The Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development (Mr. Tsuneaki Taniguchi, President) published "White Paper of Productivity 2009." This paper covers the trend of labor productivity and issues of productivity in Japan in the fiscal year 2008. The summary of the paper is as follows.

Analysis of Productivity

The nominal labor productivity of Japan in the FY 2008 was 7,810,000 Yen. Actual labor productivity grew by -2.6%, the first time the figure was negative since 1998. The labor productivity decreased in all sectors. Manufacturing, with -10.5%, recorded the biggest decline.

The nominal labor productivity of all listed companies was 18,290,000 Yen. This was a 17% decline from FY 2007 and almost the level of FY 2001.

The manufacturing company with highest labor productivity in FY 2008 was Nintendo (347,910,000 Yen based on non-consolidated basis.) This figure was 12% increase over the previous FY. In 80% of the listed manufacturing companies, nominal labor productivity decreased from last year.

Result of Survey to Listed Companies

The companies that recorded increase in the labor productivity replied that the most common cause of increase was "reduction of the number of employees or labor hours."

Regarding the forecast of labor productivity of Japan in FY 2009, 65.5% replied that it would be lower than that of FY 2008. In non-manufacturing, this kind of pessimistic prediction was common.

The most popular government policy to support the industry was "tax breaks on investments" among manufacturing companies and "stimulus to increase consumption" among non-manufacturing.

Policy Proposal

Current recession is based on external factor like was the case during oil crisis. Therefore, following policies are called for:

(1) Provide the vision for economic growth based on structural change of private sector.
(2) Promote innovation within large companies so that more manufacturing power is directed to growth sectors.
(3) Utilize outsourcing to accelerate the growth of middles-sized companies.
(4) Improve productivity of service industry to bring domestic demand more in line with export demand.