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Japan exports down but slowly recover amid pandemic damage

17 Comments
By YURI KAGEYAMA

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"But nations were small and tariffs high so multinational trade was limited. Countries developed internally with their own resources."

Wrong. Europe developed because of colonialism. The resources were acquired from their colonies and the finished goods had captive markets waiting for them.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

The Soviet Union, as well. Both superpowers are the global exception because they held all of the world's natural resources, powerful military and core science/technologies. Both nations can utterly dominate the world if they ever cooperated.

Not true. Do some reading on development economics (my specialty during my Masters program). Europe in the early 1800s was technologically ahead of the US and had a well established manufacturing sector. But nations were small and tariffs high so multinational trade was limited. Countries developed internally with their own resources. The great advantage the US possessed was the combination of a very large internal market to sell to, lots of natural resources within their borders to feed their industries and a single currency with which to use to conduct business and pay workers. But what really fueled industrial development in the US was the Civil War. War motivates innovation and from the US Civil War came interchangeable parts used to assemble firearms on an assembly line, sized shoes and clothing (hard to make custom uniforms for a 1 million man army so the Union Quartermaster came up with the idea of standardized clothing and shoe sizes), even peanut butter. The miles of railroad in the north quadrupled. Factories flourished. That war, as horrible as it was, turbocharged the industrialization of the US. The US never slowed down either. Russia remained an underdeveloped backwater. Even today it is a third world economy that manufactures nothing the world wants to buy except low cost armaments. Russia survives on selling raw resources, mainly oil and gas. Nobody buys Russian consumer goods, cars or airliners outside of Russia and a small number of Russian/Soviet client states. Heck even the Russians prefer Japanese and American cars to the crap from Autovaz. Ever see a Russan car, camera or airplane? Kludge. All these decades and Russia still cannot make a durable reliable high bypass turbofan engine or a natural gas powered gas turbine generator like Solar Turbines makes. Their most recent attempt ended when the engine grenaded on the test stand. Their military jet engines last a few hundred hours where western designs last 1500-3000 hours. Mexico has a higher standard of living than Russia and has a real manufacturing sector making cars and consumer electronics people want to buy.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

The US for one. Canada. Most of Europe before WWII. Export driven economic growth is a post WWII phenomena. Before WWII transportation costs and high tariffs made exporting expensive. It was the reforms initiated by the Allies during the closing days of WWII beginning with the Bretton Woods Agreement, done to prevent a recurrence of the beggar thy neighbor trade polices that laid the groundwork for WWII, along with the generosity of the Marshall Plan that allowed Germany and Japan in particular to grow their war ravaged economies through exporting their goods around the world. Low transportation costs and low tariffs accelerated the ability of manufacturing nations to export and made resource prices more or less the same around the world.

The Soviet Union, as well. Both superpowers are the global exception because they held all of the world's natural resources, powerful military and core science/technologies. Both nations can utterly dominate the world if they ever cooperated.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

"Overview of the Economy of Japan

The Japanese fiscal year starts on April 1st through to March 31st of the following year. Japan has a nominal GDP of $5.18 trillion according to the International Monetary Fund. The GDP per capita is $39,286. The largest industries are agriculture and fishing, manufacturing, and tourism among others. Japan's GDP per sector is as follows: services 71.4%, industry 27.5%, and agriculture 1.2%. 0.2% of the population of Japan lives under the poverty line of under $1.90 a day. The unemployment rate is 2.90%. "

"services 71.4%, "

"industry 27.5%"

"https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-economy-of-japan.html#:~:text=Japan%20has%20a%20nominal%20GDP,to%20the%20International%20Monetary%20Fund.&text=Japan's%20GDP%20per%20sector%20is,The%20unemployment%20rate%20is%202.90%25."

"Japan is NOT at all an export-reliant economy. It's less than 20% of the whole GDP as most goods and services are produced and consumed domestically."

You are 1000% correct; please disregards other "experts" trying to reinvent the wheel.

The issue is not "cite an economy that did not built itself on exports".

Such a nice attempt at obfuscation!

It's Japan's economy 2020 breakdown , not Japan economy 1960's.

Chenqui.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Look how Fugly those cars are and one doesn't doubt that Japan's exports are down. In the past six or eight years Japan's cars look like they were drawn by a hyperactive fourth grader who didn't get his Ritalin that morning. Then you have companies like Panasonic and Sharp who have stopped making some consumer products in Japan and moved production to China. Now their products are China's exports and their value is recorded in China's GDP instead of Japan's. My wife adores Japanese market Panasonic vacuums but now they are all made in China.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

name me one 1st world economy that didnt build itself on exports

The US for one. Canada. Most of Europe before WWII. Export driven economic growth is a post WWII phenomena. Before WWII transportation costs and high tariffs made exporting expensive. It was the reforms initiated by the Allies during the closing days of WWII beginning with the Bretton Woods Agreement, done to prevent a recurrence of the beggar thy neighbor trade polices that laid the groundwork for WWII, along with the generosity of the Marshall Plan that allowed Germany and Japan in particular to grow their war ravaged economies through exporting their goods around the world. Low transportation costs and low tariffs accelerated the ability of manufacturing nations to export and made resource prices more or less the same around the world.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Japan is very much dependent on "foreign money".

The export numbers may appear low because of technical reasons and /or interpretation.

If you have a Japanese owned factory in Country X. The product will be branded JapoProd Made in X. The profits will come to Japan but the export statistics will stay in X.

Japan is a manufacturing economy and as such heavily depends on what gets sold outside Japan.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

name me one 1st world economy that didnt build itself on exports

I'd say that many 1st world economies (especially in Europe) built their economies on imports from conquered lands. These days, it's difficult to compare countries' reliance on trade because of differences in size. A bigger country (e.g. the USA) will have more internal trade than a smaller country (e.g. the Netherlands) so numbers will generally show smaller, developed countries having a bigger reliance on trade. (e.g. USA 26% of GDP, Netherlands 150% of GDP). As noriahojanen said, Japan's dependency on external trade is quite low compared to many other developed countries. (31% of GDP)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_trade-to-GDP_ratio

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"Are you suggesting Singapore is past its heydays?"

We can debate on that if the mods don't think that this subject is off-topic.

The export boom that powered Singapore's growth in the 1980's and 90's is long over since other Asian countries have replaced the original 4 Asian tigers. Singapore retained it's status as ASEAN's financial center over the past decade but now that they have turned inward due to backlash from locals about influx of foreigners I will say that yes, Singapore is past its heydays.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

"name me one 1st world economy that didnt build itself on exports

Singapore.

Wrong. Singapore was a major exporter of electronics, machinery equipments, chemicals and refined petroleum products during its heydays.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Japan is NOT at all an export-reliant economy. It's less than 20% of the whole GDP as most goods and services are produced and consumed domestically.

name me one 1st world economy that didnt build itself on exports

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Japan’s export-reliant economy has sunk into recession, with three straight quarters of contraction, through June, as the outbreak slammed business activity and deadened trade.

Japan is NOT at all an export-reliant economy. It's less than 20% of the whole GDP as most goods and services are produced and consumed domestically.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Still negative. Rebound is when figures will be up.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

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