Lets us examine the industrial structural change with consideration of the economic activity to seek out efficiency after confirmation of the above situation. We define the 'comparative productivity' as being the 'structural ratio of the production value (separated by industry)' divided by the 'structural ratio of the number of workers (separated by industry)', and the productivity of that industry is equal to the productivity of all industries if the value is one, and the industry has economic profitability if the value is above one.
There is a common tendency in all countries for the comparative productivity to be less than one in the primary industries, and more than one in the secondary industries. The tendency of the primary industries in Japan is a long-term decline from a little less than 0.5 in the sixties to 0.36 in the nineties, and the secondary industries is also in a long-term decline from 1.35 in the sixties, to a little under one (0.97) in the nineties. As both the primary and secondary industries are less than one, it indicates that only the tertiary industries are above one, it can be said that it is a reflection of a shift to a service economy when the promotion stage is reached through industrial profitability. (See Table 5)
Although this common tendency of the comparative productivity of the primary industry being less than one and of the secondary industry being more than one was the reason for promoting change from an agricultural to a manufacturing base throughout the region, we can also say that the bigger the gap, the quicker the conversion speed. This strongly corresponds to the tendency that Thailand, Malaysia and Korea have.
However, in those countries where the comparative productivity in the nineties of the secondary industries are still more than one suggests the possibility of continuous industrial structural change, through the expansion of the share of the secondary industries as well. A low comparative productivity indicates a high level of under employment in that industrial area, which means a labor intensive production structure. These potential over-populations mean there is a work-force supply base for non-
