| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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) |
| Religions: |
observe both
Shinto and Buddhist 84%, other 16% (including Christian
0.7%) |
| Literacy: |
definition:
age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99% (1970 est.)
male: NA%
female: NA% |
| Country
name: |
conventional
long form: none
conventional short form: Japan |
| Government
type: |
constitutional
monarchy with a parliamentary government |
| 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 (1933) |
| 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
elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the
Diet designates the prime minister; the constitution
requires that the prime minister must command a
parliamentary majority, therefore, following legislative
elections, the leader of the majority party or leader of a
majority coalition in the House of Representatives usually
becomes prime minister
note: following the resignation of Prime
Minister Yoshiro MORI, Junichiro KOIZUMI was elected as the
new president of the majority Liberal Democratic Party, and
soon thereafter designated by the Diet to become the next
prime minister |
| Legislative
branch: |
bicameral Diet or
Kokkai consists of the House of Councillors or Sangi-in (252
seats; one-half of the members elected every three years -
76 seats of which are elected from the 47 multi-seat
prefectural districts and 50 of which are elected from a
single nationwide list; members elected by popular vote to
serve six-year terms) and the House of Representatives or
Shugi-in (480 seats - 180 of which are elected from 11
regional blocks on a proportional representation basis and
300 of which are elected from 300 single-seat districts;
members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
elections: House of Councillors - last held 12
July 1998 (next to be held NA July 2001); House of
Representatives - last held 25 June 2000 (next to be held by
June 2004)
election results: House of Councillors -
percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - LDP 102,
DPJ 47, JCP 23, Komeito 22, SDP 13, Liberal Party 12,
independents 26, others 7; note - the distribution of seats
as of February 2001 is as follows - LDP 112, DPJ 58, Komeito
24, JCP 23, SDP 13, Liberal Party 5, independents 7, others
10; House of Representatives - percent of vote by party -
NA%; seats by party - LDP 233, DPJ 127, Komeito 31, Liberal
Party 22, JCP 20, SDP 19, other 28; note - the distribution
of seats as of February 2001 is as follows - LDP 239, DPJ
129, Komeito 31, Liberal Party 22, JCP 20, SDP 19, other 20 |
| Judicial
branch: |
Supreme Court
(chief justice is appointed by the monarch after designation
by the cabinet; all other justices are appointed by the
cabinet) |
| Political
parties and leaders: |
Democratic Party
of Japan or DPJ [Yukio HATOYAMA, leader, Naoto KAN,
secretary general]; Japan Communist Party or JCP [Kazuo SHII,
chairman, Tadaaki ICHIDA, secretary general]; Komeito [Takenori
KANZAKI, president, Tetsuzo FUYUSHIBA, secretary general];
Liberal Democratic Party or LDP [Junichiro KOIZUMI,
president, Taku YAMASAKI, secretary general]; Liberal Party
[Ichiro OZAWA, president, Hirohisa FUJII, secretary
general]; New Conservative Party [Chikage OGI, president,
Takeshi NODA, secretary general]; Social Democratic Party or
SDP [Takako DOI, chairperson, Sadao FUCHIGAMI, secretary
general] |
| Political
pressure groups and leaders: |
NA |
| International
organization participation: |
AfDB, APEC, ARF
(dialogue partner), AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner),
Australia Group, BIS, CCC, CE (observer), CERN (observer),
CP, EBRD, ESCAP, FAO, G- 5, G- 7, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD,
ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO,
IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU,
NAM (guest), NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE
(partner), PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO,
UNITAR, UNRWA, UNU, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO,
ZC |
| Diplomatic
representation in the US: |
chief of
mission: Ambassador Shunji YANAI
chancery: 2520 Massachusetts Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20008
telephone: [1] (202) 238-6700
FAX: [1] (202) 328-2187
consulate(s) general: Anchorage, Atlanta,
Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Hagatna (Guam), Honolulu,
Houston, Kansas City (Missouri), Los Angeles, Miami, New
Orleans, New York, Portland (Oregon), San Francisco, and
Seattle
consulate(s): Saipan (Northern Mariana Islands) |
| Diplomatic
representation from the US: |
chief of
mission: Ambassador-designate Howard H. BAKER, Jr.
