Economy of Japan | Post-World War II Growth, Agriculture, Manufacturing, & Trade | Britannica Money
The Japanese economy is the fourth-largest in the world, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP). Japan has a market economy that grew extraordinarily quickly for several decades after World War II. During the 1990s, however, Japan’s economy entered a decades-long period of stagnation, with its growth rate much lower than that of other industrialized countries. Japan’s economic growth after the 1940s was based on unprecedented expansion of industrial production and the development of an enormous domestic market, as well as on an aggressive export trade policy. Japan has developed a highly diversified manufacturing and service economy and is one of the world’s largest producers of motor vehicles, steel, and high-technology manufactured goods (notably consumer electronics). The service sector has come to dominate the economy in terms of its overall proportion of the gross domestic product and of employment. The emphasis on trade stems from Japan’s lack of the natural resources needed
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