News GDP per capita: S. Korea, Taiwan to overtake Japan soon

[thomas]

According to the Japan Center for Economic Research, South Korea and Japan will overtake Japan in terms of GDP per capita in 2027/2028 due to higher productivity and efforts for digitalization.

[...] citing long-term low productivity on the back of slow progress in digitalization of the world's third-largest economy. The inflation-unadjusted nominal GDP — the total value of goods and services produced in the nation, per person — is projected to be $46,519 in South Korea in 2027 and $47,305 in Taiwan in 2028, compared to the $45,607 and $46,443 forecast for Japan in the respective years, according to estimates released last month by the Japan Center for Economic Research or JCER. "The biggest obstacle for Japan's economic growth is its low birthrate and aging population, but South Korea and Taiwan are in much the same case on that point, so the difference comes from their productivity and efforts for digitalization," said Atsushi Tomiyama, a principal economist at the research institute.

Japan's growth rate from 2021 through 2035 is forecast at 2.0% on average each year, lower than the 4.1% for South Korea and 4.2% for Taiwan, according to the projection that covered 15 Asian nations along with the United States, Canada and Australia. GDP per capita, an indicator of individual wealth, in 2020 came to $39,890 in Japan, $31,954 in South Korea and $28,054 in Taiwan, the research body said. Tomiyama told a recent online interview with Kyodo News that tech giants such as Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. of Taiwan are serving as a driving force for growth.

South Korea and Taiwan expected to top Japan in GDP per capita in 2027 and 2028

South Korea and Taiwan are likely to outstrip Japan in terms of gross domestic product per capita in a couple of years due to higher productivity and efforts for digitalization.

www.japantimes.co.jp

 

[Lothor]

According to the Japan Center for Economic Research, South Korea and Japan will overtake Japan in terms of GDP per capita in 2027/2028 due to higher productivity and efforts for digitalization.

South Korea and Taiwan expected to top Japan in GDP per capita in 2027 and 2028

South Korea and Taiwan are likely to outstrip Japan in terms of gross domestic product per capita in a couple of years due to higher productivity and efforts for digitalization.

www.japantimes.co.jp

This does not surprise me at all. Every modest change that is proposed in Japan, such as reducing the dependence on inkan or ending the use of fax machines, seems to be met with implacable resistance from people with vested interests.

 

[thomas]

I knew all's lost when they threw out Mr Kono last year. He was a voice of reason with a clear aim to modernise the country. His being "too revolutionary" is all you need to know. When even young voters support the status quo because "it's safer" what can you expect?

 

[bentenmusume]

Not to dispute anything that the both of you are saying (I basically agree, except I'm not really all that fond of Kono Taro, who always strikes me as more talk than actual action), but I find it hard to really care about figures like this.

Whether or not any individual in Japan (or any country) can find happiness has to do a lot more with how they live their own life than with abstract figures like GDP per capita. My home country (the U.S.) ranks higher than any of these countries, and plenty of people live absolutely miserable lives there.

So while it'd be nice to see Japan become more progressive, etc., for the sake of its own future, I hardly see dropping a place or two in this ranking as a portent of gloom and doom, or really as anything more than a bit of economic trivia.

 

[Lothor]

I've no arguments with your point, and GDP certainly has its flaws as a measurement of quality of life. However, some of the more enlightened countries with a high GDP per person and relatively equal income distributions are seriously looking at the idea of a four-day week, which definitely would increase happiness. So, increasing GDP per head can be a good thing, provided the benefit of the citizens is at the heart of policies.

 

[johnnyG]

Altho japan's replacement rate is low, I think korea, taiwan, and china are even lower, and there are all kinds of chart/graphs/predictions about how that will affect these economies ~10-30 years out. The writing hand, having writ, moves on, and all that.

And I'd second the point @bentenmusume makes about happiness/satisfaction.

 

[thomas]

I couldn't agree more with everything stated in this thread. Though I am not sure how well Japan does in the GNH index, happiness is, of course, not entirely related to GDP per capita. Besides, the article never made that claim but just hinted at the fact that Japan might fall behind in terms of productivity and economic competitiveness.

Also, as not to create a wrong impression, I'm not a Taro Kono fanboy. What I saw in him was a rare tech-savvy politician rooted in the present, with an air of progressiveness, with visions of modernising the country and the willingness to challenge the political establishment and think out of the box. Perhaps he was all talk, but aren't they all? The lesson learned: challenging the status quo will relegate you to 窓際.

 

[johnnyG]

Looks like Musk is worried that this will foil his Mars dreams:

Elon Musk laments the declining birth rate: 'If there aren't enough people for Earth, then there definitely won't be enough for Mars'

The SpaceX founder and CEO has said the company will land humans on Mars in five to 10 years.

news.yahoo.com

 

[salyavin]

I had heard there was a shortage on Mars.

 

[日本語 Class]

Looks like Musk is worried that this will foil his Mars dreams:

Elon Musk laments the declining birth rate: 'If there aren't enough people for Earth, then there definitely won't be enough for Mars'

The SpaceX founder and CEO has said the company will land humans on Mars in five to 10 years.

news.yahoo.com

If his concern is 10 years then he could look at India, and also South East Asia and Africa, if there is something that is NOT falling so soon in these places is birth rate.......