Despite Japan’s economic powers being the third largest in the entire world, it still ranks in the 20s for digital competitiveness. This weakness of Japan's infrastructure was heavily exploited when the country was hit with corona virus. The result of the dated nature of data infrastructure showed when trying to provide aid relief to its citizens during this summer. Besides lagging the relief of its citizens, its dated technology has dulled its competitiveness in technological innovation in the private sector. Due to this long overdue overhaul of Japanese dated infrastructure, they proposed a deal last month calling for a year of concentrated investment to boost data-sharing between ministries and update websites. The Japanese government did not state how much they will be investing, but it is obvious that they are taking this very seriously. I am really intrigued with what Japan's economy will look like after they invest in the infrastructure of data. If they have the third largest economy with this updated software image, there’s no telling what this investment will do not just for GDP but for their economic status as a whole.
2 comments:
I definitely agree that investing in infrastructure such as technology can boost an economy/help it recover. In Japan's case; however, investment in technology alone will not curtail their debt of 1,328,000,000,000,000 yen(12.6 trillion USD). This is due to the huge stimulus packages they've given out since the 90s. Along with investment, I believe they should implement a contractionary policy perhaps by raising taxes.
I am on the same page with Kofi here, investing in infrastructure such as technology is crucial. Now more than ever with a global pandemic, we have seen how technology plays such a major role in our lives and how we depend on it for many daily activities. With that in mind, I think that investing is very important as it will aid their economy which has been receding and negatively impacted due to the COVID-19 among others, but it can also propel Japan's position in the digital world.
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