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".

GDP: purchasing power parity - $3.15 trillion (2000 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 1.3% (2000 est.)

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

GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 2%

industry: 35%

services: 63% (1999 est.)

Population below poverty line: NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%:
4.8%

highest 10%: 21.7% (1993)

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

Labor force: 67.7 million (December 2000)

Labor force - by occupation: services 65%, industry 30%, agriculture
5%

Unemployment rate: 4.7% (2000)

Budget: revenues: $441 billion

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

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.)

Electricity - production: 1.018 trillion kWh (1999)

Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 58.91%

hydro: 8.35%

nuclear: 30.31%

other: 2.43% (1999)

Electricity - consumption: 947.038 billion kWh (1999)

Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (1999)

Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (1999)

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

Expor