On January 11, the reference news network "Japan Economic News" published an article entitled "Japanese Enterprises Are Seriously Injured, Look at the World Benchmark" on January 8. The full text is excerpted below:
Many young people in Japan do not understand the era of being known as "the best in Japan". Japan's manufacturing industry, which has driven rapid economic growth, has not achieved digital transformation, so it is "seriously injured", and it is also facing a decline in human, material and financial resources. Japan needs to become a global benchmark for digital content, just like anime and games.
"Product made in Japan" has a faint presence. At its peak in 1986, Japan's share of global exports exceeded 10%, but in 2022 it fell to 3%. In the 90s, the appreciation of the yen led to the shift of production overseas, and the competitiveness of major export categories such as home appliances and semiconductors declined.
The rising country is China. The global share surpassed that of Japan in 2001 and increased to 17% in 2022. The United States and Germany have not fallen as fast as Japan. Japan's "wounds" are deepening and widening year by year.
In 2020, the global share of Japanese television sets fell to 11% from 35% in 2010. In the field of smart phones, Apple of the United States, Samsung Electronics of South Korea, and Xiaomi of China have swept the world. Japan has also misjudged the trend of value-added shifting from hardware to software.
Having been hit hard, Japan has finally realized that it is time to fundamentally revive the digital industry.
Japan's industrial metabolism has slowed down, and its ability to create new things has weakened. According to the Global Innovation Index released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, Japan ranks 13th in 2023, lower than South Korea (10th) and China (12th). In 2007, Japan was ranked fourth behind the United States.
According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the R&D expenditure of universities in Japan in 2021 was 1 percent of that in 20002 times, basically in a flat state. South Korea has six times, and China has reached 19 times in 2018. Countries are investing in areas such as artificial intelligence, health and biotechnology.
According to the Global Talent Rankings of the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland, Japan ranked 43rd out of 64 countries and regions in 2023, a record low. It is also the last in the G7.
Particularly low rates were given for "international experience of managers" (64th) and "language proficiency" (60th). In 2014, Japan's third-ranked "Practitioner Training" also dropped to 35th place. In the face of the acceleration of structural transformation such as digitalization, on-the-job training, which used to support competitiveness, is outdated and outdated. The consequences of permissive institutional fatigue are already being felt.
There is still room for "**" in Japan. As the confrontation between China and the United States becomes more serious, calls for strengthening economic security have intensified. Japan's value as a base for production and R&D is being re-examined.
The glory of the past cannot be relied on forever. A lot of data is grim for Japan. In the past 30 years of adversity, Japanese companies are honing their growth skills.