Always have. There was heavy engineering in my town (Dunedin) in the 1860s. Building equipment to extract gold.

Well, I was talking about Japan. I think the population decline will be a good thing. The price of housing will go down, the price of food will go down since Japan will import less food. It won’t become a superpower, like all the hype from the late 80’s; however, it doesn’t have to be.

America’s screwed, though. We outsourced most of our manufacturing, and our STEM jobs are occupied by non-Americans because American engineers don’t exist [bright students with potential are advised to major in status-symbol nonsense]. & I’m not sure if the American technology sector really innovates anything. Nor is American technology known for being reliable. For example, my house came with Fisher & Paykel appliances [your country makes more than dairy products!] – they lasted for over ten years. The Maytag replacements? …the fridge flooded my kitchen. Well, at least they come in pretty colors. My washing machine and dryer are candy apple red.