The Comparison Of International Competitiveness For Low-carbon Context Of Sino-Japanese Mechanical And Electrical Industry

In the wave of economic globalization, the export of electromechanical products is an important way for countries to achieve economic growth as well as the strategic focus of the economic and technical cooperation. Japan's strong international competitiveness for electrical and mechanical industry, automobiles and appliances as representatives, has had a long history, which is a global new force of high-tech product development and electrical and mechanical innovation, especially in the field of application of the circular economy and low-carbon technologies. In China, the mechanical and electrical industry has maintained the position of the first category of export commodities for17consecutive years. The China's export value of mechanical and electrical industry overtook Japan's in2006and its international market shares significantly increased. However, while the gap between China and Japan in the scale of exports continues to narrow, China's mechanical and electrical industry is still faced with the predicament of less independent intellectual property rights and core technology as well as the world famous brands missing.With the domestic economic recession in Japan and the sustained "industrial hollowing-out" phenomenon, the improvement of the trade structure and enhancement of export competitiveness for China's mechanical and electrical industry makes bilateral trade friction escalating. Comparative study of international competitiveness for the two countries' the mechanical and electrical industries has become the focus of concern, and to some extent, affects their industrial policies and economic and trade relations. In the trend of the rise for low-carbon economy, developed countries have exerted unprecedented pressure to China's emission reduction. The average unit energy consumption of China's exporting electromechanical products is approximately30%higher than the foreign advanced levels, which have become one of the main carriers of China's carbon emissions. Once the carbon tariffs of developed countries, which have gradually been put on the agenda, once implemented, China's exports of mechanical and electrical industry is bound to suffer a dramatic impact. To this end, we have to have a new look at the international competitiveness of the mechanical and electrical industry from the perspective of a low carbon economy. Through the study of low-carbon technology development and application in some developed countries (Japan. Germany, etc.). we may seek some sustainable development measures to enhance the very international competitiveness.This paper adopted a multi-factor comprehensive evaluation method and attempted to build an international competitiveness evaluation index system for mechanical and electrical industry based on the theories and methods of evaluation of international competitiveness in international trade theory, which took low-carbon factors into consideration. We chose the variation coefficient method to give weight to indicators of relevant levels. By use of China and Japan's time series dates from2000-2010,we took a sub-comparative study and a comprehensive evaluation on the international competitiveness of mechanical and electrical industries of the two countries from three points of view, which are respectively traditional competitive strength, emerging competitive potential as well as cutting-edge low-carbon competitiveness, so as to gain an insight into the growth of China's mechanical and electrical industries, and the gap with Japan.The study found that traditional competitive strength of Chinese mechanical and electrical industry has been significantly improved. Yet even in the context of the continuing weakness of the traditional international competitiveness of Japan's mechanical and electrical industry, there is still a distinct gap between the two and the overall catch up in China's strength absolutely need more time. While Japan got a poor performance in the emerging competitive potential plate, China showed some advantages. Relatively speaking, Japan's mechanical and electrical industry was attacked more seriously so that China should seize the chance of global economic recovery during post-crisis era to enhance the emerging competitiveness of the mechanical and electrical industries.Both parties involved went different trends in low-carbon competitiveness. China's low-carbon capacity rose perpendicularly, showing a good momentum of development; Japan's low-carbon capacity remained stable, continuing to run high. Although the gap of low-carbon competitiveness between Chinese and Japanese mechanical and electrical industry was shrinking, we need pay sustained attention to the techniques and strategies of low-carbon development. In view of this, targeted for the development of China's electromechanical industries, this paper proposed a policy recommendation for "quaternity", government, industry organizations, enterprises as well as colleges and research institutes, to jointly cope with the low carbon wave.