Essay/Term paper: The japanese economy

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Economics

The Japanese Economy

Jonathan Allen

The prewar economy of Japan was a Socialist economy and the country was
ruled by an emperor up to WW2 and after WW2 it started to lean towards a mixed
market economy until what it is today although its government is Socialist it is
leaning towards a mixed market economy.
The Japanese economy is a mixed economy that leans towards market, it is
like this because almost all business are run by private corporations or people
and that is the market in the economy. And the reason that they are thriving and
are so competitive is because of the trade tariffs and quotas that the
government has in place. These regulations include heavy taxes on some products
and denial on some others for example: the way Japan will only let certain
foreign cars in to Japan and even then they are so heavily taxed that the
average Japanese person can¹t pay that much and will have to buy a Japanese made
car and at the same time in other countries they are selling their cars for less
than anyone else in that country and that is what they do with most of their
products and is how they get a trade surplus year after year.
Manufacturing is the most important economic activity in Japan it
accounts for about 28% of it¹s GDP. The Japanese people import more than half
of the products that they manufacture from other countries in their crudest form
and manufacture them into transportation equipment, iron, steel, chemicals,
petroleum and coal products and textiles. Most of these products are produced by
large corporations with many employees and the happier the employees are the
more it will be done.
An aspect of a market economy that Japan has is the way the companies
treat their workers. The way the Japanese treat their workers is so different
form the way we treat our workers here. The Japanese are so much more respectful
towards their employer( the exact opposite from other countries especially those
with a centralised economy) and often work for one employer until retirement.
Some of the special treatment that the workers receive is housing; some of the
companies namely Honda have a special housing unite for their workers and their
families and a company cemetery for all the workers and their families. Because
of this the employees work habits are much more productive and a larger profit
can be turned and they can get a jump on the competition.
In centralised economies very few lucturies are returned to the people
and in market economies most of them are, in Japan there are to kinds of people
farmers and city dwellers, the farmers get no lucturies and live in poor
conditions while the city dwellers on the other hand get just about all the
lucturies like mass transit, hospitals and if you have a job financial security.
The government keeps whatever is necessary and whatever the people will buy and
will export the rest. In the farmlands there is a strong sense of a command
system and in the city there is capitalistic economy. Farming is one of the
larger employers in Japan it employs 9% of the work force but it only accounts
for 3% of the GDP.There are few government owned companies the only ones they
own are some power plants, railways and some airlines as well as the commuting
services and civil services. The government employs about 1 in 10 people in
Japan mostly civil services. There are some strict regulations set forth by the
government to insure that the countries stores are filled with Japanese goods
rather than forgien goods and they include trade restrictions such as tariffs,
bands and quotas.
After reviewing all this evidence the Japanese economy is leaning
heavily towards a market economy but does have some socialist government views
and laws but the market out weighs the command.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Comptons learning company 1988. InComptons encyclopedia (vol. 12 pp. 34-39.).
Chicago: devision of encyclopedia Britannica, inc.

John J. Curran(May 18, 1992). Why Japan will emerge stronger. Fortune,
pp.46-60.

Ross Laver( nov. 1991). The company man. Maclean¹s. pp. 55-57.

Richard Swift(May 1992). Prisoners of prosparity. New Internationalist. pp. 4-8.