Economy of Japan

Japan is a country in eastern Asia. It is located on 4 large islands (Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku and Kosu) and numerous small ones adjacent to them. The territory of the country is about 372.2 thousand square kilometers. The population is about 122 million, of which more than 99% are Japanese by nationality. The capital of the country is Tokyo (about 12 million people).

Japan is a monarchy led by the emperor, but under the Constitution of 1889, legislative power was exercised by the emperor in conjunction with the parliament.

The economy of Japan developed under the influence of many factors. In the late 60s of the 19th century, the unfinished bourgeois revolution opened a new capitalist stage in the history of Japan. The large-scale bourgeois reform that was carried out the day before has cleared the ground for the development of capitalism in the country. The process of turning the country into an imperialist power was proceeding successfully.

The economy of Japan since 1940 was placed at the service of foreign policy. The country concluded a military alliance with Germany and Italy, and from 1941 entered the Second World War. Only after the defeat of militaristic Japan in 1945 did some democratic reforms begin in the country.

The model of reform, which characterized the postwar economy of Japan, had the following features. The development of production was a priority task for all the rest, the country refused to follow the "laws of the free market." As a result of the "shock economic therapy", by 1949 the Japanese industrial production was almost completely restored.

The government pursued such an investment and structural policy that contributed to the formation of industries peculiar to industrialized countries. The Japanese economy developed after the Second World War as part of an uncompromising defense of the national capital in the sphere of production, banking and other spheres, and also defended its agriculture with subsidies and protectionist policies.

All this led to the fact that Japan's economy began to be characterized by a special model of development, which became known as planned-market. Administrative regulation was combined with the economic system of private entrepreneurship.

The new Constitution of 1947 proclaimed democratic freedoms and rights. The agrarian reform transferred for the ransom most of the landed estates to the peasants. The largest monopolies were crushed.

The 60s-70s were the time when Japan became a particularly prominent figure in the world economy. It has become the second power of the capitalist world in terms of the national gross product and industrial production.

Now GNP exceeds 11% of the world, in terms of GNP per capita, the country has outstripped the United States. It accounts for about 12% of the world's industrial production. Almost completed the adaptation of the economy to the "expensive yen." There has already been a transition to a new model for the development of the country's economy, which focuses on the problem of domestic consumption, rather than exports.