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This is somewhat out of the blue, but there is an example I find interesting in
economics that relates to disposable diapers for the elderly. The domestic market for
baby diapers has hit the ceiling in the midst of declining birthrates. However, the
demand for elderly people is steadily expanding and pulling the industry along. The
only difference between baby diapers and diapers for the elderly is the surface area,
so there is probably no technical innovation there. This is an example that makes it
easy to see that innovation is not limited to hardware engineering, and clearly shows
that this other form of innovation is also needed.
Komiyama It is important to combine innovations that are taking place at various
levels in many fields.
Disparity Widens Amid the Ongoing Downturn
Yoshikawa I’d like to touch on the relationship between taxation and society raised
by you, Professor Konishi. This problem has its origins in the problem of disparity.
That is to say, it is a problem related to how many of a given thing to produce, and
how to divide it up. In economics jargon, this is referred to as “distribution.” With
respect to income, it is called “income distribution.” In other words, there is only
one answer up until the problem of producing as efficiently as possible, but there is
more than one answer to the question that addresses fairness when it comes to dividing up the product. That is because there are a lot of value judgments involved.
As you know, several years ago the book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by
French economist Thomas Piketty became a best seller worldwide. Piketty was not
the first to point this out, but with respect to the limited scope of developed countries, his book made the fact clear that before World War II, developed countries had
extremely disparate societies, but that the extremely wealthy class disappeared as a
result of the war, and in a word, society became more egalitarian. That situation
has changed drastically since around the 1980s. Since then, the United States is a
Interview
This is somewhat out of the blue, but there is an example I find interesting in
economics that relates to disposable diapers for the elderly. The domestic market for
baby diapers has hit the ceiling in the midst of declining birthrates. However, the
demand for elderly people is steadily expanding and pulling the industry along. The
only difference between baby diapers and diapers for the elderly is the surface area,
so there is probably no technical innovation there. This is an example that makes it
easy to see that innovation is not limited to hardware engineering, and clearly shows
that this other form of innovation is also needed.
Komiyama It is important to combine innovations that are taking place at various
levels in many fields.
Disparity Widens Amid the Ongoing Downturn
Yoshikawa I’d like to touch on the relationship between taxation and society raised
by you, Professor Konishi. This problem has its origins in the problem of disparity.
That is to say, it is a problem related to how many of a given thing to produce, and
how to divide it up. In economics jargon, this is referred to as “distribution.” With
respect to income, it is called “income distribution.” In other words, there is only
one answer up until the problem of producing as efficiently as possible, but there is
more than one answer to the question that addresses fairness when it comes to dividing up the product. That is because there are a lot of value judgments involved.
As you know, several years ago the book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century by
French economist Thomas Piketty became a best seller worldwide. Piketty was not
the first to point this out, but with respect to the limited scope of developed countries, his book made the fact clear that before World War II, developed countries had
extremely disparate societies, but that the extremely wealthy class disappeared as a
result of the war, and in a word, society became more egalitarian. That situation
has changed drastically since around the 1980s. Since then, the United States is a
Interview