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National name: Nippon
Emperor: Akihito (1989)
Prime Minister: Shinzo Abe (2006)
Land area: 144,689 sq mi (374,744 sq km); total area: 145,883 sq mi (377,835 sq
km)
Population (2006 est.): 127,463,611 (growth rate: 0.0%); birth rate: 9.4/1000;
infant mortality rate: 3.2/1000; life expectancy: 81.2; density per sq mi: 836
Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Tokyo, 35,327,000 (metro. area), 8,483,050
(city proper)
Other large cities: Yokohama, 3,494,900 (part of Tokyo metro. area); Osaka,
11,286,000 (metro. area), 2,597,000 (city proper); Nagoya, 2,189,700; Sapporo,
1,848,000; Kobe, 1,529,900 (part of Osaka metro. area); Kyoto, 1,470,600 (part
of Osaka metro. area); Fukuoka, 1,368,900; Kawasaki, 1,276,200 (part of Tokyo
metro. area); Hiroshima, 1,132,700
Monetary unit: Yen
Language: Japanese
Ethnicity/race: Japanese 99%; Korean, Chinese, Brazillian, Filipino, other 1%
(2004)
Religions: Shintoist and Buddhist 84%, other 16% (including Christian 0.7%)
Literacy rate: 99% (1995 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $3.914 trillion; per capita $30,700. Real
growth rate: 2.4%. Inflation: –0.2%. Unemployment: 4.3%. Arable land: 12%.
Agriculture: rice, sugar beets, vegetables, fruit; pork, poultry, dairy
products, eggs; fish. Labor force: 66.4 million; agriculture 4.6%, industry
27.8%, services 67.7% (2004). 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. Natural resources: negligible mineral resources, fish. Exports:
$550.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): transport equipment, motor vehicles,
semiconductors, electrical machinery, chemicals. Imports: $451.1 billion f.o.b.
(2005 est.): machinery and equipment, fuels, foodstuffs, chemicals, textiles,
raw materials (2001). Major trading partners: U.S., China, South Korea, Taiwan,
Hong Kong, Indonesia, Australia, Saudi Arabia, UAE (2004).
Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 71.149 million (2002); mobile
cellular: 86,658,600 (2003). Radio broadcast stations: AM 215 plus 370
repeaters, FM 89 plus 485 repeaters, shortwave 21 (2001). Television broadcast
stations: 211 plus 7,341 repeaters; note: in addition, U.S. Forces are served by
3 TV stations and 2 TV cable services (1999). Internet hosts: 12,962,065 (2003).
Internet users: 57.2 million (2002).
Transportation: Railways: total: 23,577 km (16,519 km electrified) (2004).
Highways: total: 1,171,647 km; paved: 903,340 km (including 6,851 km of
expressways); unpaved: 268,307 km (2001). Waterways: 1,770 km (seagoing vessels
use inland seas) (2004). Ports and harbors: Chiba, Kawasaki, Kiire, Kisarazu,
Kobe, Mizushima, Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo, Yohohama. Airports: 174 (2004 est.).
International disputes: the sovereignty dispute over the islands of Etorofu,
Kunashiri, and Shikotan, and the Habomai group, known in Japan as the "Northern
Territories" and in Russia as the "Southern Kuril Islands", occupied by the
Soviet Union in 1945, now administered by Russia and claimed by Japan, remains
the primary sticking point to signing a peace treaty formally ending World War
II hostilities; Japan and South Korea claim Liancourt Rocks (Take-shima/Tok-do),
occupied by South Korea since 1954; China and Taiwan dispute both Japan's claims
to the uninhabited islands of the Senkaku-shoto (Diaoyu Tai) and Japan's
unilaterally declared exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea, the site of
intensive hydrocarbon prospecting.
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