Text 1B. JAPANESE ECONOMY

I. Scan the text (8 minutes) and sum up its content in Russian

Japan's industrialized, free-market economy is the world's third-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) after the United States and the People's Republic of China, and

second-largest by market exchange rates.

Its economy is highly efficient and competitive in areas linked to international trade, although productivity is lower in areas such as agriculture, distribution, and services.

 Distinguishing characteristics of the Japanese economy include the cooperation of manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and banks in closely-knit groups called keiretsu; the powerful enterprise unions and shunto; cozy relations with government bureaucrats, and the guarantee of lifetime employment (shushin koyo) in big corporations and highly unionized blue-collar factories. Recently, Japanese companies have begun to abandon some of these norms in an attempt to increase profitability.

For three decades, Japan's overall real economic growth had been spectacular: a 10% average in the 1960s, a 5% average in the 1970s, and a 4% average in the 1980s.  Growth slowed markedly in the 1990s largely due to the after-effects of over-investment

during the late 1980s and domestic policies intended to wring speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets. Government efforts to revive economic growth have met with little success and were further hampered in 2000 to 2001 by the slowing of the global economy.

 The Tokyo Stock Exchange is the second largest in the world with market capitalization of more than $4 trillion. However, the economy saw signs of strong recovery in 2005. GDP growth for the year was 2.8%, with an annualized fourth quarter expansion of 5.5%, surpassing the growth rate of the US and European Union during the same period. Unlike previous recovery trends, domestic consumption has been the dominant factor in leading the growth. Hence, the Japanese government predicts that recovery will continue in 2006.

 Distinguishing characteristics of the Japanese economy include the cooperation of manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and banks in closely-knit groups called keiretsu (they being Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Fuyo, Mitsui, Dai-Ichi Kangyo and Sanwa); the powerful enterprise unions and shunto; cozy relations with government bureaucrats, and the guarantee of lifetime employment (shushin koyo) in big corporations and highly unionized blue-collar factories. Recently, Japanese companies have begun to abandon some of these norms in an attempt to increase profitability.

 Japan is among the world's largest and most technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronic equipment, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemical, textiles, and processed foods and is home to some of the largest and most well-known multinational corporations and commercial brands. It's also one of the leading research nations in these sectors. Japan's service sector accounts for about three-fourths of its total economic output. Banking, insurance, real estate, retailing, transportation, and telecommunications are all major industries.

 Japan holds very large market shares in high-technology industries such as electronics, industrial chemicals, machine tools, electronic media and (in recent years) aerospace. Construction has long been one of Japan's largest industries, with the help of multi-billion-dollar government contracts in the civil sector. These industries make Japan a major economic global power. Robotics constitutes a key long-term economic strength. There are very few countries in the world, if any, that can match Japan in the production of high technology electronic products. The automobile, machinery and electronics industries are the largest and a major driving force within Japan's industrial sector.

Industry is concentrated in several regions, in the following order of importance: the Kanto region surrounding Tokyo; the Nagoya metropolitan area; Kinki (the Keihanshin industrial region); the southwestern part of Honshu and northern Shikoku around the Inland Sea; 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 have 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, optical media, facsimile and copy machines, industrial robots, and fermentation processes in food and biochemistry. Japan lags slightly in such fields as satellites, rockets, and large aircraft, where advanced engineering capabilities are required but they made headway through their aerospace exploration agency, JAXA with possible manned independent mission to moon, and in such fields as computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM), and databases, where basic software capabilities are required, and natural resources exploitation, due to the lack of them.

 The Tokyo Stock Exchange is the second largest in the world with market capitalization of more than $4 trillion. Japan's service sector accounts for about three-fourths of its total economic output. Banking, insurance, real estate, retailing, transportation, and telecommunications are all major industries such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc., Toyota Financial Group, Inc., Nomura Group, Inc., Mizuho Financial Group, Inc., Japan Post, All Nippon Airways Co.,Ltd., Nippon Tel & Tel (NTT DoCoMo) counting as one of the largest companies in the world.

 

II. Read text 1B and find answers to the following questions:

1. How Japanese economy may be characterized?

2. What are distinguishing characteristics of the Japanese economy?

3. How do you understand the terms keiretsu and shunto?

4. Why do you think Japanese companies have recently begun to abandon some of traditional norms of employment?

5. How can you prove that the Tokyo Stock Exchange is the second largest in the world?

6. What are distinguishing characteristics of the Japanese economy?

7. What are the most highly developed industrial regions of Japan?

8. What are the fields in which Japan enjoys relatively high technological development?

9.  Are there any field in which Japan slightly lags?

10. What is market capitalization of the Tokyo Stock Exchange?

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