日本經濟面對艱難時刻

Recently the Excite News reported the following:
2010年12月30日、「日本はなぜどんどん貧しくなっていくのか？」と題した記事が中国のブログサイト・鳳凰博報に掲載された。以下はその内容。

九州大学が長崎県の高校3年生を対象に調査した結果、家計の困窮から約3％が進学を断念する可能性があることが判明した。同大の丸野俊一副学長は「大学入試センター試験にこの割合を当てはめると、約1万6000人が経済的な理由で大学に行けないことになる。救済のための措置が必要だ」と指摘した。

日本人の1人当たりの名目GDP（国内総生産）は世界16位、中国人の約10倍にあたる。GDP総量ではわずかに中国に抜かされた日本だが、いまだに世界有数の先進国であることは間違いない。だが、日本は確実に貧しくなっている。

12月24日、2011年度政府予算案が閣議決定した。一般会計総額は約92兆4000億円と過去最高を記録したが、国の債務残高も973兆円余りとGDPの2倍以上に膨らんだ。生まれたばかりの赤ちゃんを含む日本人1人当たりの借金額は674万円。先進国の中で最も多い。

注目すべきは、日本の国家予算の半分は借金返済に充てられていることだ。日本メディアによると、国債の償還・利払いに充てる国債費は22兆円に上る。これに年金の国庫負担分21兆円が加わる。合わせて43兆円だ。日本政府は重い負担を背負っている。

これでは内需拡大など見込めないだろう。しかも、日本は少子高齢化時代を迎え、年金を納める若者は減り、年金を受け取る高齢者は今後ますます増えていく。借金は雪だるま式に膨れ上がるだけだ。1990年には62兆円もあった税収が2009年度はわずか37兆円。この20年で日本の税収は40％も減少した。

日本は手元の金が大幅に減り、景気を刺激する手段やパワーも衰えている。日本が経済を復興するためには現状を変える必要があるのではないか。それには周辺国との協力強化が不可欠になるだろう。
An article entitled "Why does Japan become poor so fast?" was published in the blog site of the Chinese Phoenix in China on December 30, 2010. The content is as follows:
According to the result of an investigation done by the Kyushu University on the third grade of high-school students in Nagasaki Prefecture, there was the possibility that about 3% of them had to abandon schooling due to the poverty of the household. Toshikazu Maruno the vice-president of this university pointed out that ｢When this ratio is applied to National Center for University Entrance Examination, about 16,000 people cannot go to the university for economic reasons. It is necessary to take relief measures｣.

Nominal GDP (gross domestic product) per person in Japan was at the 16th place in the world, about ten times that of China. In the world at the moment, Japan for sure still was one of the advanced countries in GDP total although it was slightly over taken by China. Yet, for sure Japan was poor.

The Cabinet Council on December 24 decided on the government budget draft for the fiscal year 2011. Although the total in general account recorded a new height of about 92.4 trillion yen, the outstanding debts in the country was 973 trillion yen, swelled to twice more then the GDP. The amount of the debt per person in Japan including new-born child would be 6.74 million yen. It would be the highest among advanced countries.

What should have attracted attention was that Japan had to allot half of its national budget for debt repayments. According to Japanese media, the bond related expenditure allotted for the redemption of national bonds and payment of interest went up to 22 trillion yen. Add on this was the government contribution of 21 trillion yen pension. In total it was 43 trillion yen. Japanese Government was shouldering a heavy burden.

With this, the home demand expansion etc. could not be expected. Moreover, Japan was entering an era of birthrate declining and population aging; the number of young people who would pay the pension was decreasing, and the number of senior citizens who could receive the pension would increase gradually in the future. Debts would only swell up like a snowball. Revenue collected in the fiscal year 1990 was as much as 62 trillion yen, but in 2009 it was only 37 trillion yen. The revenue in Japan decreased by as much as 40% in these 20 years.

In Japan, the money in hand had decreased greatly, the means and power to stimulate the economy had failed. For Japan in order to revive its economy, it had to change prevailing conditions. To strengthen the cooperation with the surrounding countries would become indispensable.

It is surprising to note that the amount of revenue collected in Japan has declined so much in the past 20 years. And that one reason for the declining economy in Japan is the decline in birth rate.