“In the near future, we will be overtaken by Thailand and Vietnam” Japan’s GDP per capita is at its lowest ever ranking… What is the root cause of the evil that has made Japan an “ultra-economically stagnant nation”? Shueisha Online 2024.12.30 On December 23rd of this year, the Cabinet Office announced an estimate that Japan’s dollar-denominated nominal gross domestic product (GDP) per capita will be $33,849 in 2023. This figure ranks 22nd out of 38 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) member countries for the second consecutive year, lower than South Korea, which is in 21st place. And its 22nd ranking is the lowest since comparable data became available in 1980. ■Japan is the “one and only country with an extremely depressed economy” What do these figures actually mean? And what are the causes lurking behind the scenes? We spoke with Professor Satoshi Fujii of Kyoto University Graduate School (Specializing in Urban Social Engineering), who served as Special Advisor to the Cabinet during the second Abe Cabinet. First of all, how do you view the current GDP figure, which is lower than that of South Korea? “For Japanese people over the age of 40, our neighboring country, South Korea, was once an overwhelmingly poorer and less developed country than Japan. But that was a long time ago. For several years now, Japan’s starting salaries for university graduates have been overtaken by South Korea, and with the Japanese economy continuing to stagnate, it was only a matter of time before South Korea overtook Japan’s GDP per capita. So I feel like, ‘The time has finally come.'” (Professor Fujii, same below) But to be honest, I’m not sure how alarming this result should be… What on earth does this number mean? “Japan has not grown at all for the past 25 years, and not only has average wages not increased much, they have actually been declining gradually. Many people in this country take this for granted, but our country is the only one in the world that is experiencing such a slump. Since 1997, when the economic growth rate was raised to 5%, it has been by far the lowest. Japan’s average economic growth rate since 1997 has been just 0.3%. This is an incredibly low level, with growth of only 3% even over the course of 10 years. In contrast, the world as a whole is continuing to grow at an average annual rate of 4.7%, expanding 1.51 times in 10 years. Even Greece, which has the second-worst growth rate after Japan, has grown at an average annual rate of 2.1%, or 21% over the past 10 years. On the other hand, South Korea’s average growth rate is just over 5%, which is only slightly higher than the world average, so South Korea is not particularly a “super-growth country.” In conclusion, the fact that Japan has been overtaken by South Korea is an inevitable consequence of Japan being the “one and only country with an extremely sluggish economy,” and we need to understand with a sense of how little economic growth we have achieved.” ■The trigger was the consumption tax hike in 1997 Japan has been called the “one and only country with an extremely sluggish economy,” but what caused this? Professor Fujii bluntly states that “it is government negligence,” but from a macroeconomic perspective, the background to this can be divided into three stages. The first is a change in “market equilibrium.” “Economic growth occurs when demand exceeds supply across a nation. If there is high demand, then essentially all of the goods and services produced in each industry will be sold, which will inevitably lead to increased sales, higher wages, and at the same time, rising prices. And higher wages will lead to increased consumption and investment by citizens and businesses. In other words, as long as demand exceeds supply, the process of “increased demand → rising wages → further increased demand” and the process of “increased demand → increased supply” will proceed in parallel, and the economy will grow.” The second is “deflationary policies” caused by a lack of demand. “On the other hand, if demand is lower than supply, the exact opposite process will occur. The cycle goes like this: “Lack of demand → Unsold goods → Sluggish sales and falling prices → Falling wages → Further lack of demand.” This is how the economy declines, and Japan has been in this kind of deflation since 1997.” The third reason is the consumption tax increase, which exceeds the rate of wage growth. “Even when looking at the GDP graph, Japan has undergone a major shift from ‘economic growth’ to ‘economic stagnation’ since 1997, when the consumption tax was increased. The shortage of demand in 1997 was caused by the consumption tax being raised from 3% to 5%. Strictly speaking, in a situation where the growth rate was extremely sluggish due to the collapse of the bubble economy, the consumption tax was raised to a level of 2%, far exceeding the annual wage increase rate of only 1% or so, and Japan fell into a deflationary recession due to a lack of demand.” *Source below ★1: 2024/12/30 (Mon) 18:21 Previous thread “In the near future, Thailand and Vietnam will overtake us” What is the root of all evil that has made Japan a “super economically sluggish nation”★2.
