Blog #2
Rui Yamamoto
There
are many developed countries in the world and Japan, which is my home country,
is one of them. I lived in Japan at least 19 years and learned a lot of things.
However, after I came to Roanoke College, I realized that I didn’t know much
about Japan. Therefore, to know more about my home country, I choose Japan as
my researching objective. By using the UN Comtrade data, I will discuss the
general trading patterns and analyze the export of commodity ‘84-Nuclear
reactors, boilers, machinery, etc’ of Japan.
First
topic is about the general trading patterns of Japan. According to the data
from UN Comtrade, three biggest imported commodities are ‘27-Mineral fuels,
oils, distillation products’, ’84-Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery, etc’
and ’85-Electrical, electronic equipment’ and three biggest exported
commodities are ‘84-Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery, etc’, ’87-Vehicles
other than railway, tramway’ and ‘85-Electrical, electronic equipment’ (UN
Comtrade Demo, n.d.). Interesting point is that there is no significant change
in both imported and exported commodities from the past. This may be because
the economy of Japan is already stable and there was no need to make change in
Japanese industry. One big characteristic of import is that the proportion of
‘27-Mineral fuels, oils, distillation products’ is really big. This is because
there is almost no place that gases or oils are deposited in Japan. However,
there are many companies and the dependence of thermal power is strong, so
Japan needed to import a lot of oils from other countries. What about the
countries which have strong connection with Japan. According to the UN Comtrade
data, three big importing countries of Japan are China, United States and
Australia and three big exporting countries are China, United States, and South
Korea (UN Comtrade Demo, n.d.). From this information, we can see that Japan
has a strong connection with China and United States. Also, there is
interesting trend in the total amount of export. Although export is basically
increasing, there were drops in 2009 and 2012 (UN Comtrade Demo, n.d.).
It is easy to explain the one in 2009 because there was a
great recession in 2008 and almost all of the countries, including Japan,
experienced bad economies. How about the drop in 2013? One of the keys is the
‘84-Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery, etc’.
Japan’s biggest export commodity is
‘84-Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery, etc’. The commodity is always on the
top export every year. However, in 2012 a great earthquake occurred in Japan
and consequently nuclear power plants in Fukushima melted down by a tunami. After
the disaster, Japan stopped many nuclear power plants. According to one chart,
the amount electricity produce by nuclear power in 2010 was 280 TWh, but in
2013, it dropped to 15 TWh (Nuclear
Power in the World Today, 2015). Therefore, the demand for the nuclear
power plant disappeared in Japan. Also, some countries started to think that
nuclear power plants made in Japan are not safe. As a consequence, the demand
for ‘84-Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery, etc’ made in Japan decreased.
Also, because there was no demand for them, Japan decreased amount of importing
‘84-Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery, etc’ as well. With the combination of
the earthquake and the decrease in demand of Japanese nuclear power plants, both
import and export in 2012 decreased.
I only could look at a data until 2013,
but I am quite sure that both import and export of Japan decreased or stay at
the same level in 2014 and 2015. Because one of important commodity is losing
power, Japan will face serious problem in the future. The important thing is to
look at the reality and change a direction of industry in Japan.
One thing I learned form this research is
that by looking at the row of data, it is just data. However, by combining it
with people’s insight, it will become important and helpful information to
understand the world. I think this is important to understand the reality of
the world.
References
Nuclear Power in the World Today. (February,
2015 ). World Nuclear Association.
Retrieved from http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/current-and-fu ture-generation/nuclear-power-in-the-world-today/
UN Comtrade Demo. (n.d.). SAS Institute. Retrieved from http://w ww.sas.com/software/visual-analytics/demos/un-comtrade-basic.html
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