Asia 2009 Trade and Investment Mission Blog

Japan is the world's second-largest economy.  Their gross domestic product was over $4.8 trillion in 2008.  As I mentioned in a previous post, Japan is expanding ties with other countries in Asia to help diversify their economic relations with the U.S. and Europe, although those ties are still strong.  Because the Japanese-American relationship has such a large technological and economic impact on the world, they cooperate on a broad range of global issues, including development assistance, combating communicable diseases and protecting the environment and natural resources.  Both countries also have strong collaboration in science and technology.

Japan is slightly smaller than the state of California and about 73 percent of the country is mountainous.  Because there isn't much flat land, many hills and mountainsides are cultivated all the way to the summits.  Their agriculture consists of rice, vegetables, fruit, milk, meat, silk and fish.  Japan is an urban society with only about 4 percent of the labor force engaged in agriculture.

The agricultural economy is highly subsidized and protected.  Japan has few natural resources, fish being their primary natural resource, and trade helps it earn the foreign exchange needed to purchase raw materials for its economy.  Japan is the largest foreign market for U.S. agricultural products, with total agricultural exports valued at over $10 billion in 2007.

Japan's population, over 127 million, has slowed due to falling birth rates.  In 2005, Japan's population declined for the first time.

Japan is a major market for many U.S. products, including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, films and music, commercial aircraft, nonferrous metals, plastics and medical and scientific supplies.