JAPAN

EFFORTS PUT IN BY:

Jasmeet Khurana (61)

Mayank Arora (74)
Nikhil Chaudhary (92)
Nishita Jain (94)
Priyanka Grover (109)
 LOCATION
• Situated off the eastern edge of the Asian continent, the
Japanese archipelago is bounded on the North by the Sea of
Okhotsk, on the East and South by the Pacific Ocean, on
the South West by the East China Sea, and on the West by the
Sea of Japan / East Sea.

• The total area of Japan is 377,835 sq km (145,883 sq mi).

Comparatively, the area occupied by Japan is slightly smaller
than the state of California.

• It extends 3,008 km (1,869 mi) NE – SW and 1,645 km (1,022

mi) SE – NW and has a total coastline of 29,751 km (18,486 mi).
 IMPORTANT FACTS
•Japan's population was estimated at 124,360,976 in July 2010.
•Japan has the world's tenth-largest population. The Greater Tokyo Area,
which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several
surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world,
with over 30 million residents.
•The climate of Japan is predominantly temperate. The highest
temperature ever measured in Japan—40.9 °C (105.6 °F). The main rainy
season begins in early May in Okinawa, and the stationary rain front
gradually works its way north until reaching Hokkaido in late July. In
most of Honshū, the rainy season begins before the middle of June and
lasts about six weeks. In late summer and early autumn, typhoons often
bring heavy rain.
 RELIGION

• Shinto and Buddhism are Japan's two major

religions. They have been co-existing for several
centuries and have even complemented each other
to a certain degree. Most Japanese consider
themselves Buddhist, Shintoist or both.
•Religion does not play a big role in the everyday
life of most Japanese people today. The average
person typically follows the religious rituals at
ceremonies like
birth, weddings and funerals, may visit a
shrine or temple on New Year and participates at
local festivals (matsuri), most of which have a
religious background.
 LANGUAGE
• Japanese  is a language spoken by over 127 million people
in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities.

• The Japanese language is written with a combination of

three scripts: Chinese characters called kanji and
two syllabic scripts made up of modified Chinese
characters, hiragana and katakana.
• The Latin alphabet, rōmaji is also often used in modern
Japanese, especially for company names and logos,
advertising, and when entering Japanese text into a
computer. 
 POPULATION
• Japan's population was estimated at 126,549,976 in July 2000. The
population grew from 115,000,000 in 1975 to 126,300,000 in 1998,
indicating a growth rate of 0.5 percent. With Japan in a state of near zero
population growth, this total is expected to decline to 126,000,000 by
2015.

• The Japanese population is very old. According to the 2000 estimation, 17

percent of the population is 65 years old and over, a proportion that is
expected to rise to 24.6 percent by 2015. In 2000, 15 percent of the
population was under 14, and 68 percent was between 15 and 64.

• The population is highly urbanized, with about 78.5 percent of the

population living in urban areas in 1998, a very small increase from 1975,
when they accounted for 75.7 percent.
 GOVERNMENT.
• The government of Japan is a constitutional
monarchy where the power of the Emperor is
very limited. As a ceremonial figurehead, he is
defined by the constitution as "the symbol of the
state and of the unity of the people". Power is
held chiefly by the Prime Minister of Japan and
other elected members of the Diet, while
sovereignty is vested in the Japanese people. The
Emperor effectively acts as the head of state on
diplomatic occasions. Akihito is the current
Emperor of Japan. Naruhito, Crown Prince of
Japan, stands as next in line to the throne.
ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION

• Japan is divided into forty-seven administrative divisions,

the prefectures: one metropolitan district (to—Tokyo), two urban
prefectures (fu—Kyoto and Osaka), forty-three rural prefectures
(ken), and one "district" (note district is different from gun which
appears later)(dō—Hokkaidō). Large cities are subdivided into
wards (ku), and further split into towns, or precincts (machi or chō),
or subprefecture (shichō) and counties (gun).
• Cities (shi) are self-governing units administered
independently of the larger jurisdictions within which they are
located. In order to attain shi status, a jurisdiction must have at
least 30,000 inhabitants, 60 percent of whom are engaged in
urban occupations. The terms machi and chō designate self-
governing towns outside the cities as well as precincts of urban
wards. Like the cities, each has its own elected mayor and
assembly. Villages (son or mura) are the smallest self-governing
entities in rural areas. They often consist of a number of rural
hamlets (buraku) containing several thousand people
connected to one another through the formally imposed
framework of village administration. Villages have mayors and
councils elected to four-years terms.
 PORTS IN JAPAN
• There are 1020 ports in Japan, 22 of which are main ports of special
purpose, 106 main ports and 892 local ports.
The development of most significant for economics Japanese ports
is financed 2/3 by government means; the remaining part is
financed by port-managing organizations.

