Lessons from Japan for China?
September 12th, 2008 by Adam
McKinsey have an interesting article comparing China now to Japan a few decades ago. Worth reading here, although you need to register (free) to read it. I am not sure if i agree, to be honest. Though i know very little about Japan, i would have to say that China has not just got to overcome its environmental pollution, it has also got to deal with corruption, political reform, lack of water and energy, over-dependence on trade and a number of other problems…. i would hazard a guess, Japan did not have that many problems.
As the article correctly points out, the issue in China is not that it is a big country, it is whether the local levels are able to implement change. I sincerely hope so, and there are signs that the controls over local levels are becoming more effective.
This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 9:27 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 12th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Adam.
I actually had a post on this in the making, and to be honest I am not buying the argument.
It is easy for many to try to compare the two, but the size and complexity of the problems are vastly different.
more later.
R
September 18th, 2008 at 12:42 am
[...] observer suggests that there are other significant unique obstacles that China faces, including [...]
October 4th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Thanks, Crossroads. As we are all learning from China, let’s hope China is getting ready to learn from others around the world.
This is a great topic for in-depth discussion. I have 20 years of experience in Japan, I hope it means something to others outside of this island country of 120 million people. Our planet deserves better.