Recently, the performance of Japan's economy has drawn international attention, and many have begun to wonder whether the country, once considered a safe haven, can maintain stable growth.
However, the facts are disappointing.
The first is that the strength of the dollar and the Japanese government's policy of depreciation have caused a series of problems.
In dollar terms, Japan's GDP has returned to the level of 30 years ago, about the same as after the collapse of the bubble economy.
If the exchange rate of 1 dollar to 140 yen continues until the end of the year, Japan's nominal GDP will fall below $4 trillion for the first time in 2022.
What is more serious is that under the current exchange rate, Japan's wage level has lagged behind South Korea's.
This is a huge blow to the general population.
They face not only the rising cost of living, but also the decline in the competitiveness of the export industry.
The rise in global energy prices has also placed a heavy burden on Japan, the world's largest energy importer.
While the WTI crude oil futures index rose 13 percent at the end of last year, the yen-denominated futures index rose 33 percent.
This is undoubtedly an additional expense for countries that are completely dependent on energy imports.
It not only increases the cost of living for the Japanese people, but also weakens the competitiveness of its export industry.
At the same time, with the downward trend of the global economy and the competition of major economies for currency depreciation,
As a typical "import processing export" economy, Japan has run a trade deficit for 12 consecutive months.
This has caused serious distress to the Japanese economy.
The competition between the two major economies in the field of new energy vehicles has also put pressure on the proud Japanese auto manufacturing industry.
Both China and the United States are actively developing new energy vehicle technology.
It also drives market share growth and competes fiercely with Japan in this field.
In addition, the Japanese manufacturing industry has been hit hard by the shortage of global semiconductor production capacity.
Due to supply chain problems, natural disasters and other factors affecting production, the lack of necessary chip supply makes related industries face challenges.
All these factors have exacerbated the uncertainty of international capital investment in Japan.
According to statistics, in the first 8 months of this year, foreign capital sold a net 2.7 trillion yen of stocks;
And in 2013, when the central bank adopted monetary easing, foreign net purchases of more than 9 trillion stocks hit a record record.
In the international financial markets, the discussion of "shorting the yen" is also heating up.
And the future trend of the US dollar balance sheet reduction is still unclear, which brings great uncertainty to the Japanese economy.