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Japan INFRASTRUCTURE AND TECHNOLOGY
A mountainous, island nation, Japan has inadequate
natural
resources to support its growing economy and large
population
(see Energy
, this ch.). Although many kinds of minerals were
extracted
throughout the country, most mineral resources had to be
imported
in the postwar era. Local deposits of metal-bearing ores
were
difficult to process because they were low grade. The
nation's
large and varied forest resources, which covered 70
percent of the
country in the late 1980s, were not utilized extensively.
Because
of the precipitous terrain, underdeveloped road network,
and high
percentage of young trees, domestic sources were only able
to
supply between 25 and 30 percent of the nation's timber
needs.
Agriculture and fishing were the best developed resources,
but only
through years of painstaking investment and toil. The
nation
therefore built up the manufacturing and processing
industries to
convert raw materials imported from abroad. This strategy
of
economic development necessitated the establishment of a
strong
economic infrastructure to provide the needed energy,
transportation, communications, and technological
know-how.
Data as of January 1994
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