Economy

Imports
$581 billion (2019). Crude Petroleum ($38.4B), Petroleum Gas ($31.4B), Integrated Circuits ($17.7B), Broadcasting Equipment ($17.5B), and Computers ($14.5B), importing mostly from China ($151B), United States ($63.1B), Australia ($31.8B), South Korea ($25.1B), and Chinese Taipei ($24.3B).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 48% have an account with a financial institution
• 24% have a credit card
• 2.4% have a mobile money account
• 19% make online purchases

Ease of doing business
Very Easy to conduct business (rated 78 out of 100) 31st out of 20 Asia Pacific countries 29th worldwide out of 190 countries (2020, World Bank)

Global Innovation Index

Ranked 4th out of 17 South East Asian , East Asian and Oceanian countries, 13th out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Exports
$623 billion (2020).  Cars ($83.1B), Integrated Circuits ($31.3B), Vehicle Parts ($28B), Machinery Having Individual Functions ($19.9B), and Photo Lab Equipment ($12.1B), exporting mostly to China ($133B), United States ($112B), South Korea ($42.9B), Chinese Taipei ($42.7B), and Hong Kong ($27.2B).

Main local online stores
Amazon, Rakuten, Yahoo Auctions Japan, Yahoo Shopping Japan, DMM.com, Mercari, ZozoTown, Wowma, Rakuma, Qoo10 Japan

Economic freedom
‘Mostly free’ (72.1 out of 100) 6th out of 39 Asia Pacific countries 30th worldwide out of 186 countries (2019, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal)

Media

Media language Japanese, English

Information channels
Japan’s broadcasting scene is technologically advanced and lively, with public and commercial media in keen competition. Five TV companies, including public NHK, run national terrestrial networks. Most of NHK’s funding comes from licence fees. Many millions of viewers subscribe to satellite and cable pay TV. News, drama, variety shows and sport – especially baseball – have big audiences. Imported TV shows are not widely shown, but Western influences are apparent in domestic TV fare. Newspapers are influential and highly trusted. National dailies sell in millions of copies, boosted by afternoon and evening editions. Some charge for online access. Journalists “find it hard to fully play their role as democracy’s watchdog because of the influence of tradition and business interests”, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF). But in recent years, online media and weekly news magazines have adopted a more aggressive form of political reporting, says Freedom House.

The press

Asahi Shimbun – daily, English-language pages
Yomiuri Shimbun – daily, English-language pages
Mainichi Daily News – English-language pages
Sankei Shimbun – daily
Nikkei Asian Review – English-language pages
The Japan Times – English-language

Television

NHK – public, operates General TV, Educational TV
English-language network
TV Asahi – national, commercial
Fuji TV – national, commercial
Nippon TV (NTV) – national, commercial
Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) – national, commercial

Radio

NHK – public, operates news/talk Radio 1, cultural/educational Radio 2, classical music-based FM Radio, external service Radio Japan
Inter FM – Tokyo commercial music station
J-Wave – Tokyo commercial music station
Tokyo FM – Tokyo commercial network
TBS Radio – operated by Tokyo Broadcasting System

News agency

Kyodo – English-language pages
Japan Today – online news, in English

Internet Data

Internet users
94% penetration, 118.3 million

Share of web traffic by device
39.54% mobile phones, 57.69% computers (laptops and desktops), 2.63% tablet devices, others 0.14%

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
40.89 Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
93.26 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 160.6%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 100%

Most popular web search engines
Google (74.99%), Yahoo (18.76%), Bing (5.75%), Baidu (0.21%), Duckduckgo (0.14%), Yandex Ru (0.04%)

Most used social media
Twitter(42.77%), Facebook (22.25%), Pinterest (17.92%), YouTube (9.59%),  Instagram (5.61%), Tumblr (0.84%), reddit (0.56%)