In the last 30 years of the 20th century, no one should object to the idea that Japan was the global technology hegemon, right? From 1955 to 1973, Japan's economy grew at a high rate, making it the world's second-largest economy after the United States. As early as 1973, Japan's steel, automobiles and home appliances and other products have entered the world's first-class level, "Made in Japan" has long been popular around the world.
Since 1976, Japan has raised a lot of money to support the development of the country's chip industry. By 1978, Japan accounted for 46% of the global semiconductor market, almost sitting on the "half of the global semiconductor market", the share far exceeded the 30% of the United States, leading the world in the field of high technology.
If that's not enough to prove how powerful Japan's technological power is, look at the U.S. response. As the world's largest economy, the United States has long felt the threat of Japan in the field of high-end science and technology, so it also began to suppress Japanese products during this period, and has passed a number of agreements such as the "U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Treaty" and the "Japan-U.S. Semiconductor Guarantee Agreement", and finally dragged Japan off the throne of global science and technology hegemony.
Today, although the Field of Science and Technology in Japan continues to decline, it still holds a large number of high-end technologies, which shows that the strength of Japanese industry cannot be underestimated. However, as a former technology hegemon, Japan is now beginning to worry about the country's supply chain risks.
Recently, the Japanese government said in a recent report that of all Japanese imports, products from China account for a significantly higher proportion than other major economies, which may pose greater risks to the country's supply chain.
According to the country's official report, as Japan's largest trading partner, Chinese products accounted for 23.3% of Japanese imports in 2019, much higher than the United States, which accounted for 18.1%, and Germany, which accounted for 8.5%. Note that this is still in 2019, affected by the epidemic, the share of Chinese products in the Japanese market is likely to increase in these two years.
What worries Japanese officials the most is that the market share of electronic technology products from China in Japan has been too large to be ignored. The data shows that the market share of Chinese mobile phones in Japan in 2019 was as high as 85.7%, compared with less than 70% 10 years ago.
This is not the product that Japan relies on for China's supply the most, the data shows that Chinese tablets and laptops have almost swept the entire Japanese market, accounting for 98.8% of Japanese imports, leaving little market share for other economies.
The share of Chinese products in the Japanese market has caused concern in Japan. The country said that if China's exports to Japan are interrupted due to supply shocks or freight delays, it is difficult for Japan to find new sources of supply in a short period of time, which will inevitably have a huge impact on the country's economy.
In fact, as the world's largest economy, the United States is also largely dependent on Mexico and Canada for supply, while Germany is also very dependent on the European Union. In other words, these countries are too dependent on a single region for supplies and are likely to face the same risks.
Nevertheless, whether it is Japan or virtue, it is difficult to get out of the status quo. As a former technology overlord, Japan may not have dreamed that one day the country would be worried because it was too dependent on other countries to supply technology products. Finally, do you think there is any justification for Japan's concerns?
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