Doing Business in Japan
Published in December 2017
Japan is the world's third largest economy. It has 126 million people and scares on natural resources, which explains why the country has traditionally been highly dependent on raw materials imports, being the largest importer in the world. The economy has been strong during the last 70 years due to the combination of a government that has been supportive to the industry development, a strong work ethic of the Japanese culture, high specialization on technology and small defense allocation.
Japan has a good urban infrastructure and you will enjoy the low office rental costs. The World Bank rates their income category as High, with GDP of US$ 4.947T in 2016, and a GDP per capita of US$ 41.5k. The GDP growth has experienced significant changes on last years: -0.1% in 2011, 1.5% in 2012, 2.0% 2013, 0.3% in 2014 ,1.2% in 2015, and 1.0% in 2016.
Japan is the fourth largest exporter in the world, exporting Cars ($90.3B) which represent 15% of the total exports of Japan and Vehicle Parts ($31.3B), Integrated Circuits ($18.8B), and Passenger and Cago ships ($12.2B). The top export destinations of Japan are the United States (20.2%), China (17.6%) and South Korea (7.2%).
Japan is the fifth largest importer in the world, importing Crude Petroleum ($50.8B), Petroleum Gas ($34.3B), Packaged Medicaments ($17B), Computers ($15.5B) and Coal Briquettes ($15.2B),The top import destinations of Japan are China (25.8%), the United States (11.1%), Australia (5.0%).
Japan is buying Crude Petroleum ($50.8B,8.7%) and Petroleum Gas ($34.3B,5.9%). In 2016 Japan was qualified as largest foreign direct investor in the US (FDI), investing almost $45B.
Member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), part of the free and fair economic zone, makes it easier for Japan to be a good exporter and importer. The main challenges of the country are the high national debt that is reaching 240% of their GDP, and also an ageing population, 21% being over 65 years old and low birth rate. Doing business rank 2016 (World Bank): 34 Relationships with international businesses continue.
In order to avoid the 'redundancy' risk of the use of static data about various countries, this portal incorporates various live data feeds from:
• The World Bank
• The observatory of Economic Complexity
The intention is to provide access to live information extracted from the regularly refreshed databases maintained by these organisations.
Use the navigations buttons below to access to more live data:
Inflation, Development indicators, Exports, Trade Balance, and more.