Japan Times
READERS IN COUNCIL
August 11, 2002
In economist Takamitsu Sawa’s August 5 article, “Virtues that bolster China,” he states that Chinese standards of living are about the same as the Japanese standards of about 1970. When Sawa refers to “standards of living, what exactly does he mean? Is he talking about per capita income figures, or other items of comparison such as the size of houses, or perhaps per capita calorie intake?
China has, indeed, achieved substantial economic growth rates as mentioned by Sawa. But according to World Bank figures, there are still about 100 million people, or 10 percent of China’s population, that live in conditions of poverty, i.e., earning less than one U.S. dollar per day.
Ten percent of all children in China under the age of 5 are said to face malnutrition. Adult illiteracy for males at least 15 years old is said to have been at more than 8 percent in 2000, with female illiteracy at 24 percent.
In going through the respective figures for Japan in 1970, I could not find any data that would indicate the existence of poverty, malnutrition or illiteracy in Japan at that time on the scale of what China is said to be facing now. I know that Sawa is a distinguished economist, but he should define “living standards” if he’s going to make generalizations that compare China’s living standards with Japan’s.
KO UNOKI
Tokyo
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