Japan’s GDP water injection？ The key statistics have been wrong for 8 years, and the cabinet minister apologized.
BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Zhang Aolin) On the 15th, Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism was exposed to erroneous statistics on the construction industry, which lasted for eight years. Because the relevant data will be used to calculate the gross domestic product (GDP), this may lead to the exaggeration of Japan’s GDP.
After the incident was exposed, Japanese Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Tetsuo Saito admitted the statistical error and apologized. Prime Minister kishida fumio also expressed "regret" and said that it would prevent "recurrence". However, many opposition parties and netizens in Japan did not buy it, and they demanded a thorough investigation of the incident and its impact on GDP.
On the 15th, Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism was exposed to erroneous statistics on the construction industry, which lasted for eight years. Because the relevant data will be used to calculate the gross domestic product (GDP), this may lead to the exaggeration of Japan’s GDP. Image source: Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK) report screenshot
Engineering order data is repeatedly counted.
Involved in the industry or more than a thousand
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, what went wrong was a statistical data called "Construction Project Order Dynamics", which mainly recorded the relevant amount of construction workers in Japan after receiving public units and private projects.
According to reports, there are about 12,000 construction units surveyed, and they are required to fill in the relevant amount on a "survey ticket" every month and report it to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, which will then announce it.
However, it is puzzling that when the industry fails to submit the survey data as scheduled, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism will not record the order amount of the industry as "0", but will speculate on a data instead of the industry.
This is the problem. Although the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has "taken the initiative" to fill in the report, the industry will still submit the previous data after the deadline. At this time, the provincial capital of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism will count this data again in the second month, which will lead to repeated statistics of the data. Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK) reported that the number of enterprises involved accounted for about 10%.
Error statistics for 8 years.
Japan’s GDP may be exaggerated
NHK reported that this erroneous statistical method began at least eight years ago, and was not revised until it was discovered by accounting check Institute in April 2021.
At the same time, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism also revised the data after January 2020. Nevertheless, there were repeated statistics in the data of several years before that, and the actual figures were likely to be more than the real figures.
The report also pointed out that because this statistical data will be used for GDP calculation, Japanese Constitutional Democratic Party member Ji Meng said, "Because statistics ‘ Water injection ’ I think it will have an impact on the GDP figures at that time. "
Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport "Recognized Accounts"
Kishida fumio quickly put out the fire.
After the incident was exposed, Tetsuo Saito, Japanese Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, admitted the double counting at the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives on 15th, and said, "I’m very sorry, I’m sorry about this".
In this regard, the Japanese opposition party expressed its strong opposition. Ichiro Tamaki, a representative of the National Democratic Party, pointed out that "such an important statistic on GDP is wrong, which will lead to all the related policies derived from it being wrong, which should never happen" and called for this matter to be "seriously investigated".
In addition, a number of opposition parties also hope to conduct a centralized review of this matter before the start of the usual parliamentary budget review in 2022, and thoroughly understand the actual situation and the occurrence process.
Japanese Prime Minister kishida fumio also rushed out to put out the fire on the 15th. He first said that he was "very sorry and would try his best to prevent similar incidents from happening again". Later, he said, "This data has been revised since January of 2020, and I don’t think the GDP of 2020 and 2021 has been directly affected".
At the same time, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroichi Matsuno also said, "The reliability of government statistics is very important, and I deeply regret such a problem."
Japanese netizen fryer
Call for a thorough investigation
In addition to the fact that the ruling and opposition parties came and went in Congress, the statistical error quickly occupied the headlines of many Japanese media on the 15th, and also caused a lot of discussion on social media.
Some netizens questioned: Is it really just a mistake? Or is it a premeditated operation? This is the key. If it is really just a mistake, the responsible person should be dealt with seriously. ↓
Image source: Japanese social media screenshot
Some netizens said in response to Kishida and others: It is not "trying to prevent it from happening again" and it is over. Let’s investigate the matter clearly! ↓
Image source: Japanese social media screenshot
It’s not enough to apologize ↓
Image source: Japanese social media screenshot
Some netizens also suspect that someone is manipulating behind the scenes: Who ordered it?
Image source: Japanese social media screenshot
Some netizens even linked the time when the mistake occurred (starting 8 years ago) with Shinzo Abe, who served as Japanese Prime Minister from December 2012 to August 2020: he began to violate the statistics law eight years ago, even by accident, from the Abe regime, didn’t he? And GDP is also mixed with water, please investigate the previous (problems), correct (mistakes), and deal with the relevant responsible persons. ↓
Image source: Japanese social media screenshot
As for whether this mistake has affected Japan’s GDP and how big it is, Matsuno Boyi said, "The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has taken the lead in conducting the investigation."