PREFACE
Not so long ago Japanese manufactured goods predominated. But now, products from other countries such as South Korea are attracting attention even in India. So what happened to Japan?
Several years ago when I was on a newsgathering visit to India, a simple question posed by a local journalism researcher made me realize that the days when Japanese money flowed around the world and it was fashionable to talk about Japan as No.1 were well and truly gone. Japan's position in the world economy had changed significantly.
Japan's rapid economic growth in the wake of the Second World War was considered a miracle. However, a policy of extreme monetary easing, introduced in response to the rapid appreciation of the yen against the dollar following the Plaza Accord in 1985, triggered an economic bubble. The collapse of this bubble in the 1990s left Japan with budgetary deficits and financial institutions and companies with massive nonperforming loans. Many went bankrupt and the Japanese people suffered from the impact of restructuring as well as a very poor employment market.
Thanks to government policies requiring the injection of public funds into financial institutions and to deregulation, Japan has at last almost sorted out the problems associated with the non-performing loans-but there is still no sign of an end to the massive budget deficit. Since 2002, the country has been experiencing the longest period of economic expansion since the Second World
War, but the accompanying low growth rate has deprived the nation of any sense of economic prosperity. Japan's economy faces a difficult future, marked by increasing social inequality, a declining birth rate and an aging population that is leading to an overall fall in the population.
Meanwhile, the globalization of markets is increasing, and growth is shifting to powerful emerging economies, namely, Brazil, Russia, India and China-the so-called BRIC countries, which are well positioned for growth. That said, there is no need to be overly pessimistic. Japan is the world's second-largest economy in terms of gross domestic
product (GDP) and, if it manages a soft landing without making policy mistakes in dealing with its aging and falling population, it should be able to maintain current levels of prosperity. The Japanese, with their high level of education and a characteristic industriousness should be able to remain leading players on the international stage.
This reference book is designed for use in explaining the economic realities surrounding Japan and its potential to non-Japanese people. The content will enable readers to reply in detail to a variety of questions that they may be asked either in Japan by visitors to the country, or overseas. The information is presented in a straightforward question-and-answer format.
Should the following pages help promote a greater understanding, among people of other cultures, concerning the Japanese economy-not to mention an enhanced insight into, and respect for, Japanese culture-then the book can be considered a success.
100Q&A A English guide to the Japanese economy Part1
- Q1 Reaching global leadership in the industry through Toyota How many vehicles will Toyota Motor Corp. manufacture worldwide in 2007?
- Q2 Why is Toyota in such good shape?
- Q3 Toyota is highly regarded for just-in-time production (kanban-hoshiktl and other production processes, isn't it?
- Q4 Hasn't Toyota recalled a lot of products recently?
- Q5 Increasing broadband penetration How high was Japan ranked (in December 2006) among member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in terms of broadband Internet penetration?
- Q6 So Japan and the United States, the birthplace of the Internet, don't have high levels of broadband penetration when compared to other OECD mem-ber countries?
- Q7 Aren't there different types of broadband, including asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), cable television (CATV) and fiberoptic cable services?
- Q8 Are Japan's broadband service charges cheap by comparison with those of other countries?
- Q9 How did broadband Internet access spread in Japan?
- Q10 Why did the use of broadband services spread so quickly?
- Q11 Didn't this cause the telephone companies problems?
- Q12 The NTT Group was in a strong position when it came to fiber-optic cable, wasn't it?
- Q13 An advanced mobile-phone economy By August 2007, how many mobile phone subscribers were there in Japan?
- Q14 What are the market share figures for mobile phones in Japan?
- Q15 What are the most remarkable features of mobile phones?
- Q16 What problems are mobile phone companies facing?
- Q17 Which of the mobile telephone functions do young people like most?
- Q18 Have 3.5-generation mobile phone services started?
- Q19 Dynamic robots What percentage of the world's working industrial robots were based in Japan in 2005?
- Q20 I Aren't there many different types of robots in Japan besides the industrial ones used in factories?
- Q21 ASlMO doesn't just walk, but can also climb stairs, can't it?
- Q22 Is it true that services have been started in Japan to dispatch robots to companies instead of temporary staff?
- Q23 Will robots increasingly provide a variety of services rather than just make things?
- Q24 The spread of electronic money Edy pre-paid rechargeable contactless smart cards that can be used with mobile phones are a leading form of electronic money (e-money) in Japan. How many Edy cards had been issued by August 2007?
- Q25 What other types of electronic money exist in Japan?
- Q26 How do Edy and Suica cards work?
- Q27 Isn't it a nuisance to have to line up at ticket-vending machines to recharge the cards?
- Q28 I What is the size of the electronic money market?
- Q29 What issues have arisen in relation to the rapid spread of electronic money?
- Q30 How many color liquid crystal display (LCD) TV sets were shipped in Japan in 2006?
- Q31 Although flat-screen TVs were once said to cost 10,000 yen per inch, which was very expensive compared to the cost of televisions with a cathoderay tube (CRT), they recently became much cheaper, didn't they?
- Q32 Nobody knows when and where the big-screen TV war will end, do they?
- Q33 Why do flat-screen TVs sell so well in Japan?
- Q34 Why are some high-definition (HD), flat-screen TV sets marked "Full HD"?
- Q35 Blue-ray and HD DVD technologies Competition for the next-generation digital versatile disc (DVD) standard is between blue-ray discs (BDs) and high-definition (HD) DVDs. How much information-storage capacity does a single BD have?
- Q36 As there are two standards, it is difficult to know which to buy. When there were two types of video-tape recorders, VHS and Betamax, VHS won out. Which of the two second-generation DVD standards will survive?
- Q37 Which group has been able to gather the most con-tent for its format?
- Q38 What is happening regarding the adoption of stan-dards for computer games?
- Q39 In how many merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions were Japanese companies involved during 2005?
- Q40 Why have Japanese companies aggressively started to pursue M&As?
- Q41 Are there any cases of Japanese companies buying Japan-based enterprises that previously had been acquired by overseas companies?
- Q42 In October 2006, Japan Telecom changed its name to Soft bank Telecom, and Vodafone Japan became Softbank Mobile Corp. a Have there been any hostile takeover bids in Japan recently, involving acquisitions made without the agreement of the target company's management?
- Q43 Hostile takeover bids of major, old corporations, not just of venture businesses are makng the news, aren't they?
- Q44 In 2005, where was Japan ranked in terms of the number of international patents filed?
- Q45 As Japan ranked second in term of international patent applications, is it safe to say that it is a technology superpower? There are also Japanese science-related Nobel Prize winners, aren't there?
- Q46 Do you believe that Japanese people will con-tinue to be in the running for Nobel Prizes?
- Q47 Is it safe to say that Japanese research and development is in a secure state?
- Q48 The law was enacted very quickly, wasn't it?
- Q49 When it comes to manufactured goods, a certain level of skill and equipment is needed to copy items. But, for intellectual property such as music, computer graphics, and software, large volumes of copies can be made in a short time.
- Q50 What was the total value of 2006 overseas and domestic shipments of videogame consoles and computer game software?