International trade - Japan

Main features

No country can provide everything that it's inhabitants need. To provide for these needs, a country has to trade. It buys goods and services that it is short of from other countries (imports). To pay for these goods the country must sell goods and services of which it has a surplus. These are known as exports. Countries that trade with others are said to be interdependent.

Patterns of trade

MEDC's such as Japan tend to import cheap foodstuffs and raw materials that it processes into manufactured goods. It then exports expensive manufactured goods such as cars and electrical goods. Japan exports large amounts of high-value manufactured goods. The Japanese have achieved this through working long hours, introducing modern machinery, developing high levels of technology and producing high-quality reliable goods.

Imports and Exports

Japan, which has few natural resources, little flat land and a high population, has to import large amounts of raw materials, food stuffs and energy resources. Most of these goods are relatively cheap in value.

The result is that Japan has a large trade surplus - over US$ 110,000 in the late 1990's and a large amount of trade per person - US$ 4849.

Trading partners

Imports come from USA (23%), LEDC's in Asia incl China (34%), Australia (5%) and EU (14%).

Exports go to places such as; LEDC's incl China (42%), USA (27%) and UK 3%

D.Drake 2008