Japanese Rice Pictures

As of 2010, Japan is the third largest national economy in the world, after the United States and China, in terms of both nominal GDP (around US$5 trillion) and purchasing power parity. As of January 2011, Japan's public debt was more than 200 percent of its annual gross domestic product, the largest such ratio among industrialized nations. The service sector accounts for three quarters of the gross domestic product. Banking, insurance, real estate, retail, transportation, telecommunications and construction are all major industries. Japan has a large industrial capacity, and is home to some of the largest and most technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronics, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemical substances, textiles, and processed foods. Agricultural businesses in Japan often utilize a system of terrace farming, and crop yields are high; 13 percent of Japan's land is cultivated. Japan accounts for nearly 15 percent of the global fish catch, second only to China. Japan's agricultural sector is protected at high cost.
As of 2001, Japan's shrinking labor force consisted of some 67 million workers. Japan has a low unemployment rate of around 4 percent. Almost one in six Japanese, or 20 million people, lived in poverty in 2007. Housing in Japan is characterized by limited land supply in urban areas, particularly in Tokyo. More than half of all Japanese live in suburbs or more rural areas, where detached houses are the dominant housing type. Japan's GDP per hour worked is the world's 19th highest as of 2007.
Japan ranks 12th of 178 countries in the 2008 Ease of Doing Business Index and has one of the smallest tax revenues of the developed world. The Japanese variant of capitalism has many distinct features. Keiretsu enterprises are influential. Lifetime employment and seniority-based career advancement are relatively common in the Japanese work environment. Japanese companies are known for management methods like "The Toyota Way", and shareholder activism is rare. Japan's business culture has many indigenous concepts such as the nemawashi, the nenko system, the salaryman, and the office lady. Recently, Japan has moved away from some of these norms. In the Index of Economic Freedom, Japan is the fifth most laissez-faire of 30 Asian countries.
Japan's exports amounted to $US4,210 per capita in 2005. Japan's main export markets are China (18.88 percent), the United States (16.42 percent), South Korea (8.13 percent), Taiwan (6.27 percent) and Hong Kong (5.49 percent) as of 2009. Japan's main exports are transportation equipment, motor vehicles, electronics, electrical machinery and chemicals. Japan's main import markets as of 2009 are China (22.2 percent), the US (10.96 percent), Australia (6.29 percent), Saudi Arabia (5.29 percent), UAE (4.12 percent), South Korea (3.98 percent) and Indonesia (3.95 percent). Japan's main imports are machinery and equipment, fossil fuels, foodstuffs (in particular beef), chemicals, textiles and raw materials for its industries. By market share measures, domestic markets are the least open of any OECD country. Junichiro Koizumi's administration began some pro-competition reforms, and foreign investment in Japan has soared.