Map of Japan | Geography | People | Government | Economy | Energy | Communication
Military | Transportation | Transnational Issues | Year: Guide1989199019911992199319941995199619971998199920002001200220032004200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025 | More stats

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Background: In 1603 a Tokugawa shogunate (military dictatorship) ushered in a long period of isolation from foreign influence in order to secure its power. For 250 years this policy enabled Japan to enjoy stability and a flowering of its indigenous culture. Following the Treaty of Kanagawa with the United States in 1854 Japan opened its ports and began to intensively modernize and industrialize. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries Japan became a regional power that was able to defeat the forces of both China and Russia. It occupied Korea Formosa (Taiwan) and southern Sakhalin Island. In 1933 Japan occupied Manchuria and in 1937 it launched a full-scale invasion of China. Japan attacked US forces in 1941 - triggering America's entry into World War II - and soon occupied much of East and Southeast Asia. After its defeat in World War II Japan recovered to become an economic power 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 starting in the 1990s following three decades of unprecedented growth but Japan still remains a major economic power both in Asia and globally. In 2005 Japan began a two-year term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.


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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 reference: Asia

Area
Total: 377,835 km²
Land: 374,744 km²
Water: 3,091 km²
Note: includes Bonin Islands (Ogasawara-gunto), Daito-shoto, Minami-jima, Okino-tori-shima, Ryukyu Islands (Nansei-shoto), and Volcano Islands (Kazan-retto)
Comparative: slightly smaller than California

Land boundaries: 0 km

Coastline: 29,751 km

Maritime claims
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
Contiguous zone: 24 nm
Exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

Climate: varies from tropical in south to cool temperate in north

Terrain: mostly rugged and mountainous

Elevation
Extremes lowest point: Hachiro-gata -4 m
Extremes highest point: Mount Fuji 3,776 m

Natural resources: negligible mineral resources fish

Land use
Arable land: 12.19%
Permanent crops: 0.96%
Other: 86.85% (2001)

Irrigated land: 26,790 km² (1998 est.)

Major rivers

Major watersheds area km²

Total water withdrawal

Total renewable water resources

Natural hazards: many dormant and some active volcanoes; about 1500 seismic occurrences (mostly tremors) every year; tsunamis; typhoons

Geography
Note: strategic location in northeast Asia


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Population: 127,417,244 (July 2005 est.)
Growth rate: 0.05% (2005 est.)
Below poverty line: NA

Nationality
Noun: Japanese (singular and plural)
Adjective: Japanese

Ethnic groups
Note: up to 230,000 Brazilians of Japanese origin migrated to Japan in the 1990s to work in industries; some have returned to Brazil (2004)

Languages: Japanese

Religions: observe both Shinto and Buddhist 84% other 16% (including Christian 0.7%)

Demographic profile

Age structure
0-14 years: 14.3% (male 9,328,584/female 8,866,772)
15-64 years: 66.2% (male 42,462,533/female 41,942,835)
65 years and over: 19.5% (male 10,435,284/female 14,381,236) (2005 est.)

Dependency ratios

Median age
Total: 42.64 years
Male: 40.87 years
Female: 44.44 years (2005 est.)

Population growth rate: 0.05% (2005 est.)

Birth rate: 9.47 births/1000 population (2005 est.)

Death rate: 8.95 deaths/1000 population (2005 est.)

Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1000 population (2005 est.)

Population distribution

Urbanization

Major urban areas

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
International agreements party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling

Air pollutants

Sex ratio
At birth: 1.05 male/female
Under 15 years: 1.05 male/female
15-64 years: 1.01 male/female
65 years and over: 0.73 male/female
Total population: 0.96 male/female (2005 est.)

Mothers mean age at first birth

Maternal mortality ratio

Infant mortality rate
Total: 3.26 deaths/1000 live births
Male: 3.52 deaths/1000 live births
Female: 2.99 deaths/1000 live births (2005 est.)

Life expectancy at birth
Total population: 81.15 years
Male: 77.86 years
Female: 84.61 years (2005 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.39 children born/woman (2005 est.)

Contraceptive prevalence rate

Drinking water source

Current health expenditure

Physicians density

Hospital bed density

Sanitation facility access

Hiv/Aids
Adult prevalence rate: less than 0.1% (2003 est.)
People living with hivaids: 12,000 (2003 est.)
Deaths: 500 (2003 est.)

