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Japan is an economic world power with free-market economy with GDP (nominal) of little over $4.6 trillion as of 2005. Government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, mastery of high technology, and a comparatively small defense allocation have helped Japan advance with extraordinary speed to become one of the largest economies in the world. For three decades, overall real economic growth had been spectacular: a 10% average in the 1960s, a 5% average in the 1970s, and a 4% average in the 1980s. Growth slowed markedly in the 1990s largely due to the after-effects of over-investment during the late 1980s and domestic policies intended to wring speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets. Government efforts to revive economic growth have met with little success and were further hampered in 2000 to 2001 by the slowing of the global economy. However, the economy saw signs of strong recovery in 2005. GDP growth for the year was 2.8%, with an annualized fourth quarter expansion of 5.5%, surpassing the growth rate of the US and European Union during the same period. Unlike previous recovery trends, domestic consumption has been the dominant factor in leading the growth. Hence, the Japanese government predicts that recovery will continue in 2006. Distinguishing characteristics of the Japanese economy include the cooperation of manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and banks in closely-knit groups called keiretsu; the powerful enterprise unions and shuntō; cozy relations with government bureaucrats, and the guarantee of lifetime employment (shushin koyo) in big corporations and highly unionized blue-collar factories. Recently, Japanese companies have begun to abandon some of these norms in an attempt to increase profitability. The current government of Junichiro Koizumi has enacted or attempted to pass (sometimes with failure) major privatization and foreign-investment laws intended to help stimulate Japan's dormant economy. Although the effectiveness of these laws is still ambiguous, the economy has begun to respond, but Japan's aging population is expected to place further strain on growth in the near future. Heterodox economists tend to claim that Japan is far stronger economically than is usually appreciated. Some mainstream economists acknowledge that Japan, which unlike most other Western countries has maintained its industrial base, and has vast capital reserves, currently has a strong economic outlook.
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Exporting goods is an essential part of the Japanese economy. Its main export partners are the USA 22.7%, China 13.1%, South Korea 7.8%, Taiwan 7.4% and Hong Kong 6.3%. Japan's main exports are transport equipment, motor vehicles, semiconductors, electrical machinery and chemicals. As a nation that relies heavily on international trade, Japan also imports a wide variety of goods. Its main import partners are China 20.7%, US 14%, South Korea 4.9%, Australia 4.3%, Indonesia 4.1%, Saudi Arabia 4.1%, UAE 4% (as of 2004). Japan's main imports are machinery and equipment, beef, fossil fuels, foodstuffs, chemicals, textiles and raw materials for its industries.
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Japan is among world's largest and technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronic equipment, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemical, textiles, and processed foods and is home to some of the largest and most well-known multinational corporations and commercial brands. It's also one of the leading research nations in these sectors. Japan holds a very large market share in high-technology industries such as semiconductors, industrial chemicals, machine tools, media and (in recent years) aerospace. Construction has long been one of Japan's largest industries, with the help of multi-billion-dollar government contracts in the civil sector. These industries make Japan a major economic global power. Robotics constitutes a key long-term economic strength. There are very few, or if any countries in the world that matches Japan in production of high technology electronic products. Main power of Japan in the industrial sector are automobile (machinery) and electronics sectors. |
Japan is among the leading producers of high-end and consumer electronics, holding a very large world market share in the industry. Many noted and one of the largest electronics multinational corporations that works in many sectors and industries are based in Japan, including Sharp, Yamaha, Pioneer, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, TDK, Sony, Matsushita, NEC, Pentax, Maxell, Ricoh, Toshiba, Kenwood, Seiko, Nintendo, Epson, JVC, Casio, Fujifilm, Citizen Watch, Fujitsu, Olympus, Korg, Sanyo, Roland, Hitachi, Nikon and Canon. It's also home to 7 out of top 20 world's largest chip manufacturers as of 2005. Japan's electronic products are known for their quality, durability and technological sophistication. Some of these companies cross over to automobile and finance sectors as part of a keiretsu.