embassy: 10-5 Akasaka 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo
107-8420
mailing address: Unit 45004, Box 205, APO AP
96337-5004
telephone: [81] (03) 3224-5000
FAX: [81] (03) 3224-5856
consulate(s) general: Naha (Okinawa),
Osaka-Kobe, Sapporo
consulate(s): Fukuoka, Nagoya |
| 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% (1993) |
| 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 |
| Industrial
production growth rate: |
5.3% (2000 est.) |
| Electricity
- production: |
1.018 trillion
kWh (1999) |
| Electricity
- production by source: |
fossil fuel:
58.91%
hydro: 8.35%
nuclear: 30.31%
other: 2.43% (1999) |
| Electricity
- consumption: |
947.038 billion
kWh (1999) |
| Electricity
- exports: |
0 kWh (1999) |
| Electricity
- imports: |
0 kWh (1999) |
| Agriculture
- products: |
rice, sugar
beets, vegetables, fruit; pork, poultry, dairy products,
eggs; fish |
| Exports: |
$450 billion
(f.o.b., 2000) |
| 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.) |
| Economic
aid - donor: |
ODA, $9.1 billion
(1999) |
| 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 |
| 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
international: satellite earth stations - 5
Intelsat (4 Pacific Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean), 1
Intersputnik (Indian Ocean region), and 1 Inmarsat (Pacific
and Indian Ocean regions); submarine cables to China,
Philippines, Russia, and US (via Guam) (1999) |
| Radio
broadcast stations: |
AM 190, FM 88,
shortwave 24 (1999) |
| Radios: |
120.5 million
(1997) |
| Television
broadcast stations: |
7,108 (plus 441
repeaters; note - in addition, US Forces are served by 3 TV
stations and 2 TV cable services) (1999) |
| Televisions: |
86.5 million
(1997) |
| Internet
country code: |
.jp |
| Internet
Service Providers (ISPs): |
73 (2000) |
| Internet
users: |
27.06 million
(2000) |
| Railways: |
total:
23,670.7 km
standard gauge: 2,893.1 km 1.435-m gauge
(entirely electrified)
narrow gauge: 89.8 km 1.372-m gauge (89.8 km
electrified); 20,656.8 km 1.067-m gauge (10,383.6 km
electrified); 31 km 0.762-m gauge (3.6 km electrified)
(1994) |
| Highways: |
total:
1,152,207 km
paved: 863,003 km (including 6,114 km of
expressways)
unpaved: 289,204 km (1997 est.) |
| Waterways: |
1,770 km
approximately
note: seagoing craft ply all coastal inland
seas |
| Pipelines: |
crude oil 84 km;
petroleum products 322 km; natural gas 1,800 km |
| Ports
and harbors: |
Akita, Amagasaki,
Chiba, Hachinohe, Hakodate, Higashi-Harima, Himeji,
Hiroshima, Kawasaki, Kinuura, Kobe, Kushiro, Mizushima,
Moji, Nagoya, Osaka, Sakai, Sakaide, Shimizu, Tokyo,
Tomakomai |
| Merchant
marine: |
total:
630 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 11,691,174 GRT/15,484,848
DWT
ships by type: bulk 137, cargo 51, chemical
tanker 15, combination bulk 22, combination ore/oil 3,
container 22, liquefied gas 49, passenger 9, passenger/cargo
2, petroleum tanker 194, refrigerated cargo 15, roll on/roll
off 49, short-sea passenger 6, vehicle carrier 56 (2000
est.) |
| Airports: |
173 (2000 est.) |
| Airports
- with paved runways: |
total:
142
over 3,047 m: 8
2,438 to 3,047 m: 36
1,524 to 2,437 m: 38
914 to 1,523 m: 30
under 914 m: 30 (2000 est.) |
| Airports
- with unpaved runways: |
total:
31
914 to 1,523 m: 4
under 914 m: 27 (2000 est.) |
| Heliports: |
16 (2000 est.) |
| Military
branches: |
Japan Ground
Self-Defense Force (Army), Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
(Navy), Japan Air Self-Defense Force (Air Force) |
| Military
manpower - military age: |
18 years of age |
| Military
manpower - availability: |
males age
15-49: 29,926,614 (2001 est.) |
| Military
manpower - fit for military service: |
males age
15-49: 25,876,484 (2001 est.) |
| Military
manpower - reaching military age annually: |
males:
765,817 (2001 est.) |
| Military
expenditures - dollar figure: |
$43 billion
(FY01) |
| Military
expenditures - percent of GDP: |
0.96% (FY01) |
| Disputes
- international: |
islands of
Etorofu, Kunashiri, and Shikotan, and the Habomai group
occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945, now administered by
Russia, claimed by Japan; Liancourt Rocks (Takeshima/Tokdo)
disputed with South Korea; Senkaku-shoto (Senkaku Islands)
claimed by China and Taiwan |
|
