- •1. Cultural background: From Primitive to Ancient Times.
- •2. Cultural background: The Age of Feudalism First Half (Kamakura, Muromachi and Azuchi Momoyama Periods)
- •3. Culture Background: The Age of Feudalism The Latter Half (Azuchi Momoyama, Edo)
- •4. Cultural Background: The Modern Age (Meiji, Taisho and Showa Periods)
- •5. Jeography of Japan: The Land and its description, climate.
- •6. Geography of Japan: Agriculture and Natural Resourses.
- •7. Diversity and Change of Japanese Society.
- •8. The Group and the Individual: what is the difference?
- •9. The Role of Woman in Japanese Society.
- •10. The Political Heritage
- •11. Japanese Government: Organs of Government in Japan.
- •12. Japanese Government: The Constitution of Japan.
- •13. Japanese Government: The Emperor and the National Diet, their functions.
- •14. Japanese Government: The procedure of Elections.
- •15. Japanese Government: Transfer of Political Power.
- •16. Japanese Government: The Cabinet.
- •17. Japanese Government: The Law Courts.
- •18. The History of the Japanese Economy (the premodern Background, the prewar Economy, the postwar Economy).
- •20. Banking and finance. The Appreciation of the Yen, Japanese Yen, Dollar, Euro: similarities and differences.
- •21. The Japanese Economy: Foreign Trade.
- •22. The Japanese Economy: Transport and communications in Japan.
- •23. Japan: a Well-Educated Society, History of Japanese Education.
- •24. Education in Japan: The “Nesting” of Children. Different stages of Japanese education. Costs and benefits of the system.
- •25. Textbook authorization system
- •26. Strict School Rules
- •Elementary School
- •Lower-Secondary School
- •Special Education
- •Upper-Secondary School
- •After-School Education
- •28. Festivals New Year (正月 Shōgatsu)?)
- •Doll Festival (雛祭り?) Date: March 3
- •29. Japanese Sports: Soccer, Baseball, Sumo Wrestling, Tennis, Judo, Karate, Kendo, Kyudo.
- •30.Different kinds of religion in Japan (Buddhism, Shintoism, belief in Jizo, Shugendo).
- •31. Language and Literature: The Japanese Language, Early Literature, Heian Literature.
- •32. Language and Literature: Medieval Literature, Tokugawa Literature, Modern Literature.
- •33. Japanese Art: Pictorial art before 1600.
- •34. Japanese Art: Pictorial art from 1600.
- •35. Japanese Art: Sculpture.
- •36. Decorative Arts
- •37. Japanese Art: Dance.
- •38. Japanese Art: Music.
- •39. Theater.
- •40. Foods of the japanese
21. The Japanese Economy: Foreign Trade.
Japan’s foreign economic relations
Japan’s international economic relations are more important than ever. A major player in the global economic and financial system, Japan is strongly influenced by investment, trade and issues of international economic diplomacy.
Trade is the foundation of Japan’s international economic relations. Imports supply the oil, iron ore and food grains essential to Japan’s industrial production and household consumption. A plunge in Japanese exports was a major cause of the Japanese recession, and Japan’s recovery has been almost entirely due to recovery of rapid export growth.
For the most part, the increase in Japan’s export rate has been caused by the renewed growth and increased demand of East Asian economies, especially China. In 2009, 17 per cent of Japan’s total trade was with China. This surpassed Japan’s total trade with the United States (14 per cent). At the same time, these figures should be interpreted with caution. Japanese outsourcing and development of production networks in East Asia has made the use of bilateral trade flow measures less and less meaningful.
Another critical element of Japanese international economic engagement is foreign direct investment by Japanese corporations. Japanese corporate foreign direct investment is often directly tied to exports and imports. Japanese FDI outflows more than doubled between 2005 and 2008, dropped significantly in 2009, but are picking up once again. There are many factors at work: outsourcing, production networks, mergers and acquisitions, corporate reinvested earnings. As a colleague quipped, ‘Japanese manufacturing is alive and well, it’s just not located in Japan.’ Japan’s FDI is diversified both geographically and by sector. Some 48 per cent of Japan’s reported FDI stock of ¥68.2 trillion ($758 billion) at the end of 2009 was in manufacturing.
Investment in Asia accounts for 24 per cent of Japan’s total FDI, and investment in China accounts for 7.4 per cent. Nonetheless, the United States remains the largest market for Japanese foreign direct investors. It accounts for 31 per cent of total Japanese foreign direct investment. With Japan’s domestic market growth limited and labor expensive, Japanese firms will continue to invest abroad vigorously, particularly in dynamic Asia. In addition, with a stronger yen and large cash balances, purchases of foreign companies will continue to grow.
At the same time, Japanese companies who invest abroad will remain vulnerable because of traditional management mindsets, a weak command of foreign languages, and limited understanding of foreign markets and the cultures they embody.
Japan’s ‘new growth strategy’ and regional tactics
The DPJ’s strategy to foster Japan’s international economic relations is part of its a ‘new growth strategy’ announced in June. The plan appropriately emphasises East Asia, focusing on trade integration, two-way FDI, and tourism into Japan. The ‘new growth strategy’ builds upon existing market-driven economic integration within Asia, which is already quite deep.
In the near term, the ‘new growth strategy’ envisages expansion and multilateralisation of Japan’s bilateral Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). This is a logical move. Unfortunately Japan’s trade negotiations continue to be constrained by the strong protection extended to its deeply inefficient agricultural sector. Until agriculture is reformed and import obstacles removed, Japan cannot succeed with trade negotiations in bilateral, regional, or global forums.
Partly for this reason, when Japan hosts the annual APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) ministerial and summit meetings in November 2010, any push for a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) is for appearances only. Such an agreement has been on the APEC agenda for several years, but is unlikely to be negotiated and agreed on in the foreseeable future due to continuing protectionism within the region. Japan must take its fair share of responsibility for this. More fundamentally, such regional agreements are second-best to a WTO – based global approach; unfortunately the Doha Round seems virtually moribund.
On the broader issue of East Asian regionalism, Japan has proposed an East Asian Community but the specifics are not yet defined. In this respect, Japan is moving in the right direction. As it currently stands, East Asian regionalism is a bottom-up process, with only limited regional governmental institution-building. So an attempt build a region-wide community based around economic cooperation is good rhetoric; it appeals to the national interests of all East Asian economies.
But such cooperation is easier to propose than to implement.
For a start, encouraging cooperating in the area of trade is easier than cooperation in finance and exchange rate determination, and even in this area, cooperation is hard to make effective. There are underlying tensions in East Asia that stem from individual national security interests. In addition, any East Asian Community needs to somehow include the United States. But because of the strategic ambitions of some East Asian nations, the formal integration of the United States into a regional framework will prove problematic.