The other thing is that Japan and Korea have heavily state sponsored capitalism; bank capital and other resources are overwhelmingly allocated to large conglome

The other thing is that Japan and Korea have heavily state sponsored capitalism; bank capital and other resources are overwhelmingly allocated to large conglomerates as an industrial policy, which strangles small and medium size businesses that actually employ most people and thus reduces wages across the economy. Samsung Group is 20.3% of South Korean GDP, and that’s just one of the chaebol.