Some Famously Efficient Japanese Manufacturers Are Now Lying to Compete

[313ghazi]

I wonder if you wrote this article by yourself? It's a very well written. I can say I 100% agree.

Actually South Korea and Japan have a huge advantage as being China neighbor and have the same culture.



Today Japan is similar to China during Qing dynasty 18th century.

It's a basically a perfect society, but lack of future dream.

Despite I highly look over Confucianism, but Confucianism have a great disadvantaged. And it's awaken China eyes by European advancement.

Although I'm not sure too whatever China will overcome Japan current problem, which is China will be in the near future. After China reach the level of a perfect society, Chinese people need another dream and a kind of futuristic fantasy like USA with tommorowland and star wars.

Whatever happened to the rest of the world, China will keep advancing and focus and keep aiming higher.

all civilisations have peaks and troughs. The aim should not be to always be number 1, but to always have what you need. That is the baseline, after that aiming for number 1 is the next logical step, but the baseline of necessity should ever be compromised to get to number 1.

 

[TaiShang]

Japan's scandal-hit state-backed Shoko Chukin Bank's dodgy loans totaled 2.3 bln USD
Xinhua, October 25, 2017

TOKYO, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- The scandal-hit Japanese government-backed Shoko Chukin Bank said Wednesday that an internal probe had revealed the lender had issued dodgy loans to 265 billion yen (2.3 billion U.S. dollars).

The bank's President Kenyu Adachi told a press briefing that he would step down "at an appropriate time" as the bank's chief to take responsibility for the wide-reaching scandal.

The scandal also includes more than 400 employees of Shoko Chukin's Japan-based offices being involved in 4,609 counts of malpractice.

The malpractice included the fabricating of documentation so that loans could be made to small and medium-sized companies.

The bank was found to have approved low-interest loans to firms that did not fulfill the criteria to provide them with aid in the wake of natural or financial disasters.

The scheme, which was put into place by the government, was found to have been abused by Shoko Chukin Bank since 2008, with such financing accounting for more than 30 percent of the bank's outstanding loans.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, on Wednesday, issued its second business improvement order since May to the scandal-mired bank.

Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko and other senior officials at the ministry will return part or all of their salaries for the past two months to account for their lapses in overseeing the bank, Kyodo News reported.

The bank's past and present executives, including its president, who allowed the improprieties to happen will also be fined

***

Japanese companies are dying dinosaurs.

Japan has a serious problem.

Japan does not have the scale to compete against rival huge Chinese companies. Chinese companies benefit from having a massive domestic market to achieve enormous economies of scale.

Chinese companies earn huge industrial profits to pay for the most modern equipment. Japanese competitors cannot keep up with Chinese quality.

Japanese companies have resorted to outright lying to counter China's massive-scale quantitative advantage and superior Chinese qualitative manufacturing equipment.

How do you solve this long-term problem where China has all of the manufacturing advantages? The most logical response is to emulate Taiwan. Taiwan has adopted a strategy of economic synergy with mainland China.

Simply move high-cost production from Taiwan to mainland China. This way, Taiwanese companies still reap the profits of manufacturing on the mainland. Taiwan retains the design and sales jobs. A partial Taiwanese win is better than outright Japanese lying, which leads to Japanese bankruptcy.

So, why haven't Japanese companies adopted the Taiwanese model? Japan has an ossified cultural system. The Japanese seem incapable of adapting. Like dinosaurs, Japanese companies are dying one by one. The other reason is probably pride. The Japanese would rather go out of business than depend on mainland China for manufacturing survival.

I still sincerely wish Japan will be able to overcome this. In the end, it is China's historical neighbour and cultural off-shoot. Creating a greater Northeast Asian synergy would generate an unstoppable economic-innovation powerhouse. Only Greater China, Japan, and Korea's combined GDP would amount to 20 trillion USD. Japan's accumulated innovation and China's logistics, scale and depth would lead a super sub-region in Northeast Asia.

 

[Martian2]

I wonder if you wrote this article by yourself? It's a very well written. I can say I 100% agree.

Actually South Korea and Japan have a huge advantage as being China neighbor and have the same culture.



Today Japan is similar to China during Qing dynasty 18th century.

It's a basically a perfect society, but lack of future dream.

Despite I highly look over Confucianism, but Confucianism have a great disadvantaged. And it's awaken China eyes by European advancement.

Although I'm not sure too whatever China will overcome Japan current problem, which is China will be in the near future. After China reach the level of a perfect society, Chinese people need another dream and a kind of futuristic fantasy like USA with tommorowland and star wars.

Whatever happened to the rest of the world, China will keep advancing and focus and keep aiming higher.

Yes, I write posts with my own insights.

I present my point of view and leave it to the reader to agree/disagree with me.

My posts contain a fundamental question: Am I right?

Japan had an easy time in the 1980s, because mainland China wan't prepared to compete economically internationally at full strength.

It's 2017. China's economic machine is in full swing. China is the world's largest exporter with US$2 trillion in exports.

Now, this is much harder for Japan. Japan is disadvantaged in economic scale. Japan exported only US$644 billion in 2016 (Japan: Export of goods from 2006 to 2016 (in billion U.S. dollars) | Statista).

China's annual merchandise trade surplus is about US$500 billion. In contrast, Japan's merchandise trade surplus was only US$36 billion in 2016.

China is outgunning Japan in every significant export category, except for cars. With the transition to electric cars in the near future by 2025, Japan's last stronghold in exporting cars may not extend into the future.

Taiwan and China accomplished the difficult task of climbing the technological ladder and prospering economically when they were the weaker parties.

Now, the tables have flipped. Japan has a really difficult problem. How do you fundamentally challenge an economic and technological behemoth like China?

China's technological progress has extended to civilian aircraft. The Chinese COMAC ARJ-21 and C919 are guaranteed successes. China's huge domestic market will buy hundreds or thousands of COMAC's airliners. In contrast, the Japanese Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) cannot survive on Japanese orders alone. Where will the Japanese find buyers for their MRJ?

Boeing defends its home turf in the United States. Airbus has the majority of European aircraft sales. China's COMAC will depend on the home Chinese market to support future airliner models and upgrades. Where will Japan find the buyers for its MRJ airliner?

The Russians are smart and partnered with China to share in the joint production of COMAC's C929 wide-body passenger jet. "Russia will build the aircraft's composite wings, engine pylons, and main landing gear."

The Japanese have no partners and can't go it alone. This shows the failure of the Japanese government. Japan does not have a viable plan to survive in a world of economic giants (e.g. China, US, and EU).

The core problem goes beyond individual Japanese companies. There is a systemic challenge that will continue to place enormous pressure on Japanese companies' ability to compete.

Japanese companies are too small, don't earn enough profits, and being out-teched by gigantic mainland Chinese competitors. The US subsidizes Boeing (including military contracts), Intel (contracts to build supercomputers), and others through government contracts. Europe directly subsidizes Airbus. China is subsidizing COMAC, which is allowed under WTO rules because China is a developing nation.

Japan can't play the subsidy game, because its home market is too small and the Japanese government is broke.

Trying to fix one or two Japanese companies won't do any good. The problem is systemic. The Russians have looked at this systemic problem and decided their future is partnership with China. The US does not need or want partnerships with Japanese companies. Remember Trump's "America First." Until Japan comes up with a strategy to survive in our currently ultra-competitive world, more Japanese companies will succumb to ferocious Chinese competition.