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Japan holds a large share in automobile, electrical machinery, parts and engine manufacturing with home to six out of top 10 largest vehicle manufacturers in the world. For example it is home to some of the largest automobile manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Suzuki, Mazda, Kawasaki, Komatsu, Bridgestone, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Yamaha, Subaru, Isuzu and Shimano. Some of these companies crossover to different sectors such as electronics to produce electronic equipment as some of them being a part of keiretsu. Japan's automobiles are generally known for their quality, durability, fuel efficiency and more features with relatively cheaper price than other competitors. |
Japan is a leading nation in scientific research and the production of innovative technological products. Some of the most important industrial contributions include chemicals, electronics, entertainment, machinery, industrial robotics and optics. It is also one of the leading nations in health care and medical research and consumer and production robotics having produced QRIO, ASIMO, Aibo, etc. Japan is making headway into aerospace research and exploration. It has its own aerospace exploration agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency that was founded in October 1, 2003 and is involved in many missions and projects and a possible independent manned mission to the moon having shifted some of its focus away from international efforts beginning 2005 and is one of the key members to the International Space Station project, the most significant being Kibo module that will complete installation in 2007.
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Japan's service sector accounts for about three-fourths of its total economic output. Banking, insurance, real estate, retailing, transportation, and telecommunications are all major industries such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc., Toyota Financial Group, Inc., Nomura Group, Inc., Mizihu Financial Group, Inc., Japan Post, All Nippon Airways Co.,Ltd., Nippon Tel & Tel (NTT DoCoMo) counting as one of the largest companies in the world. The Koizumi government is attempting to privatize Japan Post, The Tokyo Electric Power Company, one of the country's largest providers of savings and insurance services by 2007. The six major keiretsus are the Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Fuyo, Mitsui, Dai-Ichi Kangyo and Sanwa Groups. Japan is home to 326 companies from the Forbes Global 2000 or 16.3% (as of 2006).
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Japan ranked second in the world behind China in tonnage of fish caught—11.9 million tons in 1989, down slightly from 11.1 million tons in 1980. After the 1973 energy crisis, deep-sea fishing in Japan declined, with the annual catch in the 1980s averaging 2 million tons. Offshore fisheries accounted for an average of 50 % of the nation's total fish catches in the late 1980s although they experienced repeated ups and downs during that period |
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Japan uses a system of terrace farming to build in a small area due to lack of available land. Japanese agriculture has one of the world's highest levels of productivity per unit area. Japan's small agricultural sector, however, is also highly subsidized and protected, with government regulations that favor small-scale cultivation instead of large-scale agriculture as practiced in North America. Imported rice, the most protected crop, is subject to tariffs of 490% and restricted to a quota of only 7.2% of average rice consumption in between 1968 and 1988 Imports beyond the quota are unrestricted in legal terms, but subject to a 341 yen per kilogram tariff. This tariff is now estimated at 490%, but the rate will soar to a massive 778% under new calculation rules to be introduced as part of the Doha Round. Although Japan is usually self-sufficient in rice (except for its use in making rice crackers and processed foods), the country must import about 50% of its requirements of other grain and fodder crops, and relies on imports for most of its supply of meat. Japan maintains one of the world's largest fishing fleets and accounts for nearly 15% of the global catch, prompting some claims that Japan's fishing is leading to depletion in fish stocks such as tuna. Japan has also sparked controversy by supporting quasi-commercial whaling. |
Japan is unique in that its electric power transmission runs at different frequencies in different parts of the country — 50 Hz in Tokyo and elsewhere east of the Fuji River, 60 Hz in Osaka and other parts west. The division was due to different technology imports for the initial plant construction; the eastern region imported Siemens (Germany) technology and the western region imported GE (U.S.) technology. The household power line voltage is constant 100 V throughout the nation. Japan has 1,177,278 km of paved roadways, 173 airports, and 23,577 km of railways as of 2004. Japan Information: Inside
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