Japanese netizens discuss China's economic rise

Some expert's say China overtaking Japan to become the world's second-biggest economy is to be expected and is not a miracle. However, this has caused Japanese people to feel at a loss.

China's GDP will overtake Japan to become world's second largest. Does this mean Japan is not as important as China to the U.S.? Will we go to China to find jobs? These are the questions being asked on a Japanese website, called Baidu Japan.

The majority of Japanese people in such discussions accept the fact that China's GDP will overtake that of Japan, but a hand full of people believe China's GDP data "is fabricated by the government".

Some believe that China's GDP overtaking that of Japan's is temporary because China is constrained by its resources, pollution and large population. China is now in a period similar to Japan's bubble economy of the past.

Others believe that China overtaking Japan to become the world's second largest economy is not a threat because China has 10 times the Japanese population, even if China's GDP does overtake Japan's, there will still be significant differences of income per capital between the two countries.

Japan is a nation with a strong sense of crisis and its people is very sensitive to the changing economic figures, times and events, Gao Hong, a researcher of Chinese Academy of Social Science told the Global Times on Wednesday.

In 2000, China's GDP was only one third that of Japan's, but China has overtaken Japan in ten years. To Chinese people, 10 years is a long and gradual process of development, but to Japanese, it is not.

By People's Daily Online