Originally posted by oxford mushroom:
Why do you think the Japanese economy has been in the doldrums for
so long? Read this:
"Construction workers, with their traditional baggy trousers and
cloth split-toed shoes, look increasingly anomalous in contemporary
Japan. But there are still a lot of them more than you'd think.
[b]The construction industry employs 10% of Japan's workforce,
twice the proportion in the U.S. And even though the
construction market has shrunk since the peak of the speculative
"Bubble Economy" of the late 1980s, the number of construction
workers has gone up, to around 6.5 million recently compared with
5.9 million in 1990.
Why? Since the bubble burst, Tokyo's primary weapon to spur the
economy has been round after round of public works spending. "After
the bubble, Japan should have been scaling down this sector, but
because of the stimulus packages, this sector kept growing," says
political analyst Okazaki Shigenori of UBS Warburg Securities in
Tokyo. "These people had to be kept employed, so they kept pouring
money into public works."
They have to be kept employed for two reasons. One, there
are a lot of them, and Japan has a skimpy social safety net for the
jobless. Two, the construction industry
lies at the center of the LDP's political power
base. "We have to depend on the power of
politicians to win contracts for public works projects," an
executive of the Japan Federation of Construc-tion Contractors
recently told the Japan Times. "So we
have supported [LDP members'] election campaigns."
......This symbiotic relationship carries two major demerits. Since
these industries never faced unbridled market forces, they
are inefficient and falling further behind. In the 18 years to
1998, Japanese manufacturers raised their productivity 69%, while
cutting costs 3.4%, says economist Murakami Naoki of BNP Paribas in
Tokyo. But the construction industry raised its productivity just
7%, with costs rising 61%. "Productivity did not improve
much in highly regulated industries such as construction, property
and services," Murakami says. And that increases costs for the
whole economy."
Japan is desperately trying to change these errant policies but it
has been very difficult so far. As the President said in his
speech, we must avoid the mistake of
welfarism as practised in some countries.
(http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/magazine/nations/0,8782,101784,00.html)
[/b]
This is sheer idiocy in linking
POLITICAL PORKBARREL
BENEFITS to a selected sector of supporting
electorate with WELFARISM for the
larger society.
Is POLITICAL WELFARISM to
a political support base equate to SOCIAL WELFARISM to the larger
community ?
Can the Japanese Economic Doldrum be so simplistically blamed on
the continuous PUBLIC
WORKS sector to support a small group of POLITICAL
SUPPORTERS to the LDP ?
It was recognised by many that the Japanese economic sufferings was
due to its stubborn resistance to change - in its form and
structure in the manner in which Government and Private Sector have
been organised to meet with the global challenges that has
continuously outstripped development in Japan.
From the following paper
"The History and Future of Japanese Management" - it has
revealed the historical philosophy of Japanese Corporation in the
manner it relates its profit making objectives with its own
responsibility towards society.
This guiding principle has solidly provided them the foundation of
a structured and disciplined manner of conducting relationship
between the organisation with external supporting organisations,
between the management and its work force, between the corporation
and its social responsibility to job creation, social stability,
social wealth, and to the environment.
The Japanese had been bogged down by such principles which
prevented them from restructuring their workforce by mass
retrenchments - not only in the construction sector, but also in
the white and blue collar administrative and manufacturing
sectors.
The sybiotic relationships between corporations and financial
sectors had raised many questions that resulted in financial crisis
that finally required the Japanese Government to use the reserves
to bail out large Japanese banks, which would otherwise have
sunk.
The Japanese have shown that restructuring without pain, and with
caring social resposibility towards its Citizens can work, as can
be seen with the minimal lay off and a wide social security net to
support those who have been most affected.
Can the Singapore Government learn from the Japanese Government
about POSITIVE SOCIAL
SUPPORT and not simply depend on the worn out slogan of
WELFARISM IS EVIL ?
It is sheer idiocy when a PhD can simply jump on the bandwagon
without any critical analytical thinking of the issues, and help to
propagate to strengthen a false social and political premise.
