Country profilesJapan

Humanitarian profile

Japan has transformed itself from a poor aid recipient country after the end of the Second World War to a leading donor of official development assistance (ODA). For several decades, the attention of Japanese policy makers was focused mainly on quantitative expansion rather than qualitative improvement of aid. It was only after the end of the Cold War that Japan introduced new aid guidelines.These guidelines emphasise the promotion of universal values, such as human rights and democratic governance in aid recipient countries and set those values as conditions for the provision of foreign aid.

Country snapshot

Japan has the world's second-largest economy, although China is poised to overtake it, and is the only Asian country in the Group of Eight leading industrial nations.

However, national debt is extremely high and the economy has never really recovered from the bursting of the stock market and property bubble at the end of the 1980s.

Its population - which has the highest life expectancy in the world - is ageing rapidly.

Government

Japan has a parliamentary system of government with a hereditary monarch, the emperor, as the symbol of the state. Sovereignty is vested in the people.

The prime minister, the head of government, is the leader of the party or coalition with a majority in the House of Representatives after an election. 

The two-chamber legislature, the Diet, consists of the House of Councillors, half of whose 242 members are elected every third year for a six-year term, and the House of Representatives whose 480 members are elected for a maximum of four years - 300 from single-seat constituencies and 180 by proportional representation.

The prime minister can dissolve the House of Representatives at any time with the agreement of the cabinet. 

Economy

Japan's economic success since World War II can be attributed to its mastery of advanced technology, close cooperation between government and industry, and the strong work ethic of its people.

Japan is a major producer and exporter of cars, electronic consumer goods and capital equipment, and companies producing internationally traded goods are highly efficient and productive.

Those in the agricultural, distribution and services sectors are less so. Only 15 percent of Japan's land is arable, and the agricultural sector - which accounts for 4 percent of GDP - is highly subsidised. Crop yields are among the highest in the world.

After very strong growth in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, the economy slowed dramatically in the early 1990s when a stock and property market bubble burst. Over the next ten years the stock market lost about three quarters of its value, real estate prices fell by two thirds and the economy stagnated.

The banking sector was severely weakened by a failure to deal with huge bad debts and the government spent heavily on infrastructure projects to try to kick-start economic growth. 

Growth resumed in 2002, helped by reforms introduced by then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. But in 2008, after the longest period of post-war expansion, the economy fell into recession as the global financial crisis led to a sharp downturn in business investment and overseas demand for Japanese goods.

The economy has since started expanding again, helped by the government's traditional reliance on public spending. However, this has resulted in a debt burden of over 200 percent of GDP, the largest in the industrialised world. 

History

Japan was transformed after 1867 when Emperor Meiji succeeded to the throne. After centuries of isolation from the world, it rapidly adopted Western political and economic ideas, developed an industrial economy and became a major military power.

It won a war with Russia in 1904-05, and occupied Korea in 1910 and Manchuria in 1931. Its prosperity soared, and the population doubled to 70 million in the 60 years to 1935. 

Progress towards a democratic system of government faltered in the 1930s and the state became increasingly militarised. But since its defeat in World War II, it has been a parliamentary democracy headed by a largely symbolic monarchy.

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) began its long period in office in 1955, presiding over Japan's emergence as a major economic power and maintaining close political and security links with the United States. 

Junichiro Koizumi, prime minister from 2001 to 2006, introduced a number of economic reforms, notably the privatisation of the postal system and Japan's large savings bank. His visits to the Yasukuni shrine, where convicted Japanese war criminals are among those commemorated, caused outrage in China and South Korea.

Koizumi's successor, Shinzo Abe, repaired relations by making visits to both countries. Although the role of the armed forces is restricted by the country's pacifist constitution, both premiers expanded Japan's international peacekeeping activities, with troops providing aid and support in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

In 2009 the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ended the LDP's almost unbroken 54-year grip on power with a landslide election win. The DPJ promised to reverse the economy's decline, change how the country was governed after decades of cosy ties between bureaucrats, companies and lawmakers under the Liberal Democrats, and adopt a more assertive relationship with the United States.

The DPJ also decided to retain government control of Japan Post, affording it control over how the institution invests its massive assets.

But Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama resigned in mid-2010 after public support for his leadership nosedived, partly due to a broken election promise to relocate a U.S. military base on the island of Okinawa outside the southern prefecture.

He was replaced by former finance minister Naoto Kan, a high-profile DPJ politician who helped expose a scandal involving HIV-tainted blood products in the 1990s.

Legal snapshot

Japan's judicial system is based mainly on civil law. Court decisions are based on legal statutes, and only decisions by the Supreme Court, the final judicial authority, affect subsequent interpretation of the law.

Japan's constitution includes a bill of rights, but there is no jury system.

According to the U.S. based watchdog Freedom House, the judiciary is independent, and trials are generally fair and normally held within three months of suspects' detention.

Prison conditions comply with international standards and the National Police Agency is highly disciplined. However, a law allowing the police to detain suspects for up to 23 days without charge has the potential for abuse.

Japan is one of the world's few industrialised countries to retain the death penalty, hanging a small number of prisoners each year. The policy retains broad public support, according to a regular government survey. However, the appointment of a DPJ justice minister who opposes capital punishment in September 2009 suggested executions would be put on hold.

The so-called 'iron triangle' - the close relationship between the Liberal Democratic Party, the banks and big business - became a major source of corruption through the party's decades in government, although efforts to curb it have been made in recent years.

Japan has crept up the rankings in Transparency International's 180-nation Corruption Perceptions Index, improving its position from 24 in 2004 to 17 in 2009.

Women have legal equality but discrimination in employment is widespread.