Event name: Regional Economic Report by Osaka Prefecture and City of Osaka Date: October 21, 2011 Venue: Osaka Sangyo Sozokan Co-organizers: Osaka Prefectural Government
City of Osaka Number of participants: about 100 people. Seminar Program:
1.Recent economic situation of Osaka :
Mr. Toshiya Yamamoto, Senior Researcher, Osaka Pref. Industry Economic Research Center
Mr. Yuhei Tokuda, Economic Research Chief, City of Osaka Unban Industry Promotion Center
2.Report on Osaka's economic growth and industry structure
Mr. Ryo Ogawa, Researcher, Osaka Pref. Industry Economic Research Center
3.Report on Research of Eco mobility related industry Promotion.
Ms. Emiko Ueda, Researcher, City of Osaka Unban Industry Promotion Center
(by Mr. Yamamoto)
Composite Index (CI) of all Japan, Osaka Pref. and Kinki region has been improving since spring of 2009. While business confidence by corporations has also improved, the future is still uncertain. Actually, business confidence (in all seize and industry) has greatly improved. Diffusion index (DI) figure turned to positive and economic level is coming back to before the level of Eastern Japan earthquake. Employment figure has also improved. Export has increased after 2 months. Domestic investment and consumer spending are bearish tendency. Production index decreased but shipping and sales increased. Large Corporation improved their operation profit. Unemployment rate decreased over 5 consecutive months.
(by Mr. Tokunaga)
Looking back last one year of economic situation, Japanese economic scale has been shrinking since FY2007. GDP and other economic indicators showed minus growth for three quarters. Export of this year from Kinki area has been remaining steady; however, downturn of semi conductor and electronics parts was much more than other products.
Speaking of Osaka City's economic situation in September, both demand and supply remained steady but economic recovery has been slow. According to economy watcher research conducted for July - Sep. 2011, among local companies, major answer of their fear was low remaining of consumer spending and raise of raw materials price (about 50%), government policy such as tax raise (about 40%), high yen and further progress (about 30%). Among manufacturers 60% answered that they have fear of raising cost of raw material, over 30% said high yen and low consumer spending is their concern. Also nearly 20% concerns about their clients' shift of manufacturing site to overseas. As many companies concern, rise of row materials cost is getting worse despite of high yen.
Since 1990s Osaka's economic growth has been slower than all Japan, Tokyo or Chubu. Share of Osaka Prefecture's RDP share in Japan used to be 10.2% in 1970s but it dropped to 7.5% in 2007. We have tried to analyze reason of growth rate different among areas. There are two types of reason; industry structure or area specific. For Osaka's case, by area specific reason influenced economic growth. Tokyo's growth was caused by expansion of service industry. Chubu growth was supported by strong employment in all industries. Osaka's export and domestic sales has decreased from mid 1990s. Also non-manufacturing growth was slow while Chubu had strong export and domestic sales and RDP increased. Osaka's employment growth is slow. Employment in manufacturing industry was weak.
Change of consumers' attitude is more notable in Kanto (Tokyo) area. Efforts for saving energy were higher in older generation especially aged over 50. During the summer, to save energy, such as electric fan and functional cloth which cool down the body and LED light ball were popular. Energy saving electronic goods purchase was by manly people over 50. Many people claimed that their living became more difficult and satisfaction level went down. Many people tried to save utility (water, electricity, gas, etc.) and eating out cost. As to expected annual income, Osaka is expected to improve compare to Tokyo.
Reported by Yasuko Seta, Thai Trade Center, Osaka
Source : http://www.depthai.go.th