The structure of the national economy of Japan. Economy and agriculture of Japan
Although the national economy is primarily based on industry, agriculture occupies an important place in it, providing the country with most of the food consumed. Mainly due to limited land resources and post-war agrarian reform, the village is dominated by small landowners. The average farm size is less than 1.1 ha. The importance of agricultural production as a potential place of work declined sharply after the Second World War.
Japan is one of the largest agricultural importing countries in the world. With only 15% of the country's total area available for agriculture and a population of 130 million, Japan is highly dependent on agricultural and food exports. The country imports large volumes of soybeans, wheat, corn, meat and meat products, other food products, vegetables, fruits. It fully satisfies its own needs only in seafood, some of which it exports.
On average, one farm has 1.47 hectares or 14,700 m2. Japanese farms are relatively small, but Japanese farmers work hard to make the most of their limited space, and therefore the land is cultivated very efficiently.
Japanese farmers use tractors, pickup trucks, electric cultivators, rice planters and combines to help them increase their productivity. Using intensive farming methods, fertilizers, sophisticated machinery and well-established technology, farmers are able to produce half of all the fruits and vegetables consumed in Japan, while still devoting some of the farmland to livestock. So Japan's agriculture provides a significant portion of the food consumed.
Modern technology has made new ways of farming possible. Part of the harvest in Japan is grown hydroponically, that is, without soil - just in water. The use of genetic engineering makes it possible to obtain richer and safer crops for human health.
Japanese farmers grow various crops, as well as livestock and poultry. These are cereals - rice and wheat; vegetables - potatoes, radish and cabbage; fruits - tangerines, oranges, melons and pears; livestock products - beef, poultry, pork, milk and eggs.
Most of the non-arable land is covered with forest - about 68%. So, forestry is an important part of the Japanese economy. Japan is an island country and must carefully use its natural resources: 41% of its forests are new forest plantations.
For centuries, logging has been an important business activity in Japan. Since the 8th century, wooden palaces and temples have been built in Kyoto and other cities. But today the demand for wood is so great, not only for construction, but also for the production of paper, furniture and other consumer goods, that Japan imports 76.4% of wood.
Rice is grown throughout Japan, with the exception of the north of Hokkaido, mainly on irrigated lands. Rice yield reaches 50 centners/hectare. The gross harvest of rice reaches 10 million tons. In addition to rice, wheat, barley, and corn are grown from grain crops, but in small quantities. Vegetable growing, especially suburban, has become widespread in Japan. Of the industrial crops, tea, tobacco, sugar beets are common, in the south - sugar cane.
Animal husbandry is poorly developed because the Japanese consume little meat and dairy products. Recently, the structure of the diet of the Japanese has changed, which leads to an increase in demand for livestock products. Animal husbandry is actively developing. Meat production is about 4 million tons, and milk - 8 million tons. A characteristic feature of Japan's animal husbandry is the lack of its own fodder base. A significant part of the feed is imported. Own production provides no more than 1/3 of the needs of animal husbandry in feed. Agriculture in Japan provides the country with food only 3/4.
Japan firmly occupies the first place in the world in the production of seafood. This became possible thanks to the balanced management of ocean, sea and coastal fisheries, intensive fish farming in fresh waters.
Ocean and marine fish catch in Japan is kept at the level of 8 million tons. Coastal fisheries produce 2 million tons of fish annually. More than 200 thousand tons. annually obtained from fish farming in inland waters.
Seafood is the main product that meets the needs of the population for proteins, although their share in the diet has decreased due to an increase in the share of meat. Japanese imports of fish and seafood in recent years range from 2.0 to 2.4 million tons. The bulk of imports are valuable, with high taste, fish species.
Coastal fishing is carried out by residents of coastal villages; distant - large monopolies with a technically advanced fishing fleet. The northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean is the main area of world fisheries; Japan, China, Russia, the Republic of Korea, and some other countries are engaged in the extraction of fish and seafood here.
Japan is one of the most developed economies in the world. In terms of GDP and industrial output, Japan ranks third among the countries of the world, second only to the United States and China.
High technologies (electronics and robotics) are developed. Transport engineering is also developed, including automotive and shipbuilding, machine tool building. The fishing fleet is 15% of the world. Agriculture is subsidized by the state, but 55% of food (calorie equivalent) is imported. There is a network of Shinkansen high-speed railways and expressways.
