fishing fleets and
accounts for nearly 15% of the global catch. For three decades
overall economic growth had been spectacular: a 10% average in the
1960s, a 5% average in the 1970s and 1980s. Growth came to a halt in
1992-95 largely because of the aftereffects of overinvestment during
the late 1980s and contractionary domestic policies intended to
wring speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets.
At yearend 1995, the financial structure is shaky with banks holding
hundreds of billions of dollars of suspect assets. At the same time,
the continued basic strength of the economy has been reflected in
substantial trade surpluses, sizable foreign investments, and
remarkably low rates of unemployment, inflation, and social
disorder. The crowding of the habitable land area and the aging of
the population are two major long-run problems.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $2.6792 trillion (1995 est.)

GDP real growth rate: 0.3% (1995 est.)

GDP per capita: $21,300 (1995 est.)

GDP composition by sector:
agriculture: 2.1%
industry: 40.2%
services: 57.7% (1994)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): -0.1% (1995)

Labor force: 65.87 million (December 1994)
by occupation: trade and services 54%, manufacturing, mining, and
construction 33%, agriculture, forestry, and fishing 7%, government
3%, other 3% (1988)

Unemployment rate: 3.1% (1995)

Budget:
revenues: $595 billion
expenditures: $829 billion, including capital expenditures (public
works only) of about $122 billion (1995 est.)

Industries: among world's largest and technologically advanced
producers of steel and non-ferrous metallurgy, heavy electrical
equipment, construction and mining equipment, motor vehicles and
parts, electronic and telecommunication equipment, machine tools,
automated production systems, locomotives and railroad rolling
stock, ships, chemicals; textiles, processed foods

Industrial production growth rate: 3.3% (1995)

Electricity:
capacity: 205,140,000 kW (1993)
production: 915 billion kWh (1995)
consumption per capita: 7,293 kWh (1995)

Agriculture: rice, sugar beets, vegetables, fruit; pork, poultry,
dairy products, eggs; world's largest fish catch of 10 million
metric tons in 1991

Exports: $442.84 billion (f.o.b., 1995)
commodities: manufactures 97% (including machinery 46%, motor
vehicles 20%, consumer electronics 10%)
partners: Southeast Asia 38%