innovate. Robotics is advancing faster in Korea than in Japan, for example. Just because 10-year-old kids have phones that double as pulse-lasers and time machines doesn't mean that they are cutting edge, it just means their parents are willing to pay 100,000,000 yen to play keep-up-with-the-joneses.
When I look at Japan I see a country with lower CO2 emissions, alot greener than say China and America.And Europe is slowly going greener, even my local council encourages me to recycle as much as possible, and i do try my best.
Hold on there, Tex. I need to find the article so I can link it to you, so it won't be today, but I'll try to find it. But I've learned that the U.S., which was once responsible (circa 1990) for over 50% of the world's pollution, has fallen back to about 33%, being outstripped by Japan, China, Russia, and the European Union. In addition, the rate of pollution increase has almost slowed to a halt in the U.S., and we have tougher standards and harsher fines for factories and higher emissions standards for cars than any other country. Indeed, we are reaching the technological limit for emissions regulation, because it is becoming physically impossible to further limit emission levels in vehicles without radically changing the paradigm itself. Furthermore, the European Union, China, Japan, and Russia, are all increasing their rates of pollution exponentially. The newest factories in the U.S. now produce less trash than most homes.
We are slowly converting, but it is taking time. Even though we didn't sign the
Kyoto accords, that's because we already meet some of those standards. Many other countries have fallen flat on their faces as incapable of even approaching the standards that the green summits have proven inept at enforcing.
But unless major changes are made in America in the next ten years, I could see America in full economic decline and collapse in 25 years time.
Here I agree with you, but it has nothing to do with technology or pollution/emissions standards. It has to do with economics as a whole, the Federal Reserve, China dumping the dollar they've been investing in, and other drastic mistakes that American politicians have been making since the 1980s. It is going to be due to credit that the United States hits a major recession. Not some tech gap.