In today's South China Morning Post, Heizo Takenawa writes that "Japan struggles on while China surges". (I copy the whole article below, as you can only get it from the Post if you're registered with them).
The above picture, btw, is a ramen noodle wine bath, which would seem to cover both the experiences related below....
This reminded me of a little contrast in Japan vs. China we had a few years ago. We were in Niseko, Japan's premier ski resort in March '04. One night we were dining at a local Japanese restaurant and wanted our usual couple of bottles of white for the four adults. "Sorry we don't have", was the response. "Oh", says I, "what about going across the street and buying a couple of bottles from the supermarket there, bring it back, charge us double and make us all happy". "We cannot do that", says the waitress. I explain again in simpler terms making sure that it was not a case of not having understood. "Sorry, we cannot do that", she repeats. "How about", says I, "I go over the street, buy two bottles of wine, bring them back and you charge us a fee for having them at the table?". "We cannot do that", she says again.
"Why not?" says I in frustration. "Because it is not the Japanese way", she says.
Hmmm..... the "Japanese way"....
We were fuming over this, when we noticed that the waitpersons were whispering to each other and glancing at us. Perhaps they've reconsidered "the Japanese way", we thought. One of them came over and asked Ray and me, "are you the actors in Hana Yori Dango?". "That's us", say Ray and I. (not having a clue of course what they were talking about -- only later we find out that it was a popular Japanese soap opera with a couple of middle-aged westerners as key secondary characters.) "Ah So!", say the girls, excited now, "would you give us your autographs?'.
"Why sure, of course we will -- if you get us some wine!".
Short shrift and the wine on table, payed for by our unintelligible squiggles in their day books.
But, here's the thing: had we not been mistaken for a couple of aging thespians, we wouldn't have got our wine. Because "it's not the Japanese way."
It's not the Japanese way, in short, to show any initiative in customer service. And that's something that one finds and reads about and hears about in Japan as a whole, that the service industry is light years behind that in the west, and indeed in China.
For in China, we had the opposite experience, a few short weeks later. We were in Shanghai for a birthday part of "M on the Bund", Michele Garnaut's famous restaurant on the top floor of No. 5 the Bund -- a fabulous party, by the way, on the theme of "Pink", for which I had had made a pale pink cashmere/silk/wool suit -- a gorgeous suit -- pink shirt and tie, pink sued shoes and pink socks, thus winning the men's section of the "most pink" for the night.
Anyway, later that night we found ourselves having a nightcap in a tiny bar on Huashan Lu, in the old French Quarter. It was about 3 in the morning. We got our drink, no problem and then felt a bit peckish and asked if they had something to eat. "No, we don't", said the young lady, "but I can get you some noodles if you like". "That'd be great", we said. She phone a friend of hers and in about 20 minutes someone turned up on a bicycle with some piping hot Dan-dan noodles in a tin carry pan.
That folks is why "Japan struggles on, while China surges"...
Japan struggles on while China surges
By Heizo Takenaka (minister of economics under prime minister Junichiro Koizumi; he is currently director of the Global Security Research Institute at Keio University, Tokyo)
In today's Asia there are two economic powers of global standing, Japan and China. But the balance of economic power between the two is changing, and fast. Sometime this year, China's gross domestic product will exceed that of Japan (if it has not already done so). China's economic footprint, moreover, is spreading rapidly across Asia and the rest of the world.
In today's Asia there are two economic powers of global standing, Japan and China. But the balance of economic power between the two is changing, and fast. Sometime this year, China's gross domestic product will exceed that of Japan (if it has not already done so). China's economic footprint, moreover, is spreading rapidly across Asia and the rest of the world.
Most Asian countries are recovering strongly from the global recession. The only exception is Japan, where a lack of political leadership and a limited knowledge of basic economics among government ministers undermine mid-term growth prospects.
As for China, three important changes there hold geopolitical implications for the region and the world. China's pattern of economic growth, until now largely reliant on the inputs of labour, capital and energy, is increasingly being driven by technological progress - like other industrialised economies. Second, the yuan is expected to appreciate substantially in the coming years.
A third dramatic change is a demographic shift reflecting the effects of its one-child policy. As the working-age population starts declining by the mid-2010s, economic growth will slow and China's domestic problems, such as income inequality, will worsen. So the looming leadership transition - President Hu Jintao will step down in 2013 - will be a challenging period for China and the world.
Meanwhile, Japan is still struggling. The country desperately requires strong political leadership, to prevent a Greek scenario, that it is unlikely to find. The cabinet of former prime minister Yukio Hatoyama ignored macroeconomic management, focusing instead on increasing spending: as a result, the debt-to-GDP ratio is 190 per cent, compared to 120 per cent in Greece.
Japan's ageing society means household savings will decline dramatically, making it difficult for the private sector to finance annual budget deficits with government bonds. Pension and health-care costs will rise; sooner or later, a tax hike will be necessary.
Yet a tax hike without comprehensive reform under strong political leadership cannot solve Japan's problems. The impact of a fiscal crisis in Japan would make Greece's troubles look like a walk in the park. Greece's share is 3 per cent of the European Union's GDP. Japan's is about one-third of Asia's and 8 per cent of the world's.
So the future in Asia now appears to belong to China, whose mercantilism is prevailing in the region. In order to compete with China's export-boosting public-private schemes, other Asian countries are pursuing similar policies.
In some cases, this will harm free trade, and governments should be careful to avoid measures that distort resource allocation.
The world's expectations for responsible economic management by the governments of both China and Japan - and thus the need for it - are growing by the day.
