Japanese media: The cost of manpower China and Japan has gradually reversed, and Japan is facing a "fundamental change"

Japan's "Modern Business" magazine website on June 15th, original title: Japan and China ’s labor costs have gradually reversed. Japan is now facing“ fundamental changes ”in the past 30 years. China has always played the role of the world factory. Around 1990, China's export share accounted for only 1.1%of the global export share, and Japan's export share accounted for 7.4%. But since the mid -1990s, China's export share has grown rapidly and surpassed Japan in 2004. At present, China's export share accounts for more than 10%of the world's global.

For manufacturing, China is indispensable. Many Japanese companies have transferred factories overseas in order to control costs, many of which choose to China. For the Japanese manufacturing industry, no country can produce high -priced and cheap products like China.

However, with the continuous development of China's economy, the cost of China's labor has increased significantly. At present, the overall unit labor cost (ULC) of China is equivalent to Japan, but if it is limited to the coastal regions of China, its ULC is higher than Japan.

The increase in labor costs in China will have a huge impact for many countries or enterprises imported from China or manufacturing in China. To this end, the United States has begun to expand economic and trade exchanges with Central and South America. Mexico's ULC is currently 2/3 of China, and in the future, it can act as a cheap factory. Although the cost of labor is low, the export scale of Mexico is only 1/6 of China, and it is difficult to replace China in the future.

Japan's largest trading partner is no longer the United States, but China. In terms of import and export trade, Japan has the most interaction with China. In the future, if China cannot export cheap industrial products to Japan as before, it will cause predicament to Japan. Mexico and the United States are neighbors, and there are more economic and trade exchanges. Mexico can become a substitute, but Japan and Mexico are not neighbor. It is expected that Japan is difficult to find countries that can replace China like the United States. Anyway, it is no longer expected to continue to play the role of cheap industrial product manufacturers. (Author Jiaguyichi, translated by Zeng Mao)

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