China Now Has Company In Showing Japan Who’s Boss

China Now Has Company In Showing Japan Who’s Boss

Fumio Kishida attends a debate ahead of the Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) leadership election on ... [+] September 12, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan. Japan has never quite gotten over 2010. That's when an economy that had for decades been Asia's biggest suddenly became No. 2. The Japan Center for Economic Research, or JCER, thinks South Korea will top Japanese gross domestic product in per capita terms by 2027 and Taiwan by 2028. Atsushi Tomiyama, the think tank's top researcher, cites Japan's low birthrate, aging population, weak productivity and slow embrace of digitalization as the key headwinds holding the $5 trillion economy back. Yet there could be a silver lining in all this: it could catalyze Japan into action to raise its economic game to preserve its lead. Granted, many hoped being surpassed by China in 2010 would be the wake up called Tokyo needed. Sadly, it wasn't. Abe secured power by pledging a supply-side reform revolution to modernize labor markets, boost innovation and productivity and cut bureaucracy. Instead, he outsourced the job to the Bank of Japan, prodding the central bank to boost growth. When Abe did put on his reformer's hat it was to enrich wealthy owners of stocks