A Comparative Study On China-Japan Economic And Social Development

As social problems relating to population, resource, environment andpopulation aging arise and aggravate globally, the coordinateddevelopment of economy and society has become a worldwide concern. Thispaper introduced the concept of HDI, compared and analyzed the economy,education, science, healthcare, employment and aging population of Chinaand Japan, by using such analyzing methods as comparative analysis andprinciple component analysis, etc. This paper also built CJESDI(China/Japan Economy&Society Development Index) through mathematicalmethod, and the index was verified and extended as well.From the historical perspective, China and Japan have manysimilarities. Japan has experienced the reform of economic system aftert World War II, and its economy grew rapidly during that period. It beginsits economic recovery in2005after experiencing a15year long recessionwhich is caused by the bubble burst of the eighties and nineties. Theeconomy and society of China both developed rapidly after the introductionof the reform and open policy. However, problems such as virtual economyexpansion and renminbi appreciation came along. China should learn fromJapan s experience and avoid the economy bubbles and the consequencescaused by their burst. Both domestic and foreign scholars had someresearch on similar topics, but few scholar carry on the comparativeanalysis of the economy and society of China and Japan. This study is aninnovation to some degree.Through a comparative analysis between China and Japan s economicand social development, we can draw the following conclusions: AfterChina’s economy surpassed Japan to become the world’s second largest economy in2010, its economy growth slowed down, but still higher thanJapan s. At the same time, there is a big gap in GDP per capita betweenthe two countries. Compared with developed countries such as Japan,although China adjusted its economic structure, the primary industry andsecondary industry still shared too much of the GDP, while the tertiaryindustry s proportion is too low. When it comes to the quality of economy,China s inflation rate is much higher than Japan s. The distributionof wealth does not seem to be fair, resulting in a big gap between richand poor. In terms of science, technology and education, the popularityrate of China is lower than Japan, scientific achievements can hardly betransformed into GDP. China is increasing its investment in healthcare,but the investment per capita is relatively low, the quality of healthcarestill needs to be improved. The economy and society of China has made greatachievements since the introduction of reform and open policy. China iscatching up with the developed countries such as Japan, but we can stillrecognize the difference of developing speed between China s economy andsociety.The quality of economic development is not only a macroeconomic issuebut also a social issue. The government should do the following: pay moreattention to problems such as the issue of currency, CPI, the wealth gapas well as the fairness and stability of society; accelerate thetransformation of agricultural development, improve rural infrastructureand farmers’ living standards; increase the investment in education andtechnology, improve education and scientific research system, continueto implement the strategic deployment of technology and education,raise the popularity rate and quality of education to train talents withhigh-quality; make full use of technology to reduce the production ofheavy chemical industry who will consume more resource and energy, instead,produce more energy-saving and high value-added knowledge-intensive products, which can occupy a favorable position in the world division oflabor; keep increasing the investment in healthcare, improve thehealthcare system, especially focus on the undeveloped and poor areas,solve practical problem relating to the difficulty and expensiveness ofgoing to hospital. To sum up, China should develop its education,technology and healthcare, while at the same time maintain stable economicdevelopment, so that it can benefit its people from the reformation ofeconomy and society.