Is Korea Emerging as a New Role Model for Japan?

Among the advanced economies, the U.S. and Japan face the massive amount of sovereign debt. In the case of the U.S., the world’s largest economy, there is $110 trillion debt and it is exponentially growing. Japan, the world’s second-largest economy, is the world’s most indebted nation (some 200% of GDP).

Facing fiscal crisis due to growing debt and sluggish economy, Japan is looking into Korea for the lesson to learn.

Business daily the Nihon Keizai Shimbun published an editorial last Thursday entitled “Let’s Learn from Rising Korean Companies in the Global Market.” The article emphasized that Japan should “humbly learn from how Korea with a population less than half that of Japan penetrated overseas markets and achieved growth.” Some Korean manufacturers have outdone Japanese firms both in price competitiveness and quality.

At the recent Vancouver Olympics, Korean figure skater Kim Yu-Na won a stunning victory against Mao Asada of Japan.