參考資料資料：選英文
GEOGRAPHY & CLIMATE
REGIONS OF JAPAN
FLORA & FAUNA
ECONOMY
TRADE & INVESTMENT
REGULATORY REFORM
ENERGY & RESOURCE
The Japanese economy is the second largest market economy in the world. In 2002 it recorded a gross domestic product (GDP) of 532.96 trillion yen. Per capita national income in 2001 was US $24,038, ranking Japan fifth among OECD member nations. Since the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s, however, GDP growth has stagnated, and, despite a couple of minor upturns, a sustained recovery has proved elusive. In an effort to revitalize the economy, the Japanese government is currently attempting to implement a wide range of structural and regulatory reforms. Major changes are also taking place in the corporate world as companies strive to increase competitiveness by moving away from traditional employment practices such as lifetime employment and seniority-based wages.

Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei's Basic Economic and Social Plan (February 1973) forecast continued high growth rates for the period 1973-1977. However, by 1973 domestic macroeconomic policy had resulted in a rapid increase in the money supply, which led to extensive speculation in the real-estate and domestic commodity markets. Japan was already suffering from double-digit inflation when, in October 1973, the outbreak of war in the Middle East led to an oil crisis. Energy costs rose steeply and the yen's exchange rate, which had not reflected its true strength, was shifted to a floating rate. The consequent recession lowered expectations of future growth, resulting in reduced private investment. Economic growth slowed from the 10% level to an average of 3.6% during the period 1974-1979, and 4.4% during the decade of the 1980s.

Despite the oil crisis and its aftermath, Japan's major export industries maintained competitiveness by cutting costs and increasing efficiency. Industrial energy demands were reduced and the automobile industry, in particular, was able to improve VLSI semiconductor industry. By the late 1970s, the computer, semiconductor, and other technology and information-intensive industries had entered a period of rapid growth.

As in the high-growth era, exports continued to play an important role in Japan's economic growth in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the trade friction that accompanied Japan's growing balance of payments surplus brought increasingly strident calls for Japan to further open domestic markets and to focus more on domestic demand as an engine of economic growth.