> Well if you were referring to Japan in particular, I can tell you the
> country has more of a welfare state than any American is ever going to see.
That wouldn't be difficult. Even grim, backwards, Communized Poland now has a constitution about, oh, five centuries ahead of the US: <http://www.sejm.gov.pl/english/konstytucja/kon1.htm>
The Nikkei, incidentally, is a screaming buy. To paraphrase some rich dead dude, one should never buy stocks until there are Biblical floods of red ink on the floor.
-- Dennis