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One-thousand-yen banknote from Japan (obverse).

Courtesy of Isabella Saccà

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One-thousand-yen banknote from Japan (reverse).

Courtesy of Isabella Saccà

In the first decades after World War II, Japan’s complex financial system was significantly different from that of other developed countries in several respects, most notably in the major role played by banking and the relatively minor position of securities. However, these differences gradually disappeared as markets were deregulated and internationalized. By the 1980s the Japanese financial establishment had become a major international force: Japan’s banks had come to dominate international banking, while the Tokyo Stock Exchange emerged as one of the largest securities markets in the world, in terms of capitalization.

However, much of this growth was based on speculation in the “bubble” economy of highly inflated real estate values. The bursting of the bubble in the early 1990s seriously affected both banking and the securities market into the early 21st century and precipitated a prolonged period of recovery. Meanwhile, over a period of some two decades beginning in the mid-1980s, the laws regulating the financial system gradually were revised, and the operation of banks, securities, and insurance companies was liberalized.

The Bank of Japan, established in 1882, is the sole bank that issues the yen; it also plays an important role in determining and enforcing the government’s economic and financial policies. Until the late 1990s the bank was under the indirect control of the Ministry of Finance, but legislation enacted at that time made it autonomous of the ministry. Also in the late 1990s a new Financial Supervisory Agency (since 2000 called the Financial Services Agency) was established to take over auditing and supervisory operations formerly performed by the Ministry of Finance.

The bulk of domestic banking business is transacted through commercial banks, as has been the case for decades. However, since the late 1990s, regulatory reforms have broken down the barriers that traditionally segmented the Japanese banking system into several types of lending establishments, and many of the large commercial banks have been transformed by mergers and acquisitions. There are also a number of trust banks and long-term credit banks, some government financial institutions—including the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the Japan Finance Corporation for Small and Medium Enterprise, and the Development Bank of Japan—several dozen foreign banks, and many mutual savings and loan banks and credit associations. One of the more significant developments in the early 21st century has been the 10-year privatization program (completed 2007) of the Japan Post Bank, which has the largest deposit holdings of any bank in the country.

The Japanese financial system long was characterized by the high degree of interdependence between the central bank, the commercial banks, and industry. Traditionally, manufacturers relied on banks for a large part of their borrowing requirements, and, although the importance of the manufacturers’ own capital has increased, private and government financial institutions still account for a substantial part of the total borrowed. Since the commercial banks are responsible for so much of the credit extended to industry, their influence on their client companies is considerable. Their active lending policy also means that their liquidity ratios have tended to be low by Western standards and that they have been forced to rely on call money (money that is readily available to banks as loans) and on large-scale borrowing from the Bank of Japan. The central bank thereby has been in a strong position to influence bank operations and to bring about a quick adjustment in the volume of credit through credit ceilings. With the bursting bubble economy, many private financial institutions were saddled with massive bad loans, and the government was forced to intervene, temporarily nationalizing some banks and forcing others into mergers. The process of banks merging continued into the early 21st century, and banks again found themselves in trouble with the start of the Great Recession in 2007.

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Tokyo Stock Exchange building, Tokyo, Japan.

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Japan’s capital market has become one of the pillars of the global 24-hour securities market. There are several stock exchanges in Japan; the two most important, Tokyo and Ōsaka, account for almost all the business. Stock trading grew rapidly during the late 1980s, partly in response to a stronger yen, declining interest rates, and the existence of a large amount of capital for financial investment. However, at that time the market also was highly speculative, and the advances were followed by a serious decline. Recovery was slow, mirroring the slow growth pace of Japan’s economy in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and was hit again by the economic downturn that began in 2008.

Japan’s bond market is relatively undeveloped because the government’s low long-term interest rate policy has made bonds unattractive against the comparatively high level of short-term rates. Individuals and institutional investors tend to buy discount debentures only. Bond buying, therefore, is confined chiefly to banks and other financial institutions, which are expected to purchase government and government-guaranteed bonds according to an unofficial allocation quota. The secondary bond market has been in operation since the mid-1960s, and, although over-the-counter transactions have risen rapidly, a significant proportion of the business consists of trading in financial debentures.

In the 1980s efforts were made to expand the bond market by introducing a greater diversity of bond instruments and by establishing a number of bond-rating institutions. A step toward improving the efficiency of the bond market was made in the early 1990s, when the market was partially deregulated and banks were allowed to participate in the corporate market through subsidiaries. The Tokyo market became involved in international capital transactions in 1971, when yen-dominated foreign bond-issue offerings were first introduced; later, nonresident institutions were allowed to issue bonds in foreign currency denominations.

In the early decades of the 21st century, the Bank of Japan—like the central banks of many developed countries—became a major buyer of Japanese government bonds (JGBs), in a policy known as quantitative easing. As of 2023, the Bank of Japan was by far the largest holder of domestic bonds, owning more than 53% of all outstanding JGBs.

An outstanding feature of Japan’s economic development after World War II was the rapid advance in overseas sales, even though the share of exports in the country’s gross national product generally remained relatively constant. However, from the point of view of individual industries and as a generator of growth, exports are much more important than their contribution to the national income suggests. Since the late 1960s, Japan has had a trade surplus nearly every year, with the size of the surplus often being the largest in the world.