Banking, insurance, real estate, retail, transportation, and telecommunications are the main industries in the Japanese economy. Japan has great manufacturing potential and is home to some of the largest and most technologically advanced manufacturers of automobiles, electronic equipment, machine tools, steel and non-ferrous metals, ships, chemicals, textiles and food. Construction has long been one of Japan's largest industries, thanks to multi-billion dollar government contracts in the private sector. japan industrial economy
Japan has high economic freedom, close cooperation between the government and manufacturers for economic growth, an emphasis on science and technology, and a strong work ethic. All this contributes to the development of the Japanese economy. The Japanese economy is characterized by the grouping of manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and banks into tight groups called "keiretsu" and relatively weak international competition in domestic markets. There are also many social rather than industrial arrangements, such as the guarantee of lifetime employment in large corporations. Not so long ago, Japanese politicians approved reforms that allowed companies to deviate from some norms in an attempt to increase profits.
Japan is a country dominated by private enterprise and low taxes. The total amount of taxes is lower than in other large Western countries, in 2007 it amounted to 26.4% of GDP. Only some Japanese employers pay income taxes, VAT is very low at 5%, while corporate taxes are high.
The largest Japanese companies include Toyota Motor (“Toyota Motor”), NTT DoCoMo (“Entity DoCoMo”), Canon (“Canon”), Honda (“Honda”), Takeda Pharmaceutical (“Takeda Pharmaceutical”), Sony (“ Sony), Nippon Steel, Tepco, Mitsubishi Estate, and Seven & I Holding. It is home to the world's largest bank by assets, Japan Post Bank (US$3.2 trillion), as well as other banks, such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group) (1 $2 trillion), Mizuho Financial Group (Mizuho Financial Group) ($1.4 trillion) and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group) ($1.3 trillion). As of December 2006, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, with a market capitalization of over 549.7 trillion yen, is the second largest in the world.
The tiny agricultural sector is heavily subsidized and heavily protected, which is why Japan's harvests are the highest in the world. Japan is fully self-sufficient in rice, but imports approximately 60% of its food (as measured by calories consumed). Agricultural land in Japan makes up about 13% of its territory. More than half of these lands are flood fields used for rice cultivation.
Japan has one of the largest fishing fleets in the world, accounting for nearly 15% of the world's catch.
Government spending stimulated the economy and helped Japan recover from the crisis in late 2009 and 2010. The government has offered to open up the agricultural and service sectors to more foreign competition and has encouraged exports through free trade agreements. At the same time, discussions continue in Japanese society on the issue of restructuring the economy and financing new economic stimulus programs in the face of the country's difficult financial situation. Japan's huge public debt that exceeds 200% of GDP, persistent deflation, instability of exports to stimulate economic growth, and an aging and declining population are the main long-term problems for the Japanese economy.
In terms of agricultural specialization, Japan differs markedly from other developed countries: the share of crop production exceeds the share of animal husbandry twice. But despite this, the country does not have enough grain of its own, Japan is forced to import grain crops from its closest neighbors: China, Korea.
The Japanese organization of agriculture is known all over the world as rather backward, this is due to a number of reasons: the predominance of dwarf small-scale peasant farms, limited capital investments directed to land improvement, the weakness of the agrotechnical base, and the enslaving debt of the peasants. In recent years, land productivity has declined slightly.
Pasture lands make up only 1.6% of the total area, although the reason for such a small size of pastures is not the country's poor climate. The existing small pasture plots are gradually being phased out as imports of cheap meat and dairy products increase. In cities, abandoned arable lands are overgrown with forest. These wild forests are growing more and more, because. the timber industry loses in competition with cheap timber imports.
The structure of agriculture has changed over the past decades, and although preference is given to the cultivation of rice - Japanese bread, to which about 50% of cultivated land is given, cattle breeding, horticulture, and horticulture have developed along with this.
Japanese agriculture also includes sea fishing and forestry. Fishing is developed in Japan; this is the traditional occupation of the Japanese in catching fish. Japan ranks first in the world (12 million tons). The main part of it is provided by sea and ocean fishing, but aquaculture plays a very significant role - over 1 million tons. Before World War II, the Japanese practically did not eat meat, so fish served as the only source of animal proteins, and rice was the only source of carbohydrates.
Coastal fishing is carried out by residents of coastal villages; distant - large monopolies with a technically advanced fishing fleet. The northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean is the main area of the world's fisheries; Japan, China, Russia, the Republic of Korea, and some other countries are engaged in the extraction of fish and seafood here.
The fishing fleet of Japan has tens of thousands of vessels, and the number of fishing ports is hundreds and even thousands. Among the exotic trades, I would like to mention pearl mining on the southern coast of Honshu; more than 500 million pearl shells are mined here annually. Previously, shells extracted from the bottom were used to search for natural pearls, which, of course, were very rare. Now they are used for artificial cultivation of pearls on special plantations.
Over time, there have been trends towards the impoverishment of national fish resources; therefore, the artificial breeding of marine animals has become widespread (in 1980, 32 species of fish, 15 species of crustaceans, 21 species of mollusks, etc., etc.) were grown here. Japan occupies the first place in world on aquaculture technology that originated in the VIII century. The most diverse types of aquaculture are developed here, artificial spawning grounds and fish pastures have been created.
