Japan Creates a Trade Deficit in the First Time in the Past 31 Years

With the unending rise of yen, Japanese industries have been suffering from chronic red figures as well as a trade deficit which is partly caused by a loss of competitive position in the international markets. Apple and Samsung rising dramatically, Japanese competitors - Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba and the like - are relatively loosing their presence in the global context despite the fact that industrial tradings shape the nation's economy substantially. As long as casting eyes on Japanese domestic markets, even Japanese consumers are turning backs on the domestic contents while they are buying iPhone, iPad, Galaxy S and so forth.

Some argue that Japanese businessmen lack communication skills terribly even though Japanese industries have advanced technologies in various fields.  A Singaporean industrial participants, who has joined a party hosted by Japanese embassy in the country, said that Japanese businessmen always end up in only exchanging bows and business cards with those who are interested in Japanese technologies to work hand-in-hand to forge a project, while South Koreans are trying to start a business negotiation then and there; and such is the biggest difference between the two, causing Japan to loose its competitive position in the world.

In the world today, Asian rising powers in the inclusion of China, Singapore and the like, are in need to build eco-centered smart cities to generate advanced lives; and most of the projects undergoing in China, for example, are undertaken by companies of the West despite the fact that Japanese competitors are capable enough to fill their needs.
Traditionally, Japanese businessmen can't make any decision without any main-offices' permission, and the structure is still remaining. While Japan grows stagnant, the rest of the world is changing rapidly in unprecedented level.
For a long time, South Korea is perceived as Japan's spare, but these days the nation is modeling the West; as Samsung, for instance, works hand-in-hand with Google to develop Android OS and Chrome OS.

Not only on business fields, Japanese position is jeopardized even in politics. Condoleezza Rice, the former Secretary of State, recently announced officially that US-Japan alliance, when compared to American alliances with South Korea and Australia, is relatively weakened in the dramatic change of Asia-Pacific regions with the rise of China. She additionally claimed that the U.S. is in need of a full-hearted democratic partner in the region as well as need in confident leader, like Junichiro Koizumi, who flourished as the greatest Prime Minister of Japan in the past twenty years with his aggressive personality to build close relationships with leaders of  other nations.

Source(s):
http://read2ch.com/r/news/1320206329/
http://read2ch.com/r/newsplus/1320135788/
http://monkeymind.blog19.fc2.com/blog-date-20111010.html
http://www.travelpluto.com/singapore.htm
http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/pages/china/china-rise-of-a-superpower.htm
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%89%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B6%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%82%B9