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Chain of islands east of the Asian mainland. Equivalent in land size to 616 by 616 kilometers, or roughly 384 by 384 miles. Capital: Tokyo (pronounced toh kyo, rather than toh ki oh).
Japan is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The reigning monarch isEmperor Akihito, first son of Emperor Hirohito, who died January 7, 1989. Hirohito's death was followed by crowds converging on the imperial palace, flags flying at half mast, government offices closed for six days and the public avoiding anything festive. Emperor Hirohito had been so elevated that some advisors did not look at him, and children had been told they would be blinded if they looked at his face. Hirohito's blood ties with Japan's ancient god ended with military defeat in 1945 - another instance of violence impacting religion - Hirohito having given it up calmly as just another forgettable official tradition. Emperor Akihito is a monarch similar to the many monarchs in Europe. He is a figurehead. And there is no longer an empire - the title a left over from a previous age. Emperor Akihito's wife, Empress Michiko, was from a family not of the aristocracy, the first such empress. But aristocracy has little if any significance in Japan today, while Emperor Akhito and Empress Michiko represent dignity for the Japanese.
Emperor Akihito is also a cellist and studies fishes.
Figures unless otherwise stated are from the CIA Factbook.
Estimated per capita GDP:
2007 $33,800 (Ranks 34th)
GDP annual growth rate estimated for 2007: 1.9 percent. (Ranks 190)
2008: Consumer buying is weak. Incomes and wage growth have been flat. Japan needs to import energy, and the rising price of oil is a burden.
2008 CIA Factbook: "Japan's huge government debt, which totals 182% of GDP, and the aging of the population are two major long-run problems."
The economy slowed in the 1980s, and over-eager investors lost money with the shrinking economy. In the 1990s the Japanese were not inclined to produce a robust recovery by increasing their buying, despite flat interest rates designed to do so. And into the 21st century the reform of banking remained unaddressed.
Automobiles remain Japan's major export, led by Honda and Toyota. Other exports: semi-conductions, office machinery and chemicals.
The U.S. is Japan's biggest buyer, consuming 24 percent of its exports, followed by China and South Korea. Japan's imports are mainly from China, at 19.7 percent compared to 15.6 percent from the United States (2003 estimates). Japan had a favorable export/import ratio in 2004: $538.8 billion versus $401 billion, despite its huge importation of oil. This ratio is under pressure in 2005 with the rise in oil prices.
In 2002, Japan had 5.5 percent of its population in agriculture. Japan protects its farmers and subsidizes agriculture - in part at least as a security measure. Farmers might otherwise be wiped out by imports at a lower price. With money from exports Japan is buying from abroad 50 percent of its gains and fodder crops.
Japan's fishing fleets account for nearly 15 percent of world's fishing catch.
Factbook "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."
For 2007, deaths 8.98, births 8.1, down from 9.47 in 2005
The retirement age in Japan is 60.
As of July 2007, Japan's population is estimated at 127.4 million, in an area slightly smaller than California, which in 2004 had a population between 36 and 37 million. To quote the scholar Jared Diamond: "Almost 80 percent of Japan's area consists sparsely populated forested mountains." And according to Diamond, Japan has 5,000 persons for every square mile of farmland.
The crowding on subway commute perhaps reduces happiness in Japan. Japan's net happiness rating, recorded on NationMaster.com, is 72 percent, compared to the happiness leaders between 94-89 percent - Scandinavian countries, Australia and Switzerland. It is said that happy people are those with supportive relationships, a sense of control over their lives, good health and fulfilling work. Japan's percentage figure places it 19th in the world.
Japan has a zero population growth estimated for July 2007. At today's birth rate, more than 30 percent of the population in the year 2050 will be over 60. Because of the age distribution, Japan's population is expected to shrink by 2050, maybe to less than 100 million, compared to today's 127.4 million.
Infant mortality estimated for 2007: 2.8 deaths before the age of one year, per 1,000 live births, down from 3.26 in 2005.
Average life expectancy estimated for 2007: 82.02 years, up from 81.15 years. Japanese women have a life expectancy of 85.56, up from 84.61 years in 2005. This was the highest in the world.
In 1999 Japan spent $2,243 per person on health care, the United States $4,271 per person, Germany that year spent $2,697 per person, Canada $1,939.