In the late 50s and early 60s of the 20th century, the country's production potential, which had been based on light industry since the pre-war years, was reoriented to heavy industry. In addition, a course was taken for the predominant development of science-intensive industries with some containment of energy-intensive and metal-intensive industries. In the 70s of the 20th century, electronics, precise and complex instrumentation, optics, the production of cameras, medicines, scientific and laboratory equipment began to develop at a faster pace.
Japan's energy base is imported oil (75% in the fuel and energy balance). Japan has over 1,000 power plants. The government program provides for a significant increase in this number. The basis of the electric power industry is made up of large thermal power plants located near large cities. But about 600 HPPs also play a certain role.
Nuclear power is playing an increasingly important role. There are 39 power units operating in the country, and about 12 more are under completion. In nuclear energy the main role is played by monopolies - Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo. Supply uranium raw materials are mainly produced from Africa.
Ferrous metallurgy in Japan, it is one of the priority industries. The leader in metallurgy is the Nippon Seitetsu Corporation, which unites more than 500 companies. Ferrous metallurgy focuses on imported raw materials. Iron ore comes from India, australia,South Africa, Chile. coking coal – USA, Australia, Canada.
In recent decades, due to the development of new industries in Japan, the demand for non-ferrous and rare metals has increased.
Most of the copper smelters are located near mines in the northern part of Honshu and on the island Shikoku (poor ores, to transport they are unfavorable). Polymetallic ores, together with sulfuric and copper pyrites are found on almost all major islands of Japan. However, lead has to be imported from Australia, Canada and Mexico like aluminum.
Interestingly, rare elements needed in electronics and precision instrumentation - cadmium, selenium, tellurium, rhenium, indium, thallium, germanium - are obtained by recycling waste from the production of copper and polymetals, as well as coke production.
mechanical engineering Japan is one of the most developed in the world. Major major mechanical engineering centers are located in the main industrial regions of the country (Tokyo - Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka - Kobe). Some types of mechanical engineering originated in northwestern Kyushu, especially in the city of Nagasaki (shipbuilding).
In general, the development of the Japanese economy after World War 2 is referred to as the "Japanese miracle". The mechanism of such a miracle can be considered in more detail on the example Japanese automotive industry
40. Structure and geography of Japanese agriculture
In terms of its structure, Japanese rural economy should be attributed to the type of diversified. Its basis is agriculture, mainly the cultivation of rice and other grain crops, industrial crops and tea. A significant role is played by horticulture, horticulture, sericulture and animal husbandry. IN Japan To agriculture also include forestry, fishing and sea fishing.
The cultivated area of the country is 5.4 million hectares, and the sown area exceeds it due to the fact that in a number of regions 2-3 crops are harvested per year.
More than half of the sown area is occupied by cereals, about 25% by vegetables, the rest is occupied by fodder grasses, industrial crops and mulberries.
Rice dominates in agriculture. At the same time, there is a decrease in wheat and barley yields (low profitability and import competition).
Vegetable growing is mainly developed in the suburbs. As a rule, year-round in greenhouse soil. Sugar beets are cultivated in Hokkaido, and sugar cane is cultivated in the south. Tea, citrus fruits, apples, pears, plums, peaches, persimmons (endemic to Japan), grapes, chestnuts, watermelons, melons, and pineapples are also grown in greenhouses. In the southwest of Honshu, large areas are devoted to strawberries.
Animal husbandry began to develop actively only after World War II.
The herd of cattle reaches 5 million heads (half are dairy cows). Pig breeding is developing in the southern regions (about 7 million heads). The center of animal husbandry is the north of the country - the island of Hokkaido, where special farms and cooperatives are being created.
feature Japanese animal husbandry is that it is based on imported feed (a lot of corn is imported). Own production provides no more than 1/3 of feed.
Lesnaya the area of the country is about 25 million hectares. Historically, more than half of the forests are privately owned (including bamboo plantations). In general, forest owners are small farmers with up to 1 hectare. forests.
The large owners of forests include members of the imperial family, monasteries, temples, which own the highest quality forests.
Fishing is characterized by the dominance of large monopoly companies. The main objects of fishing are herring, cod, salmon, flounder, tuna, halibut, shark, saury, sardine, etc.
Seaweed and shellfish are also harvested. The fishing fleet of Japan has several hundred thousand vessels (mostly small). About 1/3 of the catch comes from the waters in the Hokkaido region. An important fishing area is the northeastern coast of Honshu.
Aquaculture has become widespread: artificial breeding of fish in lagoons, mountain lakes and rice fields and cultivation of pearl mussels.