>>1 The reason Japan’s GDP isn’t increasing is because Japan is in deflation. And the reason Japan is in deflation is because more people are becoming dependent on social security (taxes) for their livelihood. Even if money is distributed to people who rely on social security, such as pensioners and those on welfare, and whose incomes do not increase through economic activity, they will try to maximize the effect of that money by purchasing cheaper products. Trading companies trying to meet that demand then import cheaper substitutes from third countries, filling the Japanese market with cheaper goods. Manufacturing industries that cater to domestic demand respond to deflation by reducing employee wages in order to combat rising import prices of raw materials. For Japan to overcome deflation and increase its GDP, it has no choice but to either use exports and inbound tourism to absorb overseas inflation into the country or cut social security spending. The ones who are leading Japan into decline are the Democratic Party, which destroyed the export industry with its policy of an extremely strong yen, and those who are broadly interpreting Article 25 of the Constitution and making social security a sanctuary.
>>1 Weak yen Inflation Price gougers Middlemen and cut corners Investment fraudsters Politicians and their collusive companies and organizations and their employees Tax-sucking welfare-grubbing freak F-run NEETs who are picky about work conditions and work locations Moms with vested interests in the declining birthrate That’s about it.
The Imperial Family has 16 members. Of these, four are over 80 years old, four are in their 60s, five are unmarried women (including Aiko), and only three are anything else. Those over 80 will soon die. The four unmarried women will lose their imperial status upon marriage. This brings the royal family to eight members. I can even see it disappearing naturally, it’s fun lol.
Japan’s debt as a percentage of GDP is by far the highest in the world, and if interest rates rise even a little, interest payments will snowball every time we refinance.
Another boring slogan bashing the Ministry of Finance, you incompetent people. The US military in Japan and the Imperial family are sucking tons of money out of the Japs, which is the cause of the recession. Idiot.
Apparently, a professor at a university overseas teaches that raising taxes due to deflation will harm Japan. He’s being used as an example of an idiot.
>>26 At Canadian universities, it is taught as the only example of a country in the world that fell purely due to policy failure. The lecture ends with, “Let’s all thank God that we were not born in Japan.”
>>33 If it were all done domestically, they’d just print yen, but I’d be putting aside the fact that no one would buy government bonds with such low interest rates that they only pay the interest.
It’s no good not giving you the motivation to improve. People with incomes of around 10 million yen are treated as wealthy and taxed heavily, making the overall income low. Poor people make a fuss when there is a slight disparity and hold others back. There is no such thing as the Japan Dream.
Universities make money from liberal arts, there’s a middleman system in place to support liberal arts students, the country is built on tourism for the liberal arts students, and civil service reform is impossible because liberal arts students resist.
The hellish days of the Democratic Party 97 yen per liter of gas 1,780 yen for 5 kg of rice 160 yen for a Big Cup Noodles 1.1 million yen for a minicar 90,000 yen for a moped 59,800 yen for an iPhone 3,000 yen for a plane ticket from Tokyo to Okinawa 6,000 yen for a one-night stay at an APA hotel.
It’s because they can’t speak out overseas. How proud do they have to be to withdraw several businesses that have no international competitiveness and give them away even though they’re on the decline?
The root of all evil is a weak yen. Only developing countries develop with a weak currency. Japan right now has no chance of developing as it is losing its talent.
And we’re still on the path of monetary easing and a weak yen to boost stock prices. It’s already been decided that no one except the upper classes will be saved, so ordinary people should give up.
If we raise the consumption tax, prices, which are already not rising, will automatically rise and tax revenues will increase, and there is no more effective method than this.
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