New history of Japan during the reign of Meiji (1868-1912), Taisho (1912-1926) and Showa (1926-1989) is a complex dynamic process of transforming the world in which the objective and subjective factors of social development, sometimes acting on the will and the wishes of the people, and sometimes against them.
Examples from this country for centuries in isolation from all over the world (except for occasional links with China and Korea) and undergoing, measured, patriarchy, quiet rural life, suddenly awaken and show such shocking activity throughout the world. In a relatively short time (only about 120 years!), There are many events in this country because there was no such incident in a thousand years before.
The phenomenal economic development of Japan serves as an object of study not only for the newly independent states and hopes that they will soon have an economic miracle (since in the sunrise country it has emerged, so why not?), But also developed countries in the world in the hope that by using their working methods, it is possible to achieve greater success in the economy.
What is Japan as the object of geographical and economic research?
Geographically, Japan is represented as an archipelago consisting of five large islands (Honshu - 231 thousand square kilometers, Hokkaido - 83,5 thousand, Kyushu - 42.2 thousand, Shikoku - 18.9 thousand and Okinawa - 2,2 thousand) , as well as 6852 inhabited and uninhabited small islands.
The country's territory is located in the easternmost part of Eurasia in the Pacific Ocean, which separates it from the land by the Sea of Japan and the South China Sea.
From north to south, the ridge extends along 2,795 km, and from west to east - 2859 km.
The total area of all islands on the island is 377.9 thousand square meters. km, the largest of which is 376,800, of which 3.1 thousand are in inland waters and 1.1 thousand square kilometers of small islands. km.
About 80% of its territory is occupied by hills and high mountains, reaching 2500-3000 meters up. The highest mountain (active volcano) Fuji has a height of 3,776 meters, which according to Shinto teachings are gods and places of worship, as well as symbols of the country. Up to 70% of the area is occupied by forests and shrubs. In the north, forests are a conifer species, in central prefecture they move in wide and in extreme south - for subtropics, due to the climate of the country where araspolozhenny islands in the temperate and subtropical zones.
There are more than 250 rivers derived from the mountains, many of which take place in the Canyon which allows the use of vertical drop for hydropower and agricultural development of irrigation.
the flora is quite diverse and is represented by endemic plants, reflecting the development of flora in the relative isolation of the islands from each other (one of the more validations of Charles Darwin's teachings).
the relatively poor fauna (brown bear, wolf, fox, civet, mountain deer), in the forest is home to many species of birds, fish-rich waters, found in subtropical Japanese monkeys.
Natural minerals are insignificant (small deposits of hard coal, iron ore and oil), but there are large limestone reserves used for cement production.
The most vulnerable of the economy in Japan is the lack of raw materials for the industry, but has encouraged the rapid transition from industrialized to postindustrial society, which appreciated not only material resources, a lot of intelligence and knowledge on how to change the minimum material and energy in maximum production and increase its value.
Japan's population more than a hundred years has grown significant rate, if at the end of the Meiji period was 51 mln., In Taisho 14 Lel has grown by only 9 mln. The press, relatively small, as a country suffered huge losses in world war I, and during the reign of the population of Showa increased from 60 million. v1926 year to 123 million. in 1989 and 2 times in 63 years, showing a growth rate of one million per year.
But behind the average increase is its unevenness over shorter time intervals. So, in time! 940 - 1945, that number not only did not increase, but decreased by a million people, caused by Japan's losses in the Second World War. The unprecedented explosion in fertility began immediately after the war and the period of rapid economic development in the years 1950-1985, after which only amounted to 3.5 million in 1990-2000 growth for 10 years, and for 2005 -. 2015 there has been a stabilization of the population at a rate of 128 million people and some even declining.
For the country, the characteristic feature is the highest urbanization rate, exceeding 94% of the urban population. Tokyo metropolitan area now has 40 million people, which in Tokyo - more than 9 million, agglomeration Osaka-Kobe - more than 20 million, Nagoya - about 10 million people. Eleven cities have between 1 and 4 million inhabitants., Number of cities with populations of 500 thousand to one million over two dozen.
