1/13/2024 0 Comments Cutting edge vs bleeding edge![]() Even now, after the yen has lost a brutal 30% against the dollar since January 2021, Tokyo-based finance executives told Breakingviews on a recent visit that the currency discount is still not attractive enough to convince local companies to put their extra cash to work at home.Īn IMF study shows Japan’s labour productivity, at roughly $40 of GDP per hour worked in 2019, has been the lowest of the G7 countries since 1989. The reasons are mostly social: the cult of workaholism that leads Japanese employees to stay in the office even when they have nothing to do, for example. Decades of economic stagnation have trained the private sector to avoid investing inside Japan. However, the blunting of Japan is due more to its failure to deploy existing tools and best practices than invent new ones. Tokyo has also rolled out incentives for local companies in strategic sectors to re-shore China-based manufacturing operations. Industrial robotics champions like Fanuc (6954.T) may be next to feel Chinese pressure. The result has been the erosion of Japanese competitiveness in industries it once dominated: shipping, semiconductors, and electric vehicles. Japanese patent output has flattened out even as Chinese champions like Huawei file manically away. The People’s Republic overtook Japan in terms of intellectual property exports over a decade ago. In the United States nearly a third of venture capital came from pensions whereas in Japan it is only 3%, according to a Nikkei report.Īnother factor is anxiety about the competitive threat from China. That has meant pushing the $1.3 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund to get involved funding startups while removing policy bottlenecks. "We believe that instead of interfering in monetary policy, the government should focus on ways to spur innovation that create wealth," said then-Economy Minister Daishiro Yamagiwa in January. In solving it, the government hopes to find an alternative to the ultra-low interest rates Kishida’s predecessor Shinzo Abe rolled out to push growth, a strategy that is losing traction as global inflation rises. There’s no question that flagging innovation is a problem in Japan. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida says he will put innovation and scientific research at the “centre” of his policy push. HONG KONG, Nov 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - With growth slowing, demographics depressed and the trade balance in deep deficit, Tokyo wants to incubate startups and put more state money into cutting-edge sectors like semiconductors and next-generation telecommunications.
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