Comparing the economic strength between China and Japan is very complicated, and comparing them from different perspectives and sides will yield different results. For example, at present, China's coastal areas such as Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen are close to Japan in terms of urban construction and living standards of citizens, and China has even surpassed Japan in areas such as aerospace technology as well as foreign exchange reserves, but China is still lagging behind Japan in many more areas.
● From the macroeconomic level, Japan's modern economic system, the financial system, the legal system, the modern enterprise system, etc. has been quite perfect and mature, and as early as the 1960s has formed a pension insurance and medical insurance system covering the whole of society, although at present, due to the financial difficulties caused by Japan's pension system has some problems, but the foundation has not been shaken. While our modern economic system is being built and improved, the social security system such as medical care and pension is still in its infancy, and it will take some time to reach the level of coverage of the whole society.
●From the stage of development, Japan as early as the 1980s has entered the post-industrialization stage, the current urbanization rate of up to 70% or more, between urban and rural areas and regions almost no gap between the domestic market in a saturated state. China is still in the early to middle stage of industrialization, with an urbanization rate of only 46 per cent, and there is a large gap between urban and rural areas and between regions. The purchasing power of China's farmers is too low, and the vast rural market has not yet completed the launch.
●From the point of view of industrial structure, Japan has long formed a developed country type of industrial structure, whether it is the structure of output or employment structure, the primary industry has declined to less than 5%, and the tertiary industry is close to 60%. And our country now agricultural employment still accounts for about 50% of the population, the rural population still accounts for about 60% of the total population.
●From the perspective of the growth model, China's current growth model is still relatively crude, and economic growth mainly relies on equipment investment and export traction. Japan, on the other hand, completed its industrialization goal as early as the early 1970s and crossed the threshold of the maturity stage, ending the crude model of "mass production and mass consumption" a long time ago.
●From the enterprise level, in the 1980s, Japanese enterprises were already quite mature, with Toyota, Nissan, Hitachi, Toshiba, Panasonic, Nippon Steel and other world-class enterprises, and these enterprises, including, of course, many small and medium-sized enterprises, mastering many core technologies, and the formation of a number of world-class brands. Japanese companies and European and American companies compared to almost no gap to speak of, the products produced such as robots, semiconductors, home appliances, automobiles, etc., and even more than Europe and the United States. And from the point of view of China's current situation, the world's top enterprises are very few, the world's top brands have not even appeared. In particular, China's enterprises seriously lack of independent core technology, enterprise big but not strong.
In addition, the Japanese enterprises in the high value-added research and development areas and sales areas have absolute advantages, while the advantages of China's enterprises are mainly in the lower value-added production and assembly areas. Japan's exports from research and development to production and sales can be completed by Japanese enterprises, almost 100% of its profits. While about 60% of China's exports are produced by foreign-funded enterprises, most of the key components of export products rely on imports, and the more high-end products, the higher the dependence on imported key components. The profits received by our enterprises are very low, and a considerable part of them are merely labor costs.
●From the point of view of the problem of public health, Japan due to the long-term pursuit of high-speed growth, resulting in the destruction of the environment and the proliferation of public health, so that in the early 1970s there was a shock to the world's "four major public health lawsuits" events. The present environmental situation in China is not optimistic, and is even worse than the situation in Japan at that time. Since the mid-1980s, Japan has had no significant environmental problems.
Mass Comparison
The country's land area is 25 times larger than Japan's, and its population is 10 times larger.
However, in terms of total economic GDP, little Japan is 2-3 times bigger than big China.
Japan gradually entered the "post-industrialization" era centered on the service industry as early as the 1970s, while China has not even completed the transition to an industrialized society.
China's current urbanization level is 40%, equivalent to that of Japan in the 1950s, when Japan was recovering from World War II.
In terms of industrial structure, China is now roughly equivalent to Japan only 40 years ago.
And for the same amount of resources and energy, the Japanese produce 15 times more output than China.
Japan's research and development spending as a percentage of GDP is 3.12 percent, compared with China's 1 percent, which means that the Japanese people are a nation of visionaries.
The number of Japanese who have won Nobel Prizes has reached 12, while China's is still 0.
Japan's Engel's coefficient is 22.3 percent, while China's is currently 37.1 percent in urban areas and 45.6 percent in rural areas.
China's primary education is roughly equivalent to Japan's 1900 level, 100 years behind; secondary education is roughly equivalent to Japan's 1910 level, 90 years behind; and higher education is roughly equivalent to Japan's 1920 level, 80 years behind.
One of the major reasons for this is that China's education funding is only equivalent to Japan's level in about 1920.
For China to reach the same level of economic development as Japan is currently at, it may take decades of hard work in many areas, and in some areas it may even take hundreds of years of hard work.