Japan remains world's largest holder of overseas net assets: gov'tAlthough it has been said that Japan lost its economic power since early 1990's, having lost 20 years. But the Japanese people did not become lazy and started to abandon their efforts in industry and commercial.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26
TOKYO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Japan remains the world's largest holder of overseas net assets, with net balance of its external assets totaling 349.11 trillion yen (3.14 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of 2016, the Japanese government said on Friday.
The figure, rising for the first time in two years, reflects Japanese companies' increased investment overseas as well as purchase of foreign bonds, said a report by Japan's Finance ministry.
According to the report, Japan's overseas assets reached a record high of 997.77 trillion yen at the end of 2016, up by 5.0 percent from a year earlier and rising for the eight straight year.
Among them, foreign direct investment reached 159.19 trillion yen, up by 7.34 trillion yen from a year earlier, while portfolio investment reached 452.92 trillion yen, up by 29.60 trillion yen year on year.
But Japan invested in China with great technical and scientific aid. Japanese enterprises also invested in other Asian countries and transferred its manufacturing bases to China and other countries. They were also busy building factories in the US and Mexico.
Due to cheaper Chinese labor force Japanese manufacturers took the advantage of in these decades, the price level of goods and services in Japan has not increased, which has capped the salary level of the Japanese workers. It is the main source of Japan's deflation. Japanese workers have not seen a rise of their wages in these decades while Chinese laborers have experienced a great increase in their wages.
The success of the Chinese economy since 1990s mostly owed to Japan's aid which was driven by the merit of Chinese cheaper labor force and Japan's sense of compassion to China that suffered great damage in WWII and the war with the Empire of Japan from 1936 and 1945. But the Chinese Communist Party is still set on a myth that it got legitimacy as it fought and won the Japanese Imperial troops in WWII. Accordingly, the Chinese Government led by the Chinese Communist Party never felt gratitude for Japan's great economic aid since late 1970s. Rather, China duped Japan, stole technology and patents from Japan, tried to defame Japan, and tied up with anti-Japanese people in the US. and advanced European countries.
The Chinese Communist Party, then led by Mao Tse-tung, never fully fought and won the Imperial Japan, but it was the Kuomintang or Nationalist Party of China, led by Chiang Kai-shek, and its troops that fully challenged and confronted the Empire of Japan in WWII with help from the US and the Soviet Union.
From the beginning, the Chinese Communist Party occupied China based on a false myth. It should correct its view on history and cooperate with Japan with the sense of gratitude for Japan's aid in these decades.
