VOA慢速英语2016 日本经济依然疲软

AS IT IS 2016-05-26 Japanese Economy Remains¹ Weak 日本经济依然疲软

Japan is struggling with its economy as the country hosts the yearly meeting of the G-7 industrialized nations.

七国集团会议举办在即，日本却挣扎在经济低迷的泥潭。

Japan has the world’s third-largest economy, behind the U.S. and China. Many countries copied Japan when it had a strong and growing economy.

日本是继美国和中国之后的全球第三大经济体。日本经济的迅猛增长引多国争相效仿。

Japan has been dealing² with deflation for many years. Deflation is “a decrease in the amount of available money or credit in an economy that causes prices to go down.” Deflation can often cause a recession.

多年来，日本一直面临通货紧缩的问题。通货紧缩是指经济体中的可用资金或信贷量下降导致价格下跌。通货紧缩往往会导致经济衰退。

The population in Japan is growing older and the country is not diverse. Most people in the country are ethnic³ Japanese. Last year, people in Japan criticized Miss Japan, Ariana Miyamoto, for not being “Japanese enough.” She has a Japanese mother and a black American father.

日本人口老龄化趋势明显且国土面积有限。日本多数人口为本土居民。去年，日本人指责日本小姐阿丽亚娜·宫本（Ariana Miyamoto）不是纯正日本人血统。她母亲是日本人，父亲是美国黑人。

Many Japanese also do not support mass immigration, which other countries have used to make up for, or balance, the effects of a declining and aging population.

很多日本人反对大规模移民，而其它国家都借此弥补或平衡人口下降或老龄化的影响。

Savings⁴ vs. spending

储蓄与消费

Takuji Okubo is the managing director of Japan Macro Advisors⁶. He says Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe does not understand problems the labor⁷ market or with pensions. He says the prime minister “has been just unable to tackle any reforms.”

日本宏观顾问公司总经理大久保卓治（Takuji Okubo）表示，日本首相安倍晋三并不了解劳动力市场和养老金问题。他说，“安倍晋三没有进行过任何改革。”

Many of Japan’s public pension plans do not have enough money to make payments. This has caused many families to believe the plans will fail, so they save a lot of money.

多数日本公共养老金计划没有充足资金来发放养老金。因此，很多家庭认为养老金计划最终会失败，他们将闲置资金储存起来。

The average Japanese family has about $164,000 in savings. That is much higher than that of families in other developed countries.

日本平均每户居民的存款约16.4万美元。远远高于其它发达国家的居民储蓄。

Young Japanese working in their first jobs do not earn a lot of money, so they do not have much to spend. And people who are retired⁸ and have savings are worried about their monthly payments, so they are not spending money either.

一般来说，日本年轻人的第一份工作薪水不高，所以他们没有太多消费能力。而退休有存款的老年人又担心每月的养老金，所以他们也很少花钱。

Manabu Goto operates a small, 50-year-old food store in Tokyo.

后藤学(Manabu Goto) 在东京经营一家有着50年历史的小食品店。

Goto has opened the store on weekends and added more products. He wants to attract more customers and convince them to spend more money.

后藤学决定周末也继续营业，还添置了大量新商品。他希望借此吸引更多客户并鼓励他们多消费。

However, he says the policies of the prime minister have “failed to get citizens to spend because people are uncertain about the future. So the government needs to try something else.”

但他表示，“人民对未来顾虑重重，因此安倍晋三的政策未能拉动国民消费水平。政府需要变更政策。”

Structural⁹ changes are needed

需要结构性改革

Martin Schulz is a senior economist¹⁰ at the Fujitsu Research Institute. He says the Japanese “market is shrinking overall. It makes it very difficult to get it moving again. This requires some major structural changes and these take time.”

马丁·舒尔茨（Martin Schulz）是富士通研究所的高级经济学家。他表示，“日本市场整体出现萎缩，这一态势很难扭转。市场急需进行重大变革，这也会耗费很长时间。”

Among the needed changes, he says, are: to open the economy, to change the structure of the farming industry and to help Japanese companies invest in Southeast Asia. He says these changes will help the Japanese economy improve over a 10 to 15-year period.

