Problem to the Productivity Improvement of the Service Industry of Japan

Abstract

Although Japan's manufacturing industry is proud of the top's productivity in the world, the productivity of a service industry is low and causes a downturn of the global competitiveness of all Japan. Various factors exist about why the productivity of a service industry is low. If they are not solved, the economic strength of future Japan does not become strong. So, in this research, the problem of Japan's service industry is partly pointed out to below. (1) The government itself of Japan carried out prior investment, such as much support money and a subsidy, to the technical innovation of the manufacturing industry, and it has made light of the service industry, and has neglected investment. (2) The range of Japan's service industry is wide. There is a service industry with high and with low productivity. Therefore, it will get confused if all together discusses a service industry. (3) Excellent talented people in a labor-intensive service industry did not gather, but neither reform nor innovation progressed. (4) As a feature of service goods, there are the simultaneity of production and consumption, disappearance nature whose stock is not effective, non-concreteness nature which cannot be touched, heterogeneity which quality does not fix, etc., and it seemed that there is the side which reform cannot carry out easily. And an original author's idea about the policy of such business solutions is proposed to below. Although technical-capabilities maintenance of the manufacturing industry is also important for the Japanese government, we have to consider earnestly the support money and the subsidy to technical innovation of a service industry. And it is necessary to enlarge weight of the reform investment in a service industry. *A It is necessary to classify the service industry of Japan into a high intellectual service industry and a labor-intensive service industry, and to consider the solution over each subject. *B In order that excellent talented people in service industry may employ, we have to put into practice the increase in efficiency and rationalization of business including an improvement of an operating process which becomes the high added value industry. *C Service goods should wipe away the negative feeling that there is the side which is hard to reform unlike article goods, and should strive for IT-izing for operating efficiency, or other rationalization. If the above solution is implemented, it will lead to the bottom raising of the industry of all Japan, and it will seem that global competitiveness will also become high. It seems that an author's proposal not only contributes to recovery of economic strength of Japan, but is an idea which leads also to the improvement of the service industry of other advanced nations since this problem of the productivity slowdown of service industry is also a problem common to advanced nations.