Japan Economy

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Japan’s Competitiveness

With increasing competitiveness in the technology industry, Japan must find a way to reinvent themselves to compete with the industry they used to dominate. Japan seems to be slowly but surely re-entering the market with small business growing. One reason for this slow climb could be to establish itself as more than a tech giant. Japan has been growing its infrastructure for the past ten years for greater efficiency. They started this earlier than most countries with mass transit and high-speed trains. Japan has the advantage of having their large population in near cities, unlike other countries like Canada. For example, Japan’s three largest cities, Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya are 2.5 hours away from each our on a rapid train (Penn State). They also have the advantage of having one of the highest age expectancy. With younger people having fewer children than ever before, elderly people have to help out with all kinds of manual labour. This sets Japan apart from other countries because all the elderly people are living longer in blue zones, some to the early 100’s. Since people are living longer, there need to be services set up to care for the elderly. The Government of Japan has been implementing higher taxes to help with this phenomenon. They are also starting to implement taxes to promote individuals to save money, invest, and buy more. This is aimed to develop its main industries more and promote exports. This is where the technology industry comes back to the main stage and re-enters the former global domination Japan had. Clearly, Japan is trying, and predictions are that it will come back to be the tech giant that it once was.

In conclusion, the economy of Japan is bouncing back from several low points, is implementing new measures to correct the problems they have with struggling industries, lack of exports, investments, and saving. Its newly found political reform combined with the improved flow of capital will ensure the promise from political leaders of high productivity and high growth rates.

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