|
Japan INDUSTRY
The nation's industrial activities (including mining,
manufacturing, and power, gas, and water utilities)
contributed
46.6 of total domestic industrial production in 1989, up
slightly
from 45.8 percent in 1975. This steady performance of the
industrial sector in the 1970s and 1980s was a result of
the growth
of high-technology industries (see
table 21, Appendix).
During this
period, some of the older heavy industries, such as steel
and
shipbuilding, either declined or simply held stable.
Together with
the construction industry, those older heavy industries
employed
34.9 of the work force in 1989 (relatively unchanged from
34.8
percent in 1980). The service industry sector grew the
fastest in
the 1980s in terms of GNP, while the greatest losses
occurred in
agriculture, forestry, mining, and transportation. Most
industry
catered to the domestic market, but exports were important
for
several key commodities. In general, industries relatively
geared
toward exports over imports in 1988 were transportation
equipment
(with a 24.8 percent ratio of exports over imports), motor
vehicles
(54 percent), electrical machinery (23.4 percent), general
machinery (21.2 percent), and metal and metal products
(8.2
percent).
Industry is concentrated in several regions, in the
following
order of importance: the Kanto region surrounding Tokyo,
especially
the prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama and Tokyo (the
Keihin
industrial region); the Nagoya metropolitan area,
including Aichi,
Gifu, Mie, and Shizuoka prefectures (the Chukyo-Tokai
industrial
region); Kinki (the Keihanshin industrial region); the
southwestern
part of Honshu and northern Shikoku around the Inland Sea
(the
Setouchi industrial region); and the northern part of
Kyushu
(Kitakyushu). In addition, a long narrow belt of
industrial centers
is found between Tokyo and Hiroshima, established by
particular
industries, that havw developed as mill towns. These
include Toyota
City, near Nagoya, the home of the automobile
manufacturer.
The fields in which Japan enjoys relatively high
technological
development include semiconductor manufacturing, optical
fibers,
optoelectronics, video discs and videotex, facsimile and
copy
machines, industrial robots, and fermentation processes.
Japan lags
slightly in such fields as satellites, rockets, and large
aircraft,
where advanced engineering capabilities are required, and
in such
fields as computer-aided design and computer-aided
manufacturing
(CAD/CAM), databases, and natural resources exploitation,
where
basic software capabilities are required.
Data as of January 1994
|
