Tōhoku region
Tōhoku was traditionally considered the granary of Japan because it supplied Sendai and the Tokyo-Yokohama market with rice and other farming commodities. Tōhoku provided 20 percent of the nation's rice crop. The climate, however, is harsher than in other parts of Honshū due to the stronger effect of the Siberian High, and permits only one crop a year on paddy fields.
Childbirth in Japan
Japan boasts the fourth largest GDP in the world after the European Union, the United States, and China. While Japan was for centuries a largely agricultural economy, the percentage of the total labor force shifted dramatically in the twentieth century from agriculture to industrial occupations. Consequently, Japan must import about 60% of its food. Japan is one of the world's largest, most technologically sophisticated producers of automobiles, electronic equipment (including digital cameras), machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemicals, textiles, and processed foods. The unemployment rate is stable at less than 5%. Nevertheless, the economy is challenged by Japan's huge government department, exceeding 200% of the GDP, unrelenting deflation, reliance on exports, and graying, diminishing population.