抄録
The international competitiveness of an industry involves many factors hardly measurable in terms of price, such as product quality and sales conditions, as well as those evaluated as prices. Indexes of the international competitiveness of an industry include productivity indexes, such as labor productivity and total factor productivity, and cost indexes such as unit labor costs and unit multi-factor costs, each with its own merits and demerits with respect to ease of calculation and accuracy. International comparisons of such indexes must be made on a common currency basis, which means that changes in the exchange rates affect directly the international competitiveness of each country. Unit labor costs for Japan, for example, show a better performance than those for the U.S. on the common currency basis, reflecting the recent exchange rates of Yen against U.S. dollar. After the abrupt hike in early 1995, which placed the Japanese manufacturing industry under highly unfavorable conditions, the Yen rate has been gradually normalized since the Summer of the same year. The present rate indicates a desirable value in terms of the international competitiveness of the industry.
