Japan or Nippon
Background: While retaining its time-honored culture, Japan rapidly absorbed Western technology during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After its devastating defeat in World War II, Japan recovered to become the second most powerful economy in the world and a staunch ally of the US. While the emperor retains his throne as a symbol of national unity, actual power rests in networks of powerful politicians, bureaucrats, and business executives. The economy experienced a major slowdown in the 1990s following three decades of unprecedented growth.
Location: Eastern Asia, island chain between the North Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan, east of the Korean Peninsula
Geographic coordinates: 36 00 N, 138 00 E
Map references: Asia
Area: total: 377,835 sq km
land: 374,744 sq km
water: 3,091 sq km
note: includes Bonin Islands (Ogasawara-gunto), Daito-shoto, Minami-jima, Okino-tori-shima, Ryukyu Islands (Nansei-shoto), and Volcano Islands (Kazan-retto)
Area - comparative: slightly smaller than California
Land boundaries: 0 km
Coastline: 29,751 km
Maritime claims: contiguous zone: 24 NM
exclusive economic zone: 200 NM
territorial sea: 12 NM; between 3 NM and 12 NM in the international straits - La Perouse or Soya, Tsugaru, Osumi, and Eastern and Western Channels of the Korea or Tsushima Strait
Climate: varies from tropical in south to cool temperate in north
Terrain: mostly rugged and mountainous
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Hachiro-gata -4 m
highest point: Fujiyama 3,776 m
Natural resources: negligible mineral resources, fish
Land use: arable land: 11%
permanent crops: 1%
permanent pastures: 2%
forests and woodland: 67%
other: 19% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 27,820 sq km (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: many dormant and some active volcanoes; about 1,500 seismic occurrences (mostly tremors) every year; tsunamis; typhoons
Environment - current issues: air pollution from power plant emissions results in acid rain; acidification of lakes and reservoirs degrading water quality and threatening aquatic life; Japan is one of the largest consumers of fish and tropical timber, contributing to the depletion of these resources in Asia and elsewhere
Environment - international agreements: party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol
Geography - note: strategic location in northeast Asia
Japan People Top of Page
Population: 126,771,662 (July 2001 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 14.64% (male 9,510,296; female 9,043,074)
15-64 years: 67.83% (male 43,202,513; female 42,790,187)
65 years and over: 17.53% (male 9,351,340; female 12,874,252) (2001 est.)
Population growth rate: 0.17% (2001 est.)
Birth rate: 10.04 births/1,000 population (2001 est.)
Death rate: 8.34 deaths/1,000 population (2001 est.)
Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2001 est.)
Sex ratio: at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female
total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2001 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 3.88 deaths/1,000 live births (2001 est.)
Life expectancy at birth: total population: 80.8 years
male: 77.62 years
female: 84.15 years (2001 est.)
Total fertility rate: 1.41 children born/woman (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 0.02% (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 10,000 (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 150 (1999 est.)
Nationality: noun: Japanese (singular and plural)
adjective: Japanese
Ethnic groups: Japanese 99.4%, Korean 0.6% (1999)
Languages: Japanese
Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99% (1970 est.)
male: NA%
female: NA%
Government
Country name: conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Japan
Government type: constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government
Capital: Tokyo
Administrative divisions: 47 prefectures; Aichi, Akita, Aomori, Chiba, Ehime, Fukui, Fukuoka, Fukushima, Gifu, Gumma, Hiroshima, Hokkaido, Hyogo, Ibaraki, Ishikawa, Iwate, Kagawa, Kagoshima, Kanagawa, Kochi, Kumamoto, Kyoto, Mie, Miyagi, Miyazaki, Nagano, Nagasaki, Nara, Niigata, Oita, Okayama, Okinawa, Osaka, Saga, Saitama, Shiga, Shimane, Shizuoka, Tochigi, Tokushima, Tokyo, Tottori, Toyama, Wakayama, Yamagata, Yamaguchi, Yamanashi
Independence: 660 BC (traditional founding by Emperor Jimmu)
National holiday: Birthday of Emperor AKIHITO, 23 December (193
Constitution: 3 May 1947
Legal system: modeled after European civil law system with English-American influence; judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations
Suffrage: 20 years of age; universal
Executive branch: chief of state: Emperor AKIHITO (since 7 January 1989)
head of government: Prime Minister Junichiro KOIZUMI (since 24 April 2001)
cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister
Flag description: white with a large red disk (representing the sun without rays) in the center
Economy - overview: Government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, mastery of high technology, and a comparatively small defense allocation (1% of GDP) have helped Japan advance with extraordinary rapidity to the rank of second most technologically powerful economy in the world after the US and third largest economy in the world after the US and China. One notable characteristic of the economy is the working together of manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors in closely-knit groups called keiretsu. A second basic feature has been the guarantee of lifetime employment for a substantial portion of the urban labor force. Both features are now eroding. Industry, the most important sector of the economy, is heavily dependent on imported raw materials and fuels. The much smaller agricultural sector is highly subsidized and protected, with crop yields among the highest in the world. Usually self-sufficient in rice, Japan must import about 50% of its requirements of other grain and fodder crops. Japan maintains one of the world's largest fishing fleets and accounts for nearly 15% of the global catch. 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 because of the aftereffects of overinvestment during the late 1980s and contractionary domestic policies intended to wring speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets. Government efforts to revive economic growth have met little success and were further hampered in late 2000 by the slowing of the US and Asian economies. The crowding of habitable land area and the aging of the population are two major long-run problems. Robotics constitutes a key long-term economic strength, with Japan possessing 410,000 of the world's 720,000 "working robots".
GDP: purchasing power parity - $3.15 trillion (2000 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 1.3% (2000 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $24,900 (2000 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 2%
industry: 35%
services: 63% (1999 est.)
Population below poverty line: NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 4.8%
highest 10%: 21.7% (199
Inflation rate (consumer prices): -0.7% (2000 est.)
Labor force: 67.7 million (December 2000)
Labor force - by occupation: services 65%, industry 30%, agriculture 5%
Unemployment rate: 4.7% (2000)
Budget: revenues: $441 billion
expenditures: $718 billion, including capital expenditures (public works only) of about $84 billion (FY01/02 est.)
Industries: among world's largest and technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronic equipment, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemicals; textiles, processed foods
hydro: 8.35%
nuclear: 30.31%
Exports - commodities: motor vehicles, semiconductors, office machinery, chemicals
Exports - partners: US 30%, Taiwan 7%, South Korea 6.4%, China 6.2%, Hong Kong 5.6% (2000 est.)
Imports: $355 billion (c.i.f., 2000)
Imports - commodities: fuels, foodstuffs, chemicals, textiles, office machinery
Imports - partners: US 19%, China 14.5%, South Korea 5.4%, Taiwan 4.8%, Indonesia 4.3%, Australia 3.9% (2000 est.)
Debt - external: $NA
Economic aid - donor: ODA, $9.1 billion (1999)
Currency: yen (JPY)
Currency code: JPY
Exchange rates: yen per US dollar - 117.10 (January 2001), 107.77 (2000), 113.91 (1999), 130.91 (1998), 120.99 (1997), 108.78 (1996)
Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March
Japan Communications Top of Page
Telephones - main lines in use: 60.381 million (1997)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 63.88 million (2000)
Telephone system: general assessment: excellent domestic and international service
domestic: high level of modern technology and excellent service of every kind
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