JAPAN


Introduction
Location
Eastern Asia, island chain between the North Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan, east of the Korean Peninsula.

Flag
White with a large red disk (representing the sun without rays) in the centre.

Japan became independent in 660 BC, and its capital is Tokyo. Population is 126.8 million people.

Background
While retaining its time-honoured culture, Japan rapidly absorbed Western technology during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

After its devastating defeat in World War II, Japan recovered to become the second most powerful economy in the world after that of the US.

While the Emperor Akihito retains his throne as a symbol of national unity, actual power rests in networks of powerful politicians led by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, bureaucrats, and business executives. The economy experienced a major slowdown in the 1990s following three decades of unprecedented growth.

Economy
Government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, mastery of high technology, and a comparatively small defence allocation (1% of GDP) have helped Japan advance with extraordinary rapidity to the rank of second most technologically powerful economy in the world after the US
and third largest economy in the world after the US and China.

One notable characteristic of the economy is the working together of manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors in closely-knit groups called keiretsu.

A second basic feature has been the guarantee of lifetime employment for a substantial portion of the urban labour force. Both features are now eroding. Industry, the most important sector of the economy, is heavily dependent on imported raw materials and fuels.

The much smaller agricultural sector is highly subsidised and protected, with crop yields among the highest in the world. Usually self-sufficient in rice, Japan must import about 50 percent of its requirements of other grain and fodder crops.

Japan maintains one of the world's largest fishing fleets and accounts for nearly 15% of the global catch. For three decades overall real economic growth had been spectacular: a 10% average in the 1960s, a 5% average in the 1970s, and a 4% average in the 1980s.

Growth slowed markedly in the 1990s largely because of the after-effects of over-investment during the late 1980s and contradictory domestic policies intended to wring speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets.

Government efforts to revive economic growth have met little success and were further hampered in late 2000 by the slowing of the US and Asian economies.

The crowding of habitable land area and the ageing of the population are two major long-run problems. Robotics constitutes a key long-term economic strength, with Japan possessing 410,000 of the world's 720,000 "working robots."

GDP - 3.15 trillion US dollars (2000)

Growth Rate - 1.3 percent (2000)

Per capita income - 24,900 US dollars (2000)


Host cities in Japan
During the first round of the competition, African teams from Cameroon, Nigeria and Tunisia will showcase their talents in the Japanese cities of Ibaraki, Kobe, Oita, Osaka Niigata, Saitama and Shizuoka.

Should they advance further beyond the first round, the African teams will play in the second round in South Korean city of Seogwipo and the Japanese city of Miyagi, while the quarter finals are set for Ulsan and Gwangju, all in the Korean peninsula.