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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MAY 25, 1984
PAGE 13
Europe, as well, who look at Asia's development with frightened,
or despairing, concern for what this may mean for the future of
Europeans.•••
If all of East and Southeast Asia should develop as Japan and a
few others have, then we will certainly find ourselves with a
transformation of world economic and political relations dwarfing
mere trade considerations•.•. The Pacific would become the center
of world economy and industry, and undoubtedly of world power..•.
But will the rest of Asia develop as Japan has developed? This is
the critical question, and the answer is far from certain•.•. We
are, in any case, talking in terms of decades, if not centuries;
the success of the Pacific Basin, if it comes, is not for tomor
row.
The actual weight of the Far Eastern economies is distorted .Q.Y
the presence of Japan. Japan is the second-largest national eco
nomy in the world. Put Japan aside and the Pacific Basin pre
sents a less imposing picture. China's industrial output--its
gross national product--is...only slightly above the official
figure for Britain's economy alone. South Korea's economy, in
1982 figures, is slightly larger than Denmark's, about 70% that
of Belgium, a quarter that of Canada. Taiwan's economy in the
latest figures, is about 80% as large as Denmark's, a little
bigger than that of Greece, smaller than Norway's. The Singapore
economy is as big as five Luxembourgs. All of them together,
plus Hong Kong, add up to a total industrial production smaller
than Spain's, half that of Canada, something like a quarter of
France.
On 1982 figures for gross domestic product, NATO Europe possesses
� total output worth more than
il
trillion, which is three times
that of Japan, much more than twice that of all Asia, slightly
larger than that of the United States itself.
The European
common market is the largest trading group in the world. The
Pacific Basin may provoke interesting thoughts about the future,
but these should be taken for no more than that. For the present,
it is Europe that weighs in world economic scales.
European optimists, too, note that the work ethic in Japan "ain't what it
used to be" either. Widespread prosperity is weakening the tradition of
do-or-die for company and country. The change, notes FORTUNE magazine in
its May 14 issue, can't be measured yet in lower productivity but Japanese
employers are worried:
Now some tiny cracks are appearing in Japan's celebrated work
ethic. There are few numbers yet, and no traceable loss of pro
ductivity or erosion of quality. The evidence is mostly anecdo
tal, often as subtly Japanese as the tinkle of wind chimes in a
garden. Workers rarely show up early anymore to warm the oil in
their machines before their shifts start. Defying precedent, a
young management trainee actually takes all of the 15 vacation
days allotted to him. Growing hordes of young Japanese sometimes
slip away early on Friday and crowd the ski slopes on week
ends.•..