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.
Poverty in Japan
The OECD reported in July 2006 that Japan suffers high rates of relative poverty. Another OECD report stated that Japan was second worst in poverty among the OECD member nations, in the mid 2000s.
The OECD, in April 2011, placed Japan at the 29th position out of 34 member nations, in the list of percentage of population living in poverty. With 15.7 percent of people in poverty, Japan was above the average percent of 11 among the OECD member states. Japan's 15.7% is above countries which have fewer resources and are less developed than Japan, namely, Slovak Republic (6.5%), Slovenia (7.2%), and Poland (10.1%) Poverty rate is increasing at an alarming rate of 1.3% in Japan, since 1985. The poverty rate increase average is 1.0% annually for all other OECD member nations. The OECD report places Japan just below U.S.A., which has a 17.3% poverty measure, statistics indicate that U.S.A. has been cutting down on poverty, by a 0.7% decrease since 1985.