他说，改革包括开放经济、改变养殖业结构并帮助日本公司在东南亚投资。他还说这些改革能帮助日本经济在10到15年的周期内得到提升。

William Saito is an advisor⁵ for the Japanese Cabinet. He says “it’s just confidence. If you look at the last 20 years -- the economic fundamentals, the infrastructure¹¹, government politics -- these things haven’t actually changed.”

威廉·斋藤（William Saito）是日本内阁顾问。他说，“这只是信心问题。如果回顾过去20年的经济基本面、基础设施和政府政治等，其实这些东西并未真正改变。”

Shin Fukushige is a managing director for the technology company Seikoware. He says, “there has been a huge improvement in psychology¹²” in the past ten years. But it is difficult for many Japanese who begin new businesses to convince workers to join their companies."

Seikoware科技公司总经理申福冈(Shin Kufushige)表示，过去十年我们在心理上取得了巨大进步，但对很多拓展新业务的日本企业来说，说服员工加入公司并不容易。

Many of Japan’s large companies were created many years ago. But many large and successful companies in the United States were created in the past 20 or 30 years, including Apple and Google. This has helped the American economy grow.

日本的很多大企业都是很久之前创办的。但是美国多数大型企业都创办于20或30年前，包括谷歌公司和苹果公司。而这有助于美国的经济增长。

Experts are asking how to help Japan’s old and slow-moving economy grow. Some of them believe actions have already been taken that will show results in the years ahead.

专家一直在寻求帮助日本陈腐而又发展缓慢的经济取得增长的途径。有人认为现已采取的措施会在未来显现效果。

What to watch for

看点追踪

After the G-7 meeting this week, many people will closely watch the actions of the Bank of Japan. The bank’s leaders want people to wait a few more months for recent government measures to take effect. If these measures are not successful, the bank could take strong action. Some experts hope the bank will place fees on savings and force companies to sharply increase wages.

本周的七国集团会议之后，很多人将会密切关注日本央行的行动。日本央行行长希望人们静待数月，观察政府一系列措施的效果。如果这些措施失败，日本央行可能会进一步采取有力措施。一些专家希望日本央行收存款费用，迫使企业大幅提高工资待遇。

However, the other G-7 nations do not want Japan’s government to lower the value of its currency -- the yen¹³. That would make the country’s exported products less costly¹⁴ and could hurt the economies of other countries.

然而，七国集团的其它国家不希望日本政府放任日元贬值。因为这会导致日本出口产品的成本更低，并会损害其它国家的经济。

Words in This Story

struggle – v. to try very hard to do, achieve or deal with something that is difficult or that causes problems

host – v. to be the host for (a social event, a group of people, an event, etc.)

deflation – n. a decrease in the amount of available money or credit in an economy that causes prices to go down

diverse – adj. made up of people or things that are different from each other

pension – n. an amount of money that a company or the government pays to a person who is old or sick and no longer works

tackle – v. to deal with (something difficult)

retire – v. to stop a job or career because you have reached the age when you are not allowed to work anymore or do not need or want to work anymore

attract – v. to cause (someone or something) to go to or move to or toward a place

structural – adj. relating to the way something is built or organized; relating to the structure of something

period – n. a length of time during which a series of events or an action takes place or is completed

fundamentals – n. one of the basic and important parts of something

psychology – adj. the way a person or group thinks

currency – n. the money that a country uses; a specific kind of money

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

3 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

4 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

5 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

6 advisors   

n.顾问，劝告者( advisor的名词复数 )；（指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• The governors felt that they were being strung along by their advisors. 地方长官感到他们一直在受顾问们的愚弄。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• We will consult together with advisors about her education. 我们将一起和专家商议她的教育事宜。 来自互联网

7 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

8 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

9 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

10 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

11 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

12 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

13 yen   

n. 日元；热望

参考例句：

• He wanted to convert his dollars into Japanese yen.他想将美元换成日币。
• He has a yen to be alone in a boat.他渴望独自呆在一条船上。

14 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。