Japan Export News:

 https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20201216/p2g/00m/0bu/055000c 

Ideas:

Exports are important for many countries but maybe even more important in Japan. It is estimated that exports make up 20 percent of Japan's GPD. While not large compared to consumer spending is close to 50 percent of GPD, it is sill a very significant part of Japan's GDP.

So even though its not as large as consumer spending a continued trend downward begins to put pressure on other areas of GDP; consumer spending, government spending, business investments to make up the difference and or are now watched more carefully to see if they increase or decrease as Japan's economic growth is dependent on all parts of GPD growth.

The above ideas just shows the how much Japan exports are subject to outside or external variables as for the most part, exports in any country in the world, as every country, every company that exports faces external variables everyday. 

Car, auto parts, and electronic equipment are most likely the most important exports for Japan.

Political factors, external variables ,as seen, can cause havoc with exports as we see with the  U.S-China situation. We shall see in the coming months what is going to happen with a new political atmosphere in the US. 

No doubt the pandemic as increased a lot of stress on the logistics industry. All areas, exports and imports have been affected by the pandemic and by the stresses placed on the logistics industry with decreased flights, decreased ships available along with ports and airports under stress due to the restrictions globally.

For consumer goods, of course the ideas that consumer demand might be down due to the pandemic, as some consumers begin to worry about jobs, income  and such and have decided to wait and not spend like before the pandemic.

And at the same time, possible, some suppliers are unable to produce and sell like before the pandemic maybe has reduced some imports into Japan. 

The so-called pent-up demand is an interesting idea as there are always waves of demand and waves of waiting to buy because of many different variables. But of course the idea of consumers unable to unwilling to buy during pandemic is just one example.

Of course China seems to have come out of the pandemic, somewhat, and with the largest consumer market, no doubt China is the largest market for Japanese exports. Any increase in growth is very good. 

But to why US consumers are buying cars during the pandemic is kind of a mystery, as there are millions upon millions of people and families, either out of work and or living on unemployment. 

So, not to be insensitive, there might be a significant part of the population that doesn't feel the same affect about the virus that others do.

It remains to be seen just what is going to happen with exports and the global economy enters the 2021. Will there be continuing decreases as countries begin another lockdown, which affects consumer demand and puts added pressure on the logistics industry.

And then with Brexit now in full force how is that going to affect Japan's exports to the EU and with the United Kingdom, as they are now separate entities. 

An economy is made up for four parts but not four equal parts. For example consumer spending usually is the largest part in most advance economies. If consumer spending is significantly down, exports, for example, usually is not enough to overcome the decrease in consumer demand/spending. But in Japan's case, export growth might be enough to offset some of the decrease in consumer spending.

In a country like the US, exports can never offset a decrease in consumer spending as exports in the US might only be 5 to 10 percent of GDP, but in Japan with exports at 20 to 25 percent of GPD it might be large enough to help Japan's GPD continue to show growth if exports are up yet consumer spending is down.

Have a nice day and be safe!