Japan (Nihon, or Nippon) is one of the leading economic powers. She is among the leaders along with the United States and China. It accounts for 70% of the total product of East Asia.
Japan's industry has reached a high level of development, especially in the areas of science and education. Among the leaders of the world economy are Toyota Motors, Sony Corporation, Fujitsu, Honda Motors, Toshiba and others.
Current state
Japan is poor in minerals - only reserves of coal, copper and lead-zinc ore are of importance. Recently, processing of the resources of the World Ocean has also become urgent - the extraction of uranium from sea water, the extraction of manganese nodules.
From the point of view of the global economy, the Land of the Rising Sun accounts for approximately 12% of total production. The leading industries in Japan are ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, mechanical engineering (especially automotive, robotics and electronics), chemical and food industries.
Industrial Zoning
Within the state, there are three largest regions:
- Tokyo-Yokohama, which includes Keihin, East Japan, Tokyo prefectures, Kanagawa, Kanto region.
- Nagoysky, Tyuk belongs to him.
- Osaka-Kobsky (Khan-sin).
In addition to the above, there are also smaller areas:
- Northern Kyushu (Kita-Kyushu).
- Kanto.
- East Marine Industrial Area (Tokai).
- Tokyo-Tiba (it includes Kei-yo, Eastern Japan, the Kanto region and Chiba prefecture).
- Inland Japanese Sea Area (Seto Nai-kai).
- Industrial area of ​​the northern lands (Hokuriku).
- Kashima district (this includes all the same Eastern Japan, Kashima, Kanto region and Ibaraki prefecture).
More than 50% of manufacturing revenues come from the areas of Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kobe, and Nagoya, as well as from Kitakyushu in the north of Kyushu.
The most active and stable element of the market in this country is small and medium-sized businesses. 99% of all Japanese companies belong to this sector. However, this is not true for the textile industry. Japan's light industry (the leading element of which is the aforementioned industry) is based on large, well-equipped enterprises.
Agro-industry
Agricultural land of the country occupies approximately 13% of its territory. Moreover, half of these lands are flooded fields used for rice cultivation. At its core, agriculture here is diversified, and it is based on agriculture, or rather, the cultivation of rice, industrial crops, cereals and tea.
However, this is not all that Japan can boast of. Industry and agriculture in this country are actively developed and supported by the government, paying them a lot of attention and investing a lot of money in their development. A significant role is also played by horticulture and vegetable growing, sericulture, animal husbandry, forestry and marine fishing.
An important place in the agricultural industry is rice. Vegetable growing is developed mainly in the suburbs, about a quarter of agricultural land is allocated for it. The remaining area is occupied by industrial crops, forage grasses and mulberry trees.
About 25 million hectares are covered by forests, in most cases the owners are peasants. Small owners own plots of about 1 ha. Among the large owners are members of the imperial family, monasteries and temples.
Cattle breeding
Livestock in the Land of the Rising Sun began to develop actively only after the Second World War. It has one feature - it is based on imported, imported feed (corn). Own Japanese economy is able to provide no more than a third of the total need.
The livestock center is Fr. Hokkaido In the northern regions developed pig breeding. In general, the number of cattle reaches 5 million individuals, with about half of them dairy cows.
Fishing
The sea is one of those advantages that Japan can enjoy. Industry and agriculture receive from the island location of the country multiple benefits: this is an additional way to deliver goods, and helps the tourism sector, and a variety of food products.
However, despite the sea, the country has to import a certain amount of products (according to international law, the extraction of marine animals is allowed only within the territorial waters).
The main objects of fishing are herring, flounder, cod, salmon, halibut, saury, etc. About a third of the catch comes from waters around the Hokkaido Island. Japan did not bypass the achievements of modern scientific thought: aquaculture is actively developing here (pearls, fish in lagoons and rice fields are grown ).
Transport
In 1924, the fleet of cars in the country totaled only about 17.9 thousand units. At the same time, there was an impressive number of rickshaws, cyclists, and carts that moved at the expense of oxen or horses.
20 years later, the demand for trucks increased, mainly due to the growing needs of the army. In 1941, 46,706 vehicles were produced in the country, of which 1,065 were passenger cars.
The automotive industry in Japan began to develop only after the Second World War, which was triggered by the war in Korea. More favorable conditions were provided by the Americans to those companies that undertook to fulfill military orders.
In the second half of the 50s, the demand for passenger cars also grew rapidly. By 1980, Japan overtook the United States and became the world's leading exporter. In 2008, this country was recognized as the largest automaker in the world.
Shipbuilding
This is one of the leading industries in which more than 400 thousand people are employed, taking into account those who work directly at factories and auxiliary enterprises.
The available capacities make it possible to build ships of all types and destinations, while as many as 8 docks are designed for the production of supertankers with a displacement of 400 thousand tons.
The development of Japanese industry in this area began after the Second World War, when in 1947 a program of planned shipbuilding began to operate. In accordance with it, companies received very favorable soft loans from the government, which grew every year as the budget increased.
By 1972, the 28th program provided (with state assistance) for the construction of ships with a total displacement of 3304 thousand gross tons. The oil crisis has greatly reduced the scale, however, the foundation laid by this program in the post-war years has served the stable and successful growth of the industry.