Major infectious diseases

Obesity adult prevalence rate

Alcohol consumption

Tobacco use

Children under the age of 5 years underweight

Education expenditures

Literacy
Definition: age 15 and over can read and write
Total population: 99%
Male: 99%
Female: 99% (2002)

School life expectancy primary to tertiary education

Youth unemployment


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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

Dependent areas

Independence: 660 BC (traditional founding by Emperor JIMMU)

National holiday: Birthday of Emperor AKIHITO 23 December (1933)

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

International law organization participation

Citizenship

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 26 April 2001)
Cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister
Elections: Diet designates prime minister; constitution requires that prime minister commands parliamentary majority; following legislative elections, leader of majority party or leader of majority coalition in House of Representatives usually becomes prime minister; KOIZUMI's term as leader of the LDP is scheduled to end in September 2006; a new prime minister may be chosen at that time; monarch is hereditary

Legislative branch
Elections: House of Councillors - last held 11 July 2004 (next to be held in July 2007); House of Representatives - last held 11 September 2005 (next election by September 2009)
Election results: House of Councillors - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - LDP 115, DPJ 82, Komeito 24, JCP 9, SDP 5, others 7; distribution of seats as of October 2004 - LDP 114, DPJ 84, Komeito 24, JCP 9, SDP 5, others 6: House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - LDP 47.8%, DPJ 36.4%, others 15.8%; seats by party - LDP 296, DPJ 113, Komeito 31, JCP 9, SDP 7, others 24 (2005)

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 [Seiji MAEHARA leader; Yukio HATOYAMA secretary general]; Japan Communist Party or JCP [Kazuo SHII chairman; Tadayoshi ICHIDA secretary general]; Komeito [Takenori KANZAKI president; Tetsuzo FUYUSHIBA secretary general]; Liberal Democratic Party or LDP [Junichiro KOIZUMI president; Tsutomu TAKEBE secretary general]; Social Democratic Party or SDP [Mizuho FUKUSHIMA chairperson; Seiji MATAICHI secretary general]

International organization participation: AfDB APEC APT ARF AsDB ASEAN (dialogue partner) Australia Group BIS CE (observer) CERN (observer) CP EBRD FAO G-5 G-7 G-8 G-10 IADB IAEA IBRD ICAO ICC ICFTU ICRM IDA IEA IFAD IFC IFRCS IHO ILO IMF IMO Interpol IOC IOM ISO ITU LAIA MIGA NAM (guest) NEA NSG OAS (observer) OECD OPCW OSCE (partner) Paris Club PCA UN UN Security Council (temporary) UNCTAD UNDOF UNESCO UNHCR UNIDO UNITAR UNMOVIC UNRWA UPU WCL WCO WFTU WHO WIPO WMO WToO WTO ZC

Diplomatic representation
In the us chief of mission: Ambassador Ryozo KATO
In the us chancery: 2,520 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20,008
In the us telephone: [1] (202) 238-6,700
In the us fax: [1] (202) 328-2,187
In the us consulates general: Anchorage, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Agana (Guam), Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Portland (Oregon), San Francisco, and Seattle
In the us consulates: Saipan (Northern Mariana Islands)
From the us chief of mission: Ambassador J. Thomas SCHIEFFER
From the us embassy: 10-5 Akasaka 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8,420
From the us mailing address: Unit 45,004, Box 258, APO AP 96,337-5,004
From the us telephone: [81] (03) 3,224-5,000
From the us fax: [81] (03) 3,505-1862
From the us consulates general: Naha (Okinawa), Osaka-Kobe, Sapporo
From the us consulates: Fukuoka, Nagoya

Flag description: white with a large red disk (representing the sun without rays) in the center

National symbols

National anthem

National heritage


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Economy overview: 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 measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis. (Using market exhange rates rather than PPP rates Japan's economy is larger than China's.) 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 tiny 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. From 2000 to 2003 government efforts to revive economic growth met with little success and were further hampered by the slowing of the US European and Asian economies. In 2004 growth improved and the lingering fears of deflation in prices and economic activity lessened. Japan's huge government debt which totals more than 160% of GDP and the aging of the population are two major long-run problems. A rise in taxes could be viewed as endangering the revival of growth. 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.

Real gdp purchasing power parity: $3.745 trillion (2004 est.)

Real gdp growth rate: 2.9% (2004 est.)

Real gdp per capita: purchasing power parity - $29,400 (2004 est.)

Gross national saving

Gdp composition by end use

Gdp composition by sector of origin
Agriculture: 1.3%
Industry: 24.7%
Services: 74.1% (2004 est.)

Agriculture products: rice sugar beets vegetables fruit pork poultry dairy products eggs fish

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: 6.6% (2004 est.)

Labor force: 66.97 million (2004 est.)
By occupation agriculture: 5%
By occupation industry: 25%
By occupation services: 70% (2002 est.)

Unemployment rate: 4.7% (2004 est.)

Youth unemployment

Population below poverty line: NA

Gini index

Household income or consumption by percentage share
Lowest 10: 4.8%
Highest 10: 21.7% (1993)

Distribution of family income gini index: 24.9 (1993)

Budget
Revenues: $1.401 trillion
Expenditures: $1.748 trillion, including capital expenditures (public works only) of about $71 billion (2004 est.)

