Let's make a few more small talks

Two days ago, I mentioned in the chapter that Japanese companies are still very strong, and I don't want to deny his opinion, I also believe that his impression of Japanese companies has its roots and is based on facts. I'm just trying to put my point of view on a holistic basis.

I believe that in the last 20 years, although Japan has maintained a world leader in some technological fields, it has declined very badly overall.

I speak with data and phenomena.

Twenty years ago, in 1998.

Japan's GDP is $4.03 trillion, while China's is $1.03 trillion. China's economy is a quarter of Japan's and the seventh largest in the world. Japan has long been ranked second in the world economy.

In the two decades since, China's GDP has soared, reaching $6.1 trillion in 2010, surpassing Japan's $5.7 trillion and becoming the world's second largest after the United States.

By last year's 2017 GDP ranking, the United States was $19.5 trillion, China was $13.1 trillion, and Japan was $4.3 trillion.

The ranking has not changed, and China is already three times that of Japan. The most surprising thing is that while everyone else is increasing, Japan is decreasing. In fact, Japan's GDP peaked at $6.2 trillion in 2012 during the past two decades, and since then it has been up and down. The general trend is to stumble and fall,

Over the past two decades, GDP has tripled in the United States, 1.5 times in Germany, 20 times in the UK, 1.6 times in France, and 4 times in South Korea. Even Russia, which has fallen into bad luck, has increased by 4.8 times, and India has managed to include cow dung, which has increased by 6.5 times.

Needless to say, China has increased thirteenfold.

Among the economic powers, only Japan is falling.

If inflation is taken into account, Japan's economy has regressed sharply.

In addition to GDP, let's talk about social phenomena.

Twenty years ago, there were a large number of Japanese home appliances in the Chinese market. Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi, Canon, Sanyo, Nikon, Ricoh, etc., etc., now these brands are gone. All of them were replaced by domestic products.

Many Japanese companies can no longer make the whole machine, so they can only make the parts in the whole machine. Although the quality of its parts is very good, the profits in it are very different.

I'm sure many people will say that Japan is still leading in many aspects of materials, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and automobiles. But have you ever wondered if these Japanese industries will disappear in the Chinese market like Japanese home appliances in another ten years?

A certain Japanese company, a certain line of Japanese companies, is very good, but it cannot hide the decline of Japan as a whole.

Has Japan developed any new industries in the past two decades? It's been eating its old book.

In my last book, I often joked that Russia has eaten the old Soviet book for more than 20 years, and finally ate itself into a large Saudi Arabia with nuclear weapons that lives by selling resources.

It is not denied that Japan still has strong strength in many aspects, after all, it is the third in the world, and Germany, which ranks fourth, is still far behind it. But in the face of China's all-round competition, the United States is nervous and wants to suppress it desperately.

In another ten years, we'll look back!