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.

Geographic coordinates: 36 00 N 138 00 E

Map reference: Asia

Area
Comparative: slightly smaller than California

Land boundaries: 0 km

Coastline: 29,751 km

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

Terrain: mostly rugged and mountainous

Natural resources: negligible mineral resources fish

Irrigated land: 27,820 km² (1993 est.)

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

Geography
Note: strategic location in northeast Asia

Population: 126,549,976 (July 2000 est.)
Growth rate: 0.18% (2000 est.)
Below poverty line: NA%

Ethnic groups: Japanese 99.4% other 0.6% (mostly Korean)

Languages: Japanese

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

Population growth rate: 0.18% (2000 est.)

Birth rate: 9.96 births/1000 population (2000 est.)

Death rate: 8.15 deaths/1000 population (2000 est.)

Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1000 population (2000 est.)

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

Infant mortality rate: 3.91 deaths/1000 live births (2000 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.41 children born/woman (2000 est.)

Government type: constitutional monarchy

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

Independence: 660 BC (traditional founding by Emperor Jimmu)

National holiday: Birthday of the Emperor 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

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 2000)
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
Elections: House of Councillors - last held 12 July 1998 (next to be held NA July 2000); 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 2000 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 2000 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]

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
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, Hagatna (Guam), Honolulu, Houston, Kansas City (Missouri), 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-designate Howard H. BAKER, Jr.
From the us embassy: 10-5 Akasaka 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8,420
From the us mailing address: Unit 45,004, Box 205, APO AP 96,337-5,004
From the us telephone: [81] (03) 3,224-5,000
From the us fax: [81] (03) 3,224-5,856
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

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'.

Real gdp growth rate: 1.3% (2000 est.)

Real gdp per capita: purchasing power parity - $24,900 (2000 est.)

Gdp composition by sector of origin
Agriculture: 2%
Industry: 35%
Services: 63% (1999 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: 5.3% (2000 est.)

Labor force: 67.7 million (December 2000)
By occupation services: 65%
By occupation industry: 30%
By occupation agriculture: 5%

Unemployment rate: 4.7% (2000)

Population below poverty line: NA%

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

Budget
Revenues: $441 billion
Expenditures: $718 billion, including capital expenditures (public works only) of about $84 billion (FY01/02 est.)

Fiscal year: 1 April - 31 March

Inflation rate consumer prices: -0.7% (2000 est.)

Exports: $450 billion (f.o.b. 2000)
Commodities: motor vehicles semiconductors office machinery chemicals
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)
Commodities: fuels foodstuffs chemicals textiles office machinery
Partners: US 19% China 14.5% South Korea 5.4% Taiwan 4.8% Indonesia 4.3% Australia 3.9% (2000 est.)

Debt external: $NA

Exchange rates: yen per US dollar - 117.10 (January 2000) 107.77 (2000) 113.91 (1999) 130.91 (1998) 120.99 (1997) 108.78 (1996)

Electricity
Production: 1.018 trillion kWh (1999)
Production by source fossil fuel: 58.91%
Production by source hydro: 8.35%
Production by source nuclear: 30.31%
Production by source other: 2.43% (1999)
Consumption: 947.038 billion kWh (1999)
Exports: 0 kWh (1999)
Imports: 0 kWh (1999)

Telephones
Main lines in use: 60.381 million (1997)
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)

Internet
Country code: .jp
Service providers isps: 73 (2000)
Users: 27.06 million (2000)

Military expenditures
Dollar figure: $43 billion (FY01)
Percent of gdp: 0.96% (FY01)

Airports: 173 (2000 est.)
With paved runways total: 142
With paved runways over 3047 m: 8
With paved runways 2438 to 3047 m: 36
With paved runways 15-24 to 2437 m: 38
With paved runways 914 to 1523 m: 30
With paved runways under 914 m: 30 (2000 est.)
With unpaved runways total: 31
With unpaved runways 914 to 1523 m: 4
With unpaved runways under 914 m: 27 (2000 est.)

Heliports: 16 (2000 est.)

Pipelines: crude oil 84 km; petroleum products 322 km; natural gas 1800 km

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)

Waterways
Note: seagoing craft ply all coastal inland seas

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.)