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Japan Economic Information
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 had been the lifetime employment for a significant portion of the urban labor force. Both features are now declining. 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. 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 - $3.9 trillion (2005 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 2.4% (2005 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $30,500 (2005 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 1.3%
industry: 25.3%
services: 73.5% (2005 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 4.8%
highest 10%: 21.7% (1993)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): -0.2% (2005 est.)
Labor force: 66.4 million ( 2005 est)
Labor force - by occupation: services 65%, industry 30%, agriculture 5%
Unemployment rate: 4.6% (2005)
Budget: revenues: $1.4 trillion
expenditures: $1.77 trillion, including capital expenditures (public works only) of about $71 billion (2005 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: 1.5% (2005 est.)
Electricity - production: 1.017 trillion kWh (2003)
Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 58.91%
hydro: 8.35%
nuclear: 30.31%
other: 2.43% (1999)
Electricity - consumption: 946 billion kWh (2003)
Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (2003)
Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (2003)
Agriculture - products: rice, sugar beets, vegetables, fruit; pork, poultry, dairy products, eggs; fish
Exports: $555 billion (f.o.b., 2005 est)
Exports - commodities: motor vehicles, semiconductors, office machinery, chemicals
Exports - partners: US 30%, Taiwan 7.4%, South Korea 7.8%, China 6.2%, Hong Kong 5.6% (2000 est.)
Imports: $451 billion (c.i.f., 2005 est.)
Imports - commodities: fuels, foodstuffs, chemicals, textiles, office machinery
Imports - partners: US 22.7%, China 13.1%, South Korea 5.4%, Taiwan 4.8% (2004 est.)
Economic aid - donor: ODA, $8.9 billion (2004)
Currency: yen (JPY)
Exchange rates: yen per US dollar - 110 (2005), 108 (2004) 115 (2003) 125 (2002) 121 (2001), 108 (2000)
Fiscal year: April 1 to March 31
Source: U.S. government
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