Wolfgang Klenner - Böcker

This study deals with changes in the Chinese development strategy since the end of the Seventies. It examines the main characteristics of the previous development policy, the reasons for the change in orientation and the new aspects that have emerged, and analyzes China's new foreign trade policy.

This book contains a collection of papers by Japanese and German authors dealing with the ongoing globalization process and notable fluctuations in the regional economic development in East Asia. The contributions discuss the stabilizing and destabilizing elements of the globalization process. The authors investigate the different options for economic policy to stabilize an ever more tightly interwoven world economy. In the center of the discussion are developments in East Asia and the European Union.

Sowohl in Japan als auch in Deutschland wurden nachlassende Wettbewerbsstärke und Führungskraft beobachtet. Japan wurde nachgesagt, wegen überkommener japanspezifischer Strukturen in Wirtschaft und Verwaltung nicht in der Lage zu sein, den Aufgaben einer modernen Volkswirtschaft nachzukommen. Insbesondere sei Japan nicht in der Lage, zukunftsträchtige Bereiche zu entwickeln. In Deutschland werden neben den Lasten der Wiedervereinigung die Dynamik hemmende bürokratische Strukturen und das übermäßige Gewicht der «sozialen Komponente» als Problem angesehen. Diese Schrift fokussiert die vor diesem Hintergrund in Japan und Deutschland ergriffenen Maßnahmen zur Neupositionierung in der asiatischen Region und in der Europäischen Union. Behandelt werden regionale Integrationsprozesse einschließlich der werbungsspezifischen Integration und der Finanzmarktintegration, Fragen der Deindustrialisierung, der Gestaltung des Arbeitsmarktes, Strategien zur Rohstoffsicherung und Umstrukturierungsmaßnahmen von Unternehmen.

The wntmgs by Japanese and Gennan economists presented here originated against the backdrop of ongoing globalization processes and notable fluctuations in regional economic dynamics observable at the same time, primarily in the East and South East Asian area. They provided the occasion for these writers to come to tenns with globalization processes, and in particular with the stabilizing and destabilizing elements at work in them. This is the basis for their investigation of the options provided by economics and economic policy for stabilizing an ever more tightly interwoven world economy. The regional focal points of the contributions are the East Asian realm and the European Union, and the points of view are in every case both from the Japanese and the Gennan side. Questions of international competition and mechanisms of the spread of the crisis in the wake of globalization processes lie at the centre of the analyses by Hisashi Watanabe and Willy Kraus. Hisashi Watanabe focusses on the relationship, an especially important one from the Japanese perspective, between Japan and South Korea and takes up the problem of South Korea's demand that Japan should energetically promote its own transition to a service-sector-oriented society and withdraw from certain areas of manufacturing. This, it is argued, will grant Japan's Asian neighbours better chances for development and make a positive contribution to the economic stabilization of the region.

The economic success achieved in the last decade in East Asia has brought about a fundamental reorientation in the Western view of the region. In order to contribute to a better understanding of present events and future developments in the area, leading East Asia economists and men of experience in Asian business from Asia, America, and East and West Europe have written papers on their research or business fields for this volume. The individual articles deal with problems common to the East Asian region and the Pacific area as well as with specific economic problems of Japan, China and South Korea. The volume is divided into four parts: East Asia and the Pacific Basin includes articles on supra-national issues, for example on the international economic relations of Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea. Japan includes articles on Japanese industrial and business structure, technological policy, exports and other issues. China includes articles on structural change, economic reforms, fiscal policy, agriculture and other issues. Korea includes articles on economic and industrial policy, restructuring, protectionism and other issues. The occasion of the publication of this volume is the 70th birthday of Willy Kraus, who for many years has been actively concerned with the questions of development in the East Asian region.

The economic transfonnation taking place in Eastern Europe and Asia is in particular a challenge for Japan and Gennany, because these two states as the immediate neighbors of the developing regions are directly affected and also because they are the strongest economic powers in their regions and have the necessary potential to influence developments there. Japan and Gennany are affected in many ways, both positively and negatively. Should the economic and social transformation run into difficulties, leading to economic and political chaos, perhaps even to armed conflicts, then economy and social fabric of the prosperous neighbors would doubtlessly suffer. In the past, Japan and the South-East Asian region have already experienced how economic problems in China caused millions of Chinese to seek their fortunes in other countries. An economic and political destabilization of China would today probably have even greater effects on migration flows. Similar effects can be expected in Europe, if the transfonnation process in Eastern Europe should fail. But even less dramatic developments in Eastern Europe and East Asia can have deleterious consequences for Gennany and Japan. Both nations are linked closely to the transfonning economies near them, though at a fairly low level. A reduction in trade with them, a refusal to service debts and other economic frictions ensuing out of economic and political troubles would of necessity hamper the prosperity of Japan and Gennany. A successful transfonnation process would without doubt benefit all economic partners to a considerable extent.