Japan
Japan has a large industrial capacity, and is home to some of the largest and most technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronics, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemical substances, textiles, and processed foods. Agricultural businesses in Japan cultivate 13 percent of Japan's land, and Japan accounts for nearly 15 percent of the global fish catch, second only to China. , Japan's labor force consisted of some 65.9 million workers. Japan has a low unemployment rate of around four percent. Some 20 million people, around 17 per cent of the population, were below the poverty line in 2007. Housing in Japan is characterized by limited land supply in urban areas.
International economic cooperation policy of Japan
The largest use of Japan's bilateral aid is for economic infrastructure (transportation, communications, river development, and energy development), which accounted for 31.5% of the total in 1990. Smaller shares went to development of the production sector (17.1%) and social infrastructure (19.7%). In general, large construction projects predominate in Japan's bilateral foreign aid. Within the category of social infrastructure, education absorbed 6.7% of the bilateral aid in 1990, water supply and sanitation made up 3.4%, and only 2% went for health. Food aid (0.4% of total bilateral aid in 1990) and debt relief (4.3%) also were included in Japan's official development assistance.Margee M. Ensign, "Doing Good or Doing Well? Japan’s Foreign Aid Program" (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992)
Alan Rix, "Japan’s Foreign Aid Challenge: Policy Reform and Aid Leadership" (New York: Routledge, 1993)
Robert M. Orr Jr., "The Emergence of Japan’s Foreign Aid Power" (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990)
Shafiqul Islam, ed., "Yen for Development: Japanese Foreign Aid and the Politics of Burden-Sharing" (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1991).