/jp/ - Otaku Culture

So I was wondering.. How exactly did Japan become such a prominent and economically wealthy country? Japan has only been "opened" to the rest of the world for about 150 years, and before that it was a totally isolated country that was behind in technology (still using swords as their main weapons when it opened), and its such a small country

So how the hell in less than 100 years did it become so powerful that even all the allies in WW2 were scared of fighting them on their soil without massive losses?

And now its still the 3rd best economy in the world and longest life expectency, and possibly the most technologically advanced country...

Just seems odd how Japan can do all of this in such a short time, while other countries that were backwards when they discovered the rest of the world are still 3rd world countries