How come people from East Asian countries (Japan, Taiwan, Korea, HongKong, Singapore) are so rich?

Because Asians do work hard !!!

This depends on alot of factors..but one thing in common for Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan is that people work much longer hours than Western nations. My friend worked from 8AM to midnight six days a week at his company in Tokyo, and that wasn't considered too outrageous. Also, benefits such as vacations are not as good as western nations. One month of vacation is rare for the average Japanese worker, whereas in the US its attainable, and I've heard in France they get even more.

In addition, forced overtime work is common, so if you had to work 60 hours a week you would make alot too :)

There are also differences in how workers and companies relate..for Japan at least, once you're hired by a company there is a strong sense of loyalty to the company, and the company also takes good care of you. It is different from say, the US where changing your job often is normal; it isn't so frequent in Japan..

Hong Kong and Singapore are NOT countries.... The Asian countries are wealthy because they are extremely homogenous and everyone is related to everyone else. People being so much alike, everyone is expected to succeed and they feel shamed if they do not. Diversity is nice here in the West but it creates conflict and poverty. Also, they tend to value wealth more than anything else, to the point where it can be disturbing...if you've been to Asia and see the massive industrial wasteland, you will know what I mean.

Natural resources and their willingness to import export them. Some countries also have a better education system for business and world marketing. Which would definately put them at an advantage over most countries as far as financial gain is concerned. But the dollar value is the term "rich" is applicable

im a singaporean.

1) our wages are not higher, an hour of fast food job can be as low as what, US $3 per hour, compared to US $8 in the western country?

2) Attractiveness to investors and companies. We are not as big in land, but we're attracting foreign talents into our land, as well as foreign investors with our reputation as a stable and reliable financial hub.

Tax structure: just like Hongkong, we review our tax rates to make our market competitive and attractive to foreign companies to invest over here with us. in fact we just had some changes in the Budget 07 announced on tax issues.

3) the whole Asia is picking up as compared to the western countries, but hey lets not forget who dominated and reached the status of developed countries while we were still relatively unknown in the rankings , back in the 90s'. you've had your fair share, its only natural that we are picking up now.

In fact, if you experience continual growth in GDP without a rest, it is dangerous.

4) the pace of Asian countries are super busy, fast and stressful. guess that's the price to pay, considering that our only resource is human capital. we dont have enough land nor natural resources to be too relaxed.

We can work till what, 8pm in the night ? its just a tiring life, but still that's how things are. i for one have a late dinner at like 8pm+, that's when my father knocks off from work.

my singaporean friend who's studying in Australia now, told me recently that people asked why she walked so fast. guess our pace is just too fast for a break to appreciate the finer things in life.

5) let us not forget that GDP doesnt measure the quality of life, like what i said above.

6) we do have a high quality and standard of living here, the quality is not due to the gdp, but because of our government who's done a good job. education is subsidised heavily, medical bills, the needy have avenues to cry out to.

Mention singapore, and most people will go "ah, lee kuan yew!" . that's what is good about our government, knowing that we're in good hands, we singaporeans are generally still very happy to be here. im glad im a singaporean =)

those 5 are amongst the 5 fastest wealth growing economies at present. If you had invested when their markets tanked during the Clinton years, you'd be wealthy too...

These 5 nations sharing the same secret philosophy

One reason is that they don't spend any time on Yahoo Answers. Just work, work, work, work ,work. And then when they sleep they dream about work.

The rich are really rich, but the poor are really poor.

Because their jobs probably pay them more money.