By the end of 2011, the order book for the Japanese was 61 million dwt. (36 million gt). The market share remained stable at 17% deadweight, with most of the orders related to bulk carriers (specialized ships, a type of bulk carrier for transporting goods such as grain, cement, bulk coal), and a smaller one to tankers.
At present, Japan remains the number one shipbuilding company in the world, despite serious competition from South Korean companies. Industry specialization and government support have created the foundation that keeps serious companies afloat even in this situation.
Metallurgy
The country has few resources, in connection with which a strategy for the development of the metallurgical complex was developed, aimed at energy and resource conservation. Innovative solutions and technologies allowed enterprises to reduce electricity consumption by more than a third, and innovations were applied both at the level of individual companies and in the whole industry.
Metallurgy, like other industries, specializing in Japanese industry, gained active development after the war. However, if other states sought to modernize and update their existing technologies, the government of this country took a different path. The main efforts (and money) were aimed at equipping enterprises with the most advanced technologies at that time.
The rapid development of the industry lasted about two decades and peaked in 1973, when Japan accounted for 17.27% of all global steel production. Moreover, in terms of quality, it claims to be a leader. This was stimulated, inter alia, by the import of metallurgical raw materials. Indeed, more than 600 million tons of coke and 110 million tons of iron ore products are imported annually.
By the mid-90s, Chinese and Korean metallurgical enterprises competed with the Japanese, and the country began to lose its leadership position. In 2011, the situation worsened due to the natural disaster and the Fukushima-1 disaster, however, according to approximate estimates, the overall decrease in production rates did not exceed 2%.
Chemical and petrochemical industry
The chemical industry of Japan in 2012 produced products for 40.14 trillion yen. The country is one of the three world leaders in conjunction with the United States and China, having about 5.5 thousand enterprises of the corresponding orientation and giving jobs to 880 thousand people.
Within the country itself, the industry ranks second (its share is 14% of the total), second only to engineering. The government is developing it as one of the key areas, paying great attention to the development of environmentally friendly, energy and resource-saving technologies.
Manufactured products are sold within Japan and exported: 75% - to Asian countries, about 10.2% - to the EU, 9.8% - to North America, etc. The main exports are rubber, photographic products and aromatic hydrocarbons, organic and inorganic compounds, etc.
The country of the rising sun also imports products (imported in 2012 amounted to about 6.1 trillion yen), mainly from the EU, Asia and the USA.
The chemical industry in Japan is the leader in the production of materials for the electronic industry, in particular, about 70% of the global market for semiconductor products and 65% - liquid crystal displays, belongs to the companies of this island country.
In modern conditions, much attention is paid to the development of the production of carbon fibers and composite materials for the nuclear and aviation industries.
Electronics
Much attention is paid to the development of information and telecommunications. The role of the “main locomotive of the industry” is played by three-dimensional image transmission technologies, robotics, next-generation fiber-optic and wireless networks, intelligent networks, and “cloud computing”.
In terms of infrastructure, Japan is catching up with China and the United States and is one of the three leaders. In 2012, the total number of Internet users in the country reached 80% of the total population. Manpower and resources are directed to the creation of supercomputers, the development of effective energy management systems and energy-saving technologies.
Energetics
About 80% of the energy demand in Japan was forced to meet through imports. Initially, this role was played by fuel, especially oil, from the Middle East. In order to reduce dependence on shipments in the Land of the Rising Sun, a number of measures have been taken, in particular with regard to the “peaceful atom”.
Japan began research programs in the field of nuclear energy in 1954. Several laws have been passed and organizations have been created to fulfill the government’s goals in this area. The first commercial nuclear reactor was imported from the United Kingdom, starting in 1966.
A few years later, the country's utilities purchased blueprints from the Americans and, together with local companies, built objects on them. Japanese companies Toshiba Co., Ltd., Hitachi Co., Ltd. and others began to design and build light-water reactors themselves.
In 1975, due to problems with existing stations, an improvement program was launched. In accordance with it, Japan’s nuclear industry had to go through three stages by 1985: the first two were supposed to change existing designs in order to improve their operation and maintenance, the third required an increase in power to 1300-1400 mW and fundamental changes to the reactors.
Such a policy led to the fact that in 2011 in Japan there were 53 operating reactors, which provided more than 30% of the country's electricity needs.
After the Fukushima
In 2011, Japan's energy industry received a serious blow. As a result of the strongest earthquake in the history of the country and the ensuing tsunami, an accident occurred at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. After the subsequent major leak of radioactive elements, 3% of the country's territory was contaminated, the population of the zone around the station (about 80 thousand people) turned into immigrants.
This event led many countries to think about how acceptable and safe the operation of an atom is.
There was a wave of protest inside Japan demanding abandonment of nuclear energy. By 2012, most of the country's stations were turned off. The characteristics of Japan’s industry in recent years fit into one sentence: “This country is striving to become green.”
Now it actually doesn’t use an atom, the main alternative is natural gas. Much attention is also paid to renewable energy: the sun, water and wind.