Facts and Figures
	Economy

Facts and Figures

Economy

Japan’s government to industry cooperation, the peoples strong work ethic, the mastery of high technology applications and a relatively small defense allocation helped Japans rapid advance to the rank of third most powerful economy in the world nipping at the heels of the monster economies of first and second ranked USA and China.

With few natural resources of its own, Japan’s industry, thought to be the most important sector of the economy, is heavily dependent on imported raw material and fuel. The much smaller agricultural sector remains highly subsidized and protected, with crop yields among the highest in the world. Japan also maintains one the worlds largest fishing fleets accounting for an estimated 15% of the global catch.

For nearly three decades, Japans overall real economic growth was viewed as extraordinary with averages of 10% in the 1960’s, a 5% average in the 1970’s, and a 4% average in the 1980’s.

Growth slowed substantially in the 1990’s averaging only 1.7%. This slow down is thought to be largely due to the after-effects of over-investment in the late 1980’s combined with a number of ambiguous policies designed to wring speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets.

Japan’s economic revival remains hampered by a number of issues including; internal conflicts surrounding bad bank-loans and inability to de-regulate their banking industry, as well as the 2000-2004 sluggish economies of primary trade partners China and the USA.

Japan’s large government debts estimated at more than 150% of the GDP combined with the ageing of the population are two profound long-term socio-economic problems. Japan must solve these and other critical issues if they are to regain a strong, sustainable growth pattern.

Japan government’s initiatives to revive the economy are however showing signs of success.  Areas affected by Japan’s major initiatives include the privatization of Japan Post, reform of regulations to encourage foreign investment and, improving areas in the regulatory framework to enhance competition.

Japan remains a powerful, solid and consistent player in the global economic marketplace. Japan is among the world’s largest and technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronic equipment, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemicals, textiles and processed foods. Importantly, robotics constitutes a primary long-term economic strength for Japan, currently possessing 410,000 of the world’s 730,000  “working robots”.

Despite concerns over the effects of deflation, the most current economic status report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed the 2005 economic conditions in Japan to be the best in a decade. Experts appear to agree that Japan is now “poised for sustainable future growth”.