The tepid, wholly inadequate response of the New South Wales government to the escalating climate crisis illustrates the biggest challenge facing the global economy. It is not coronavirus. The UK Government has at least been prepared to bring forward a ban on petrol and diesel cars by five years to 2035.
This is still too late for some environmentalists, but the UK Government has bravely included hybrids in the ban.
If other governments follow suit, this will be a major headache for Toyota, which has relied upon the successful Prius Hybrid to claim it has been a leader on ESG.
Toyota plans to launch an ultracompact EV later this year, but the Japanese auto giant is a long way behind market leaders Tesla and Volkswagen. The German manufacturer is targetting 3 million EVs by 2025: Toyota plans only 500,000.
Nevertheless, the strength of the gains in tech-related employment, and services more broadly, shows why the focus on external shocks (trade wars, coronavirus) needs to be kept in perspective. Non-manufacturing employment was up by 543k in the final quarter of 2019.
Japan faces a number of challenges: but the employment numbers offer a better insight into the economy than the discredited GDP report. The impressive track record on job creation should be acknowledged.
