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Economy overview
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Government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, mastery of high technology, and a comparatively small defense allocation (1% of GDP) 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 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, averaging just 1.7%, largely because of the after effects 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 with little success and were further hampered in 2000-2003 by the slowing of the US, European, and Asian economies. Japan's huge government debt, which totals more than 150% of GDP, and the ageing 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." Internal conflict over the proper way to reform the ailing banking system continues.
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GDP
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purchasing power parity - $3.582 trillion (2004 est.)
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GDP - real growth rate
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2.7% (2004 est.)
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GDP - per capita
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purchasing power parity - $28,200 (2004 est.)
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GDP - composition by sector
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agriculture: 1.3%
industry: 25.4%
services: 73.3% (2004 est.)
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Investment gross fixed
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23.9% of GDP (2004 est.)
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Population below poverty line
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NA
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Household income or consumption by percentage share
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lowest 10%: 4.8%
highest 10%: 21.7% (1993)
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Distribution of family income - Gini index
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24.9 (1993)
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Inflation rate consumer prices
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-0.3% (2004 est.)
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Labor force
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66.66 million (2004 est.)
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Labor force by occupation
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agriculture 5%, industry 25%, services 70% (2002 est.)
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Unemployment rate
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5.3% (2004 est.)
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Budget
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revenues: $1.327 trillion
expenditures: $1.646 trillion, including capital expenditures (public works only) of about $71 billion (2004 est.)
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Public debt
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154.6% of GDP (2004 est.)
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Agriculture products
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rice, sugar beets, vegetables, fruit, pork, poultry, dairy products, eggs, fish
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Industries
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among world's largest and technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronic equipment, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemicals, textiles, processed foods
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Industrial production growth rate
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3.3% (2004 est.)
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Electricity production
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1.037 trillion kWh (2001)
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Electricity production by source
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fossil fuel: 60%
hydro: 8.4%
other: 1.8% (2001)
nuclear: 29.8%
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Electricity consumption
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964.2 billion kWh (2001)
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Electricity exports
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0 kWh (2001)
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Electricity imports
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0 kWh (2001)
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Oil production
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17,330 bbl/day (2001 est.)
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Oil consumption
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5.29 million bbl/day (2001 est.)
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Oil exports
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93,360 bbl/day (2001)
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Oil imports
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5.449 million bbl/day (2001)
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Oil proved reserves
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29.29 million bbl (1 January 2002)
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Natural gas production
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2.519 billion cu m (2001 est.)
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Natural gas consumption
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80.42 billion cu m (2001 est.)
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Natural gas exports
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0 cu m (2001 est.)
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Natural gas imports
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77.73 billion cu m (2001 est.)
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Natural gas proved reserves
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20.02 billion cu m (1 January 2002)
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Current account balance
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$135.9 billion (2004 est.)
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Exports
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$447.1 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
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Exports commodities
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motor vehicles, semiconductors, office machinery, chemicals
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Exports partners
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US 24.8%, China 12.1%, South Korea 7.3%, Taiwan 6.6%, Hong Kong 6.3% (2003)
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Imports
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$346.6 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)
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Imports commodities
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machinery and equipment, fuels, foodstuffs, chemicals, textiles, raw materials (2001)
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Imports partners
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China 19.7%, US 15.6%, South Korea 4.7%, Indonesia 4.3% (2003)
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Reserves of foreign exchange gold
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$664.6 billion (2003)
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Debt external
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NA (2002 est.)
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Economic aid recipient
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Currency
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yen (JPY)
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Currency code
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JPY
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Exchange rates
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yen per US dollar - 115.933 (2003), 125.388 (2002), 121.529 (2001), 107.765 (2000), 113.907 (1999)
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Fiscal year
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1 April - 31 March
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This information was reproduced in part from the CIA World Fact book.
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