Japan's gross domestic product per capita will fall behind that of South Korea in 2027 and Taiwan in 2028, according to a recent projection by a Tokyo-based research institute, citing long-term low productivity on the back of slow progress in digitalization of the world's third-largest economy.
The inflation-unadjusted nominal GDP — the total value of goods and services produced in the nation, per person — is projected to be $46,519 in South Korea in 2027 and $47,305 in Taiwan in 2028, compared to the $45,607 and $46,443 forecast for Japan in the respective years, according to estimates released last month by the Japan Center for Economic Research or JCER.
"The biggest obstacle for Japan's economic growth is its low birthrate and aging population, but South Korea and Taiwan are in much the same case on that point, so the difference comes from their productivity and efforts for digitalization," said Atsushi Tomiyama, a principal economist at the research institute.