Center for Far Eastern Studies University of Toyama
Abstract
This paper attempts to interpret the situation surrounding the development of regional economy integration in East Asia by examining the degree of self-dependency and dependency on foreign countries in this region by using the International Input-Output (IIO) approach. We show that the economic interdependency in East Asia grew stronger from 1990 to 2000, with a strong upturn of the interdependency on China and Korea, and a downturn of dependency on Japan in this region. Moreover, our analysis suggests that dependency on foreign countries is increasing and self-dependency is decreasing. ASEAN4 was largely dependent on Japan, China and Korea, whereas Japan, China and Korea were largely dependent on other countries.From the fall of self-dependency in the heavy industries sectors and the decrease of dependency in sectors like the iron and steel, we can know that the economic effect of ASEAN4, China, Korea and Japan is seeping into other regions. Therefore, strong efforts should be made to strengthen the economic cooperation in this region in the future
