A decade lost to deflation has changed the landscape in Ginza, Tokyo’s premium shopping district. On the main street, a Gucci store has been replaced by low-cost fashion outlet XXI Forever. Next door to luxury jeweller Mauboussin, the casual clothes retailer g.u. is doing a pisk business offering cotton maxi dresses for Y990.
迷失于通缩中的10年，改变了东京高档购物区银座(Ginza)的景象。在主要购物街上，古驰(Gucci)门店已被低成本时装公司XXI Forever的店铺所取代。在豪华珠宝商Mauboussin的隔壁，休闲服饰零售商g.u.生意兴隆，店里销售的棉质长裙售价990日元。
Japan has been mired in deflation since 1999, a period known as the “lost decade”. Consumer prices, excluding food and energy, have fallen every year since, with the exception of 2008, when prices were flat. Meanwhile, nominal gross domestic product, which reflects the impact of deflation, has fallen from Y505tn in 1999 to Y468tn ($5.8tn) last year.
自1999年以来，日本一直受到通缩的困扰，这一时期被称作“失落的10年”(lost decade)。1999年以后，消费价格（不包括食品和能源）每年都在下跌——2008年除外，当年价格与上年持平。与此同时，反映通缩影响的名义国内生产总值(GDP)，从1999年的505万亿日元降至去年的468万亿日元(合5.8万亿美元)。
The long-term slump has forced businesses in Japan to slash costs and, in some cases, completely rethink their business model. Some Japanese companies have managed to avoid the worst effects of deflation and even thrive in difficult economic circumstances. As such, they offer some valuable lessons for businesses settling down for the long haul in the beleaguered economies of the west.
经济长期滑坡迫使日本企业大幅削减成本，一些日本企业不得不彻底重新思考它们的业务模式。一些日本企业成功避免了通缩的最糟糕影响，甚至在艰难的经济状况下走向繁荣。因此，它们为那些将在遭遇困境的西方经济体中长期处于艰难境地的企业提供了一些重要经验。
Japanese companies that have succeeded during sluggish times have largely done so by building on their core strengths to develop value-added products and by finding new channels for those products.
在经济乏力时期获得成功的日本企业，大多凭借的是建立核心优势来开发增值产品，并为这些产品找到新的销售渠道。
One such company is Toray, which generates nearly 40 per cent of its revenues and about a third of operating profits from fipes and textiles – a business that has historically shifted from developed countries to lower-cost emerging markets.
东丽(Toray)就是一家这样的公司，该公司近40%的收入和约三分之一的营业利润来自纤维和纺织品，这种业务过去已经从发达国家转向成本较低的新兴市场。
What enabled Toray to escape the fate of pioneers in the industry such as Courtaulds, the UK group that was finally poken up and sold off, was its determination to persevere with basic research and development, even though it might take decades to bear fruit. A prime example was its refusal to give up on carbon fipe, an extremely lightweight but sturdy material, which many in the industry, including Courtaulds, eventually abandoned because of a seeming lack of profitable applications.
让东丽得以摆脱英国Courtaulds（最终被分拆并出售）等行业先驱命运的，是该公司决心坚持基础研发，尽管这可能需要数十年才能取得成果。一个主要的例子是，东丽拒绝放弃碳纤维，这种材料重量极轻，但非常结实，由于看似缺乏可带来盈利的应用，包括Courtaulds在内的业内很多企业最终都放弃了这种材料。
“Toray was pressured by analysts to get rid of the [carbon fipe] business but it refused, saying carbon fipe was one of its strengths,” says Daisuke Taniyama, a consultant at Nomura Research Institute, the research arm of the investment bank.
野村证券(Nomura)研究机构野村综合研究所(Nomura Research Institute)咨询顾问Daisuke Taniyama表示：“东丽对来自分析师的放弃（碳纤维）业务的压力说不，并表示碳纤维是其优势之一。”
Toray believed that carbon fipe could be used to make aircraft so its executives visited Boeing repeatedly in the 1970s to market the idea. More than 30 years later, Toray is working with Boeing on the 787 Dreamliner, which uses carbon fipe for 50 per cent of its body in terms of weight.东丽认为，碳纤维可以被用来制造飞机，因此上世纪70年代，该公司高管曾多次访问波音(Boeing)，来推销这一想法。30多年后，东丽正与波音在787梦幻客机(787 Dreamliner)上合作，碳纤维占这种飞机机体总重量的50%。
“The important thing is to look at the long term,” says Norihiko Saitou, senior vice-president. “Companies which face pressure to produce strong results on a quarterly basis or where the top management changes every few years cannot do what Toray did.”
（责任编辑:admin）
