An Overview of the Japan Economy

Last post I decided to write about a current event on Japan, and their current situation on deflation. On this post, I've decided to write an overview of the Japan economy in order to get familiar with each aspect of their economy.

First of all, Japan is located in the Eastern part of Asia, where it is indeed an island surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan.

CIA Factbook reports that Japan is the second largest economy in the world, behind the United States. In Japan, the word keiretsu is referred as manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors. Keiretsu is one of the notable characteristics of the Japan's post-WWII economy. Another notable characteristic is the guarantee of lifetime employment for most of the workers. A comment I have about this is that it's somewhat different from the United States. There is no guarantee ever about lifetime employment with certain businesses. There is always the chance of getting fired, or laid off. However, due to the pressures of global economy, the guarantee of lifetime employment is no longer becoming a guarantee. There is now the sense of competition.

Japan is dependent on raw material imports and fuel imports. This makes sense because of all the Japanese cars that are made, they need fuel somehow. Also, the consumer products that are Japanese brands, they need raw materials in order to make final goods. In class, we learned that Gross Domestic Product is the value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given time period. These final goods, such as motor vehicles, count toward their GDP.

Japan's agriculture is very interesting. The Japanese people are very self-sufficient in rice, and it's even part of their culture. However, CIA Factbook reports that Japan imports 60% of its food in a caloric basis. CIA Factbook reports that 1.6% of the Japan's GDP comes from agriculture. Therefore, they rely on importing food from other countries. Japan also is one of the largest powers in the fishing industry, and it is reported that they account for 15% of every fish caught around the world. That is a lot of fish.

I will be posting up more blogs about other aspects of Japan's economy every week. I hope you all will look forward to them.


Source:

CIA World Factbook (2010) - Accessed January 31, 2010.

For more information, visit https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html