I think that if you compare the worst poverty that Japan is willing to accept versus the worst that India is willing to accept ... some people die of hunger in India. People barely die of preventable diseases in Japan, and none of hunger.
India has a space program ... and India has people living off the land like they lived 6000 years ago.
And then you calculate and realize that in fact that, first, India could have the same standard. They have the money to do that. It is possible. Second, actually doing that would be the best thing that could possibly happen to the Indian economy. Hell, you could slowly implement this over 20-30 years and that would later be described as "creating a golden age".
In other words, Indian poor are kept poor to maximize the difference between the rich and the poor. If the poor were simply given money, one would expect that to 100x the wealth of rich Indians. And they're NOT doing it.
... and as bad as that is, then you look at Pakistan. WTF.
India has one of the most agrarian populations in the world, with a comparatively high prevalence of subsistence farming too. Its GDP per capita is maybe a tenth of Japan's.
One million is hyperbole, but Japan's more advanced economy and lower population vs India's less advanced economy and higher population is a strange comparison in some ways. The single number doesn't tell the whole story.
So you're basically talking about HDI. That's one metric. But I think equally important is also to consider the rote tech capabilities. That India still has a lot of people practicing susbistence farming and that China still has people living in caves, and that the US still has many homeless people living in tents, ... , all those aren't indicative of the rote tech capabilies of those respective countries.
Japan may have better human rights now, but was not the role model in the WW2.
People are an important component of growth. Japan is facing aging population negatively impacting their GDP.
What is greed for you? Building companies in the hope of becoming millionaire? If yes, then all the big economies have followed this path. Even China and Japan were greedy in that sense.
You can have growth without greed. This might sound crazy these days but you can build things and do things that make money and actually benefit people rather than exploit.
Japan is a capitalist country, their growth is as much based on greed as any other.
They do have robust social safety nets and a culture of civic mindnedness which improves quality of life over many other capitalist countries (particularly the US) but also "black companies" and salarymen working themselves to death.
