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The economy of Japan is the second largest economy in the world,[1] after the United States, at around US$4.5 trillion in terms of nominal GDP[1] and third after the United States and China when adjusted for purchasing power parity.[2] The workers of Japan rank 18th in the world in GDP per hour worked as of 2006.[3]
Japan's economy is highly efficient, highly diversified, and very competitive, being ranked 19th among 111 countries on productivity. Japan has a well-educated work force and high levels of savings and investment rates.
For three decades, Japan's overall real economic growth had been spectacular: a 10% average in the 1960s, a 5% average in the 1970s, and a 4% average in the 1980s.[4]
Sliding stock and real estate prices marked the end of the "Japanese asset price bubble" of the late 1980s, and ushered in a decade of stagnant economic growth. These problems may have been exacerbated by domestic policies intended to wring speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets. Real GDP in Japan grew at an average of roughly 1.5% yearly between 1991-1999, compared to growth in the 1980s of about 4% per year. Growth in Japan throughout the 1990s was slower than growth in other major industrial nations, and the same as in France and Germany. Government efforts to revive economic growth have met with little success and were further hampered in 2000 to 2001 by the slowing of the global economy.[5] However, GDP per worker has increased steadily even through the nineties, growing at 2.0% per year in 2003 and 2004, and 2.8 percent in 2005. Unlike previous recovery trends, domestic consumption has been the dominant factor in leading the growth. As predicted, the economic recovery continued in 2006 and 2007.