Japan shares with Norway a most equitable distribution of wealth. The top 10 percent in household income in Japan in 1993 did 21.7 percent of the spending, the same as Norway for 1995, compared to 30.5 percent for the United States. The lowest 10 percent of households in Japan did 4.8 percent of the spending, in Norway 4.1 percent, and the U.S. 1.8 percent.
For a single worker without children, in the year 2001, including contributions to Social Security, a Japanese citizen citizen earning an average wage paid 24.2 percent of his or her income for taxes. For the U.S. this figure was 30 percent.
Japan ranks 12th in spending per person on foreign aid. In 2003, this figure was $71.53, compared to $23.76 per person for the United States.
A new generation of bright young people are rejecting the way of their parents. They enter universities with no clear purpose. They acquire skills and potential but are choosing not to be regular members of the country's workforce. Instead, they work when they think it necessary and quit when they want. They are living longer with their parents and are in no hurry to start a family or career.
Japan is ethnically homogeneous. Its largest ethnic minority is 0.4 percent of the population - 511,252 Koreans in a population of 127 million. It second largest ethnic minority is Chinese, at 244,221. Filipinos are counted at 89,851.
Japan has been moving toward the standards in freedom of expression of mature democracies, but in recent years there has been a problem in freedom of expression regarding the Emperor. In the United States people can insult President Bush and people are free to be inaccurate in their criticism of Bush. In Japan, the relationship between the Emperor and Shinto is not tolerated as an academic or newsworthy subject - or so it has been reported. As late as 1988 stating that Emperor Hirohito had at least some responsibility for World War II brought death threats. That year the mayor of Nagasaki made such a claim. Paramilitary groups, some in uniform, demonstrated against him, and he was threatened with expulsion from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
In Japan, as of 1991, the government was selecting and approving all school textbooks. Shintoism was a topic likely to be removed from textbooks. So too was wartime atrocities. One professor of history, Professor Ienega, challegened the powers of the Minisry of Education and lost on some points but won in reference to his right to describe an incident involving the Imperial Army over 100 years ago. (From Information, Freedom and Censorship, a World Report, 1991.)
The Japanese are as critical of errors in their nation's past as any people. No nation is perfect in this. Japan, moreover, has changed since more than sixty years ago - as has Germany. This site describes the "Rape of Nanjing" and is aware of the issue of textbooks. With this in mind it observes that the Japanese want good relations with the Chinese. They want to focus on the future and they deserve as much respect as any other nationality.
China's Premier, Wen Jiabon, has criticized Japan, calling on Japan to take "responsibility for history." This he says while China's textbooks are no better in respecting history than Japan's. A U.S. Asian scholar on the News Hour on April 22 described Japan's textbooks overall as better than those of China.
What is happening here, according to some analysts is concern by China's leadership that Japan getting a seat on the UN Security Council threatening China's status as Asia's leading political power.
China's leadership is Communist, and Communists are supposed to be anti-chauvinistic, including not nationalistically chauvinist.
Despite this site's view of Japan as the aggressor against China in the first half of the 20th century, there has been mail to this site describing attempts at understanding the Japanese as condoning Japan's atrocities. History is full of victims being big-minded and small-mindedness. Passionate mob actions critical of the Japanese today lack proper measure and border on the small-mindedness of the past. Some Chinese, on the other hand, forgive the Japanese but want the past remembered. That was the view I witnessed among Korean foreign students regarding the Japanese while at Berkeley in the sixties and early seventies. The Japanese colonialism in Korea had caused a lot of suffering.) But these Korean students at Berkeley were intelligent young people.
Some Chinese are still calling on the Japanese to apologize, which the Japanese have already done. A lot of U.S. citizens get riled up in opposition to their president apologizing to the world community for anything. Today Japan's Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, apologized again, in front of 100 Asian and African leaders, including China's President Hu Jintao. Koizumi apologized for the "tremendous damage and suffering" caused by Japan's wartime and colonialist past. Perhaps some Chinese want the Japanese to grovel? Koisumi, by the way, was warm and relaxed, shaking hands with President Hu with both hands, while Hu, according to Reuters news, "was stiff and expressionless."
SOURCES:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php
BBC News
Copyright © 2008 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.