Ravi writes:
>Paul Krugman, Mr. Japan, mostly agrees with the piece as well, but with a lot of reservation.
I write:
Regarding the original NYT article in question. It is better than the NYT's usual wretched coverage of Japan. But Fingleton's analysis is (mostly) disingenuous and (somewhat) inaccurate. One has to read through to the end to discern Fingleton's intentions in writing this. He wants US industry to become a world leader in capital goods again.
His depiction of how fabulous a place Japan is, is just a set-up. He creates the hazy impression that Japan's underrated/unacknowledged quality of life has to do with its remaining a competitive builder of machine tools and other manufacturing equipment. Yeah, it's only an op-ed -- but no semblance of hard evidence, of a causal connection, is offered.
Some of Fingleton's metrics are plain screwy.
Fingleton lauds Japan's enormous strides in environmental quality, then
measures its superior affluence in terms of a higher growth rate in electricity consumption per capita. Hmmm. He makes it sound as if low birth rates have nothing to do with women refusing to marry and have kids because of sexism in employment policy and labor markets, and instead represents some kind of collective Malthusian enlightenment.
I
could also wrack my brain and come up with some facts about the ill health of mid-size and small-size Japanese industry (suppliers to the cutting edge transnationals) but why bother, since Fingleton isn't really interested in Japan per se. Rather, he is a proud flier of the "China is out to steal our trade secrets and eat our lunch" banner. His "Japan's decline is overestimated" line is essentially a prop for his "let's take aggressive action against China stealing our trade secrets and eating our lunch" line.