<Anchor> This is a



friendly economic time. Today (the 13th), I will be with reporter Kim Hye-min. Come to think of it, the day after tomorrow is Liberation Day. But why even our father's generation had a view of Japan like "a country where people live better than us", but these days, young people say, 'I think the city is a clean and delicious country.' I've heard stories like this before. You said that the gap in economic power between Korea and Japan has narrowed significantly over the past 30 years?



<Reporter>



That's right. Today, I prepared a special for Liberation Day, and compared how the economic status of Japan and Korea has changed over the past 30 years.



Even if you think about it at first glance, there was a time when Japanese appliances were the best, but now Samsung and LG products from Korea are selling the best.



Even if we compare objective economic indicators, Korea has caught up with Japan a lot. There are even inverted parts.



Every year, IMD, a graduate school of international business development located in Switzerland, evaluates and announces the national competitiveness index.



It is the most authoritative data to evaluate the competitiveness of each country.




But last year, we moved up three places to 23rd, but Japan fell to 34th.



Although Korea's competitiveness index has risen slightly, it was largely the cause of Japan's so-called 'lost 30 years' that the country's economy deteriorated significantly.



<Anchor> That's



right. But other than this, the country's credit rating is also said to have inverted Korea's Japan's.



<Reporter> There are



three major international credit rating agencies. You may have heard of Standard & Poor's (S&P), Moody's, and Peach.



In 1990, all three agencies rated Japan's national credit rating higher than that of Japan, but this year, Korea is rated two places higher than Japan.



Let's take the S&P as an example. Korea's credit rating, which was A+ in 1990, has now risen to AA, while Japan's rating has been downgraded, which is two steps lower than Korea's this year.



Also, it is a number used as an indicator to understand nominal GDP and economic size.



In addition, there is GDP per capita based on PPP, which measures the purchasing power of the people by reflecting different prices and exchange rates for each country.



Since 2018, Korea has completely overtaken Japan, and the gap has widened further last year.



<Anchor>



Korea's manufacturing competitiveness has also improved a bit. There is also this talk.



<Reporter>



you're right. In the manufacturing sector, it was found that Korea has a higher advantage. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization analyzes manufacturing competitiveness and announces the rankings for each country.



It is called the 'Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index'. In 1990, Korea ranked 17th and Japan ranked 2nd. As of 2018, Korea moved up to 3rd place. Japan fell to fifth place.



Korea's exports are also rapidly catching up with Japan. 30 years ago, Korea and Japan were more than 4 times different.



However, South Korea's exports surged to $513 billion last year, closely following Japan's 80% level.



In fact, the number of companies included in the Fortune Global 500, an indicator of a company's competitiveness, is still higher in Japan.



There are 53 companies in Japan and 15 of us, but the difference from 18.6 times 25 years ago has been narrowed down to 3.5 times recently.



However, this also contributed to the strengthening of the competitiveness of Korean companies, but the deterioration of the competitiveness of Japanese companies was a bigger cause.



<Anchor>



As reporter Kim just mentioned, there may be such an effect because the Japanese economy has been in a bad way, but still, our economy has developed a lot and our industry has developed even more. I get this feeling a lot too. Still, there are areas where we are still a little behind?



<Reporter>



It is in the field of basic science and technology. If you look at the top 1000 global R&D investment companies, Japan has five times more companies than Korea.



In particular, despite Japan's export control measures in 2019 and Korea's efforts to localize materials.



The amount of materials and parts that Korea imports from Japan continues to increase. The size of the deficit nearly doubled compared to 1994.



There is no such thing as a Nobel Prize winner in science in Korea, which can be seen as a competitive edge in basic science and technology. By the way, Japan has produced 24 people until last year.



In order for the Korean economy to continue to grow as it has in the past 30 years, it is necessary to further enhance competitiveness in basic science and technology, which still has a large gap with Japan. We also need active, long-term support from the government.