I remember watching the movie Gung Ho in 1986 and wondering along with the rest of the country if Japan was going to buy the red, white and blue in its entirety. The movie was about a Japanese acquisition of a Pennsylvania auto factory, but at the time it seemed the land of the rising sun was buying up just about every other sector as well.

It was most evident in real estate, with massive buying of commercial properties on the West Coast. According to the LA Times, Japanese buyers poured nearly $17 billion into U.S. property at the peak in 1988 and owned almost half (45%) of the premium downtown office space in Los Angeles by the early 1990s.