Taxes and other revenues

Public debt: 164.3% of GDP (2004 est.)

Revenue

Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March

Inflation rate consumer prices: -0.1% (2004 est.)

Central bank discount rate

Commercial bank prime lending rate

Stock of narrow money

Stock of broad money

Stock of domestic credit

Market value of publicly traded shares

Current account balance: $170.2 billion (2004 est.)

Exports: $538.8 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
Commodities: transport equipment motor vehicles semiconductors electrical machinery chemicals
Partners: US 22.7% China 13.1% South Korea 7.8% Taiwan 7.4% Hong Kong 6.3% (2004)

Imports: $401.8 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
Commodities: machinery and equipment fuels foodstuffs chemicals textiles raw materials (2001)
Partners: China 20.7% US 14% South Korea 4.9% Australia 4.3% Indonesia 4.1% Saudi Arabia 4.1% UAE 4% (2004)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $664.6 billion (2003)

Debt external: NA (2002 est.)

Stock of direct foreign investment at home

Stock of direct foreign investment abroad

Exchange rates: yen per US dollar - 108.19 (2004) 115.93 (2003) 125.39 (2002) 121.53 (2001) 107.77 (2000)


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Electricity
Production: 1.044 trillion kWh (2002)
Consumption: 971 billion kWh (2002)
Exports: 0 kWh (2002)
Imports: 0 kWh (2002)

Coal

Petroleum

Crude oil

Refined petroleum

Natural gas
Production: 2.519 billion m³ (2001 est.)
Consumption: 80.42 billion m³ (2001 est.)
Exports: 0 m³ (2001 est.)
Imports: 77.73 billion m³ (2001 est.)
Proven reserves: 20.02 billion m³ (1 January 2002)

Carbon dioxide emissions

Energy consumption per capita


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Telephones
Main lines in use: 71.149 million (2002)
Mobile cellular: 86,658,600 (2003)

Telephone system
General assessment: excellent domestic and international service
Domestic: high level of modern technology and excellent service of every kind
International: country code - 81; 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)

Broadcast media

Internet
Country code: .jp
Hosts: 12,962,065 (2003)
Users: 57.2 million (2002)

Broadband fixed subscriptions


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Military expenditures
Dollar figure: $45.841 billion (2004)
Percent of gdp: 1% (2004)

Military and security forces

Military service age and obligation: 18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)

Space program

Terrorist groups


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National air transport system

Civil aircraft registration country code prefix

Airports: 174 (2004 est.)
With paved runways total: 143
With paved runways over 3047 m: 7
With paved runways 2438 to 3047 m: 37
With paved runways 15-24 to 2437 m: 39
With paved runways 914 to 1523 m: 28
With paved runways under 914 m: 32 (2004 est.)
With unpaved runways total: 31
With unpaved runways over 3047 m: 1
With unpaved runways 914 to 1523 m: 4
With unpaved runways under 914 m: 26 (2004 est.)

Heliports: 15 (2004 est.)

Pipelines: gas 2,719 km; oil 170 km; oil/gas/water 60 km (2004)

Railways
Total: 23,577 km (16,519 km electrified)
Standard gauge: 3,204 km 1.435-m gauge (3,204 km electrified)
Narrow gauge: 77 km 1.372-m gauge (77 km electrified); 20,265 km 1.067-m gauge (13,227 km electrified); 11 km 0.762-m gauge (11 km electrified) (2004)

Roadways

Waterways: 1770 km (seagoing vessels use inland seas) (2004)

Merchant marine
Total: 702 ships (1,000 GRT or over) 10,149,196 GRT/12,680,544 DWT
By type: bulk carrier 136, cargo 29, chemical tanker 23, container 13, liquefied gas 53, passenger 16, passenger/cargo 157, petroleum tanker 160, refrigerated cargo 4, roll on/roll off 52, vehicle carrier 59
Registered in other countries: 2,233 (2005)

Ports and terminals


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Disputes international: the sovereignty dispute over the islands of Etorofu Kunashiri and Shikotan and the Habomai group known in Japan as the 'Northern Territories' and in Russia as the 'Southern Kuril Islands' occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945 now administered by Russia and claimed by Japan remains the primary sticking point to signing a peace treaty formally ending World War II hostilities; Japan and South Korea claim Liancourt Rocks (Take-shima/Tok-do) occupied by South Korea since 1954; China and Taiwan dispute both Japan's claims to the uninhabited islands of the Senkaku-shoto (Diaoyu Tai) and Japan's unilaterally declared exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea the site of intensive hydrocarbon prospecting

Refugees and internally displaced persons

Illicit drugs