• Port investment projects are estimated on the economic aspect, most

frequently without financial estimation.

• The aim is not to gain profit from the port activity but broader
influence on the economy while estimating the relationship
between costs and profit.
 TAXATION
• Variety of tax rates for corporations
a) Size,
b)Revenue and
c) Location,

• For individuals based on their-

a) Income,
b)Location, and
c) Personal Status.
• Tax rates for Japanese and foreign corporations are the same.

• Foreign corporations operating in Japan are only liable for their income generated in
that country.

• There are various tax breaks for businesses to stimulate economic activities.

• Corporate taxes accounted for 40.87 percent of total collected taxes in 1999, while
other taxes, including personal income taxes and indirect taxes , accounted for the
rest.

• Taxes and stamp revenues form the bulk of government revenues (92.6 percent in
1999). Non-tax revenues (e.g., tariffs and various government fees) account for the
remainder of government revenues (7.4 percent in 1999). Budget deficits are
common, since government expenditures are always much larger than government
revenues. There are 3 major reasons for this: tax rates are generally low; the aging
Japanese population provides limited tax revenues, especially from the growing
retired population, and consequently requires more government spending on health-
care services; and the government spends large sums to stimulate economic growth.
In the 1999-2000 fiscal year, total government revenues from tax and non-tax sources
were about $446 billion while expenditures were $718 billion.
ECONOMY
• Japan is one of the most technologically advanced
societies on Earth; as a result, it has the world's second
largest economy by GDP (after the U.S.). Japan exports
automobiles, consumer and office electronics, steel, and
transportation equipment. It imports food, oil, lumber,
and metal ores.
• Economic growth stalled in the 1990s, but since has
rebounded to a quietly respectable 2% per year.
• The services sector employs 67.7% of the work-force,
industry 27.8%, and agriculture 4.6%. The
unemployment rate is 4.1%.
• Per capita GDP in Japan is $38,500; 13.5% of the
population lives below the poverty line.
 MAJOR PRODUCTIONS
•Industrial goods: electronics, cars, plastics, etc.
• Most Japanese organizations are either directly or indirectly involved with the export
and manufacturing of industrial goods.

•Japan has a smaller service sector than most other industrialized nations (Figure 1). The service
sector is primarily servicing domestic demand and the Japanese
industrial complex.
Service Sector Of Economies % of GDP
France 77
USA 76

UK 75

Italy 71

Germany 70
•Japan, together with Germany has a huge service trade deficit.
• When looking at employment numbers in a specific sub-sector called
‘intermediate
services’ - services aimed primarily at the business community - Japan
employs 3 to 4
times less people than their G7 counterparts.
• Outward FDI has gone from a wide varied investment in multiple service
sub-sectors to a
single focus on finance and trade.

The Japanese Disease: An apparent relationship between the increase of

manufacturing
exports and a decline in the service sector. An increase in revenues from
the industrial
sector will delay the post-industrialization of a nation’s economy by
lowering the exchange
rates, which makes the manufacturing sector more dominant.
JAPAN’S ECONOMIC GROWTH STRATEGY
BY DPJ
•We will increase the disposable income of households and encourage consumption, by
introducing policies such as
a) child allowance,
b) free high school education,
c) abolishment of highway tolls, and
d) abolishment of provisional tax rates. These measures will change the
•Japanese economy to one centred on domestic demand, and will make stable economic
growth possible.
•The development and proliferation of the latest technologies such as IT, biotechnology,
and nanotechnology will be supported. Strong government support will be given
particularly to measures against global warming in order to further enhance Japanʼs
advanced technical skills in this area and to nurture the environment-related sector as a
future growth industry.
•The agricultural, forestry, fishery, medical and nursing care industries are new growth
industries. Providing an individual household income support
a) allowance for farmers,
b) improving working conditions for people in the medical and
c) nursing care sectors and other
measures will be taken to enhance attractiveness and growth potential of these industries,
and nurture them so that they become industries that create large-scale employment.
•When industrial production becomes more commoditized, it becomes vital for an economy
to move beyond it’s industrial era.
•Such knowledge economies can only come to exist by creating a healthy business and
investment climate, a characteristic that is present in the US, but is very often underrated and
undervalued.
• There are many deep cultural issues that need to be addressed first in order for people to
step outside of their comfort zone, something that’s affecting everything from business to
education.