1 Briefing on Japanese Economy and Business The 7th Biennial International Business Institute For Community College Faculty Toshikata Amino Visiting Professor Kansai University of International Studies, Japan

2 Current Status of Japanese Economy Assessment of the current state of the Japanese economy (Japanese Government April 07) The economy is recovering, despite weakness in industrial production in some sectors. Corporate profits are improving and business investment is increasing. The employment situation is improving on a broader basis, though some severe aspects remain. Private consumption is showing a pickup. Exports have been flat and industrial production flattened recently.

3 Japanese Government ’ s Official Economic Report Two Years Ago (April 05) 1Corporate profit is increasing and also investment is slowly increasing 2Consumer expenditure is improving 3Unemployment ratio is still a concern however we see a sign of improvement 4Export is weak and domestic production is not increasing

4 Trend of GDP

5 Bank of Japan predicts

6 Unemployment Rate Getting better but still high for young people

7 Still High Numbers of Unemployment for Young People

8 Bankruptcies-Decreasing

9 In the past strong Yen made Japanese Manufacturers difficult to export

10 Current Weak Japanese Yen $1 = \119

11 Export from Japan Increasing

12 Export and Import To which country and from where

13 Long term interest U.S. & Japan

14 Consumer Price Index

15 Decreasing Population

16 Number of New babies and Birth Rate

17 Ageing Japan

18 Japan is the fastest growing aging country Life Expectancy

19 Increasing National Expenditures for Medical Cost

20 National Medical Cost Comparison

21 Some Impacts of “Less Young People and More Elders” Beer Consumption

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23 Car Retention

24 College Graduation

25 Decreasing Labor Forces

26 Foreign Labor Forces

27 Many College Graduates Leave Their First Employers Sooner

28 Gini coefficient Country Comparison

29 Gini Coeficient wikipedia The Gini coefficient is a measure of inequality of a distribution. It is defined as a ratio with values between 0 and 1: the numerator is the area between the Lorenz curve of the distribution and the uniform (perfect) distribution line; the denominator is the area under the uniform distribution line. It was developed by the Italian statistician Corrado Gini and published in his 1912 paper "Variabilità e mutabilità" ("Variability and Mutability"). The Gini index is the Gini coefficient expressed as a percentage, and is equal to the Gini coefficient multiplied by 100. (The Gini coefficient is equal to half of the relative mean difference.)ratioLorenz curveItalianstatistician Corrado Gini1912percentagerelative mean difference The Gini coefficient is often used as an income inequality metric. (See that article for discussion of the socialincome inequality metric

30 Non-formal employees Part-timers, contracted workers etc

31 Inequality of Distribution Japanese viewpoint 1 It is natural 2 It is natural but I dislike 3 It is a problem but not big one 4 It is urgent matter to be fixed 5 Others

32 Traditional Japanese Business Practices Lifetime employment Ranking by seniority Company union How are they changing?

33 Lifetime employment How newly hired young Japanese think?

34 Lifetime employment Japanese companies’ viewpint

35 How long people work for one company in their life (1993)

36 Ranking by seniority or by performance Newly hired employees ’ viewpoint

37 Company Union

38 Thank you for your listening Questions, Please.