The country's population is the greatest value for the development of the Japanese economy, which is reflected in significant investments in education and science, enabling it to maintain a high intellectual level of manpower and a leading position in the world market.
Back in 1939, Japan's specialization sector on the world market was distinguished in economic structures, such as textiles, metallurgy, transportation techniques, chemicals and others, which significantly reduced their potential during the war.
After the war, it focused on the development of science and technology, education, highly qualified personnel, studying the experiences of industrialized countries, the construction industry and productivity, contributing to an annual increase in gross domestic product of more than 10-12% per year during 1955- 1973, before the world oil crisis, when the growth rate slowed to 6 - 8%, and for 1977 - 1979 to 4-6%.
Until 1990, Japan became the second largest economy in the world after the United States at the expense of intellectual capital and first moved from a number of industrialized countries to post-industrial countries.
Starting from the 80s began economic modernization, aimed at reducing the materials-and energy-intensive industries as a result of another oil crisis in 1979, when it became clear that we should not rely on cheap oil and the need to change the power structure and the need to move to nuclear energy.
The state energy balance is represented by structures such as: 44% - oil, 22% - coal, 4% - gas and 30% - nuclear energy. 60% of uranium for nuclear power plants are imported from Australia and Canada.
In industry, small and medium enterprises, commissioned by large companies, have begun to play a leading role. Such a small and large capital community turned out to be fruitful and now 99% of all small and medium sized companies, which are mobile and adaptable to the market situation.
The industry focuses on the production of high technology (robotics - 45% of world production of robots, electronics for different purposes), as well as old traditional industries based on information technology and latest achievements of science and technology - automotive, shipbuilding, machine tools, instrumentation, iron and non-ferrous metallurgy, electrical engineering, chemical, petrochemical, transportation engineering, light industry, weapons production, fishing (15% of the world's fishing fleet).
Agriculture is underdeveloped, as the area of cultivable land is less than 15%. Half of the agricultural area is occupied by flooded land for the cultivation of major food crops - rice. In recent years, the area of rice has shrunk due to changes in the nutritional structure of Japanese people, who are turning to the European diet.
More land began to be diverted for the planting of vegetables, fruits, berries, cereals, technical crops and fodder. In this case, the area under rice is only 40%, fodder - 24%, vegetables - 13%, barley and fruit - 6%, beans - 5%, technical and others - 4%.
Total cultivable land is limited to only 4.4 million hectares, which determines the average 18-hectare land tenure in Hokkaido and an average of 1.3 ha on the other islands. It is clear that in such areas it is impossible to use machinery, so you can improve yields by using intensive methods of planting crops and applying fertilizers.
The government subsidizes the producers of agricultural products to stimulate the receipt of large quantities of food, as it meets the needs of 55% of the population and almost half of which must be imported.
The most important place in a Japanese diet is fish. On average, per capita consumes about 170 kg of fish per year or about 0.5 kg per day. In this indicator, Japan ranks first in the world.
The fishing fleet alone does not meet the needs of the population, so 20% of fish and seafood are imported from China, Peru, Chile, USA and Indonesia. The share of agrarian sector products occupies 1% of the total GDP of the country.
As no other developed economies in the world are not very dependent on foreign trade, such as Japan, so the leading sector of marine transportation. In the country, rail, air and car are very important, which by many parameters and comfort surpass many countries in the world.
Foreign trade requires up to 20% of GDP. Thus, according to official data for 2012, the trade turnover of foreign trade amounted to:
Imports - 792.5 billion dollars (100% iron ore, aluminum, and copper). iron ore imported from Australia (60%), Brazil (20%), India (8%), aluminum from Australia, Indonesia and India, copper from Chile, Indonesia, Australia. Oil, gas, coal, uranium, equipment, foodstuffs are imported. chemicals and other goods;
exports - 856.9 billion dollars (automobiles, construction equipment, metals, chemicals and petrochemicals, electronics, ships, industrial consumption goods).
By 2015, the trade turnover decreased by 25%, which is a consequence of the ongoing world economic crisis and declining demand for manufactured products in Japan, which are vulnerable and dependent on the economic development of other countries. Yet these difficulties the state will be able to overcome, as it overcomes them in its unusual historical past.