ECONOMy AND GLOBAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Japan, an island country in East Asia is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, with the Sea of Japan bordering the west, and extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north, toward the East China Sea, the Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire and spans an archipelago of 6852 islands covering about 378,000 square kilometres. The five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and other smaller islands. Tokyo is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto.

Japan is the eleventh most populous country in the world, as well as one of the most densely populated, disciplined, developed and urbanised. About three-fourths of the country's terrain is mountainous, concentrating its population on narrow coastal plains. Japan is divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions.

The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, with approximately more than 14 million residents. Japan’s economy is the world's third-largest by nominal GDP.

After World War II, Japan experienced record growth in an economic miracle, thereby becoming the second-largest economy in the world by 1972. The distinctive features of the Japanese economy during the economic miracle years included overall cooperation; of manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and banks in close-knit groups called keiretsu, also known as the powerful enterprise unions and maintaining good relations with government bureaucrats, as well as the guarantee of lifetime employment in big corporations. A global leader in the automotive, robotics and electronics industries, Japan has made many unique, significant and valuable contributions in the fields of science and technology, as well as in fields of art, cuisine, film, music, and popular culture which encompasses prominent manga, anime and video game industries.