Japan‘s exports totalled $747.11 billion in 2020, down 1.4% year-on-year, the Ministry of Finance reported.
Overall, Japan aims to develop «equitable and high-level free trade rules» domestically, with key trading partners and in international fora (including the WTO), and to make progress in strengthening economic ties and cooperation with emerging economies.
In yen terms, Japanese external sales were 98.2 billion yen, an increase of 18.2%, based on provisional and not seasonally adjusted data.
Japan has a highly advanced and diversified economy, which has developed in response to changing conditions in Japan and the world.
During the period of high economic growth in the 1960s and early 1970s, expansion was based on the development of resource-intensive heavy industries.
Then, in the 1980s, there was rapid growth in high value-added industries, such as electronics and precision instruments, which employ high-level technology and consume relatively low amounts of resources.
The service sector of the economy grew significantly during the 1980s and 1990s.
Japan’s exports
New regional trade agreements that have entered into force for Japan since 2017 are the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU-Japan EPA.
Japan has also signed the First Amending Protocol to the Japan-ASEAN Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (AJCEP), which includes chapters on trade in services and on investment, as well as a trade agreement with the United States.
Changes have been made to Japan’s GSP exclusion framework, with the aim of granting preferences to economies that need them most.
Key initiatives to improve the business environment include the introduction of labour reforms, the improvement of corporate governance and the reduction of corporate taxation.
Pilot regulatory reform programmes continue to be implemented through the National Strategic Special Economic Zones initiative.
Japan’s current Prime Minister is KISHIDA Fumio, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. KISHIDA Fumio was elected as Japan’s 100th Prime Minister on October 4, 2021, succeeding the former Prime Minister SUGA Yoshihide.
