Japan’s Economy, Business and Development

Japan is the world’s third largest economy, having ceded the second spot to China in 2010. Since the collapse of the property bubble, Japan has endured a long period of economic stagnation, deflation and relatively high unemployment, compared with the country’s historically low levels. Among other issues, Japan’s economy continues to be hampered by weak domestic demand and a rigid labor market.

Despite Japan’s challenging domestic economic environment, many Japanese companies have continued to perform well on the world stage. Toyota became the world’s largest car company in 2009, before losing a bit of ground to unprecedented product recalls. Nintendo’s innovative Wii marked a virtual revolution in the large, global market for gaming and family entertainment products.

Japanese companies have continued to push the technology envelope in fields such as robotics, medical devices, clean energy, satellite communications and spacecraft, water processing and other high-tech industries.

Japanese Society, Language and Culture

Japanese society is strikingly homogeneous. Ethnic Japanese account for 98.5 percent of the country’s sizable population. While different areas of Japan, particularly the central Kansai region encompassing Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, are known for having distinctive, colorful local dialects, the whole country essentially speaks the same language.

Traditional Japanese society and culture stress the values of harmony, consensus decision-making and social conformity. “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down” is a common Japanese saying and guideline of social behavior.

Japan’s Aging, Shrinking Population

Japan’s population has been aging and shrinking at an alarming rate due to the combination of a disproportionately large elderly population, one of the lowest fertility rates of any developed, OECD country and minimal net immigration. Japan’s fertility rate of roughly 1.2 children born for every Japanese woman is well below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman that is needed to maintain the existing population level. By 2050, the population of Japan has been forecast to contract by more than 25 percent to about 95 million people.

International Relations and Foreign Policy

Japan has deliberately elected to take a largely passive stance toward involvement in international conflicts and disputes for most of its post-WWII history. Article 9 of The Constitution of Japan, adopted on November 3, 1946, renounces going to war or “the use of force as a means of settling international disputes.” In lieu of a conventional military, Japan established the Japan Self-Defense Forces (also known as the SDF, JSDF or Jietai) as an extension of the Japanese police force and a strictly defensive mechanism to provide for the country’s national security and assist with national emergencies.

Japan first deployed the SDF abroad in 1991 when it dispatched minesweepers to the Persian Gulf after fighting ceased in the 1991 Gulf War. Since Japan enacted the International Peace Cooperation Law in 1992, the Japanese government has deployed the SDF on certain overseas missions to support the U.N.’s international peacekeeping operations.

Such interesting and mysterious country as Japan became open for the rest of the world in 1868. Since that time one of the main goals of Japanese Government was to reform educational system according to Western standards. That’s why firstly Japanese system was reconstructed according to French and German educational systems.

After World War II Japanese system of education was reformed according to American standards. So, present educational system in Japan consists of 6 years of elementary school which is divided into 3 years of junior school and 3 years of senior high school. Then there are two variants: 4 years of university or 2 years of junior college.

Elementary school which consists of junior and senior schools is compulsory. More then 90% of students graduate from high school and more then 40% graduates from university or junior college. At universities number of male student is bigger then female students, the opposite situation is at junior colleges. In general the quantity of graduate students is not big. Academic year in Japan begins in April, it consists of three terms which are separated from each other by small holidays in spring and winter and there is month of summer holidays.

The most well-known and prestigious higher educational establishments in Japan are the University of Tokyo and the University of Kyoto. One of the main characteristics of Japanese educational establishments is entrance exams. In order to pass entrance exams for the best educational establishments, students visit preparative schools – juku together with regular classes or 1-2 years preparative school between high school and university – yobiko