Reasons for this spectacular export performance are the wide variety of Japan’s industrial output, the shift to products with a relatively high value added, the country’s export competitiveness, and the dominant position of its industry in a number of fields. However, Japanese exports face increasing challenges. Most notable is strong competition from Japan’s industrial neighbors China, South Korea, and Taiwan, as well as from the countries of Southeast Asia. Other factors include protectionist sentiments among Japan’s chief trading partners, the valuation of the yen compared with that of other currencies, and a falloff in exports caused by the increased production of Japanese companies abroad. In addition, the global recession that began in 2007–08 is having a significant impact on Japan’s exports, notably of motor vehicles.

A major change in the composition of exports occurred in the late 20th century. Textiles and food products constituted a considerably decreased share of total exports, while exports of a wide variety of machinery and apparatuses (including electronic equipment and components) and transport equipment grew dramatically, together accounting for the largest proportion of exports. Other important exports included chemicals, chemical products, and metals. China and the United States are Japan’s largest export markets; other countries of East and Southeast Asia and the countries of the European Union (EU) are also important export destinations.

After World War II, Japan established relatively high tariffs and instituted restrictive nontariff barriers for many products in order to protect domestic markets. Consistently high trade surpluses led to mounting pressure by Japan’s trading partners—notably the United States—for Japan to open its domestic market to foreign goods. Imports have grown steadily as Japan’s trade structure has become more open. Because of Japan’s meager natural resources, the bulk of its imports are fuels, raw materials, and foodstuffs. The major components of imported manufactured goods are machinery and allied products and chemicals. Japan’s largest suppliers include East and Southeast Asia (notably China), the Middle East, the United States, and Australia.

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Shibuya shopping district, Tokyo.

© marcociannarel/iStock.com

Japan has a long-established and complex system of wholesale distribution and retail marketing, characterized by numerous intermediary levels in the distribution of goods and small, often family-run retail outlets. This system, for years threatened by Japan’s large department stores, also has been challenged by the growth of supermarket and discount-store chains and by mail-order sales and, in the 21st century, online commerce. Sales traditionally have been transacted in cash, but the use of charge accounts and credit cards has become widespread.

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Fast-food workers demonstrating for higher pay and better working conditions in Tokyo in 2014 as part of a worldwide movement.

Rodrigo Reyes Marin—AFLO/Alamy

Japanese trade unions have had a relatively short history. Although there were several labor organizations before World War II, trade unions became important only after the U.S. occupation forces introduced legislation that gave workers the right to organize, to bargain with employers, and to strike. Because Japanese trade unions were generally organized on a plant or enterprise basis, their number was relatively large, and in many cases there were different organizations for different plants of the same company.

The great majority of the enterprise unions became affiliated to federations that were loosely organized on craft lines, such as the Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers’ Unions (Jidōsha Soren). Most of these in turn became affiliated with one of four major national labor organizations established after the war. Interest in uniting the rival national organizations deepened during the 1980s, mainly because of the trend toward ever greater concentration in industry and greater cooperation between the various employers’ organizations. In the late 1980s the major national organizations and other private- and public-sector unions were reorganized into the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC-Rengō); those unions politically more to the left of JTUC-Rengō formed the much smaller National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenrōren).

While the craft and national federations formulate general policy, discuss and advise on strategy, and coordinate wage offensives, serious negotiations are usually conducted on an enterprise basis by individual unions and the employees, especially during the annual institutionalized “spring offensive” (shuntō) wage drive. JTUC-Rengō serves as a voice for the unions in general, publicizing their demands and dealing with the government and other business organizations.

The unionization rate peaked in the mid-1950s at around two-fifths of the workforce, at a time when Japan was troubled by a series of protracted confrontations between labor and management. However, labor-management relations generally have become nonconfrontational and are now characterized by cooperation, with few working days lost through labor action. Membership gradually fell off, and by the early 21st century the number of employees who were organized was less than half of what it had been 50 years earlier. The major reason for the decline has been the shift in the employment structure itself from manufacturing to trade, coupled with the increasing number of part-time and temporary workers.

Japan has a well-developed system of chambers of commerce and trade and industry associations. These groups serve as a sounding board and make policy recommendations while interacting with politicians, government bureaucracies, and labor. Among the best-known are the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), the latter formed in 2002 by the merger of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) and the Japan Federation of Employers’ Association (Nikkeiren).

Tax revenues account for the single largest source of the government’s total income. Since World War II the tax system has been characterized by heavy dependence on direct taxes, and steeply progressive income taxes on individuals and high corporate taxes have constituted most of the tax revenues. In the late 1980s an indirect consumption (value-added) tax was imposed on most goods and services to augment the tax structure. Initially, the tax rate was 3 percent, but, after it was increased to 5 percent in the late 1990s, the government undertook a general overhaul of the tax system, in which tax rates were cut, the number of tax brackets was reduced, new deductions were introduced, and certain levies were lifted. However, in relation to national income, the total tax burden for Japan is considerably lower than it is for most other developed countries.

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The multiple-span Seto Great Bridge over the Inland Sea, linking Kojima, Honshu, with Sakaide, Shikoku, Japan.

Orion Press, Tokyo

Until the latter part of the 19th century, the majority of Japanese people traveled on foot. Vehicular traffic was limited to small wagons, carts, or palanquins (kago) carried by men or animals. The first railway was built between Tokyo and Yokohama in 1872, and others soon followed, though the rugged terrain required the construction of many tunnels and bridges. Iron ships were built about the same time, and modern ports were constructed. Road construction, however, tended to lag behind the development of other means of transport, resulting in the present congestion of most urban areas.

Japan now has one of the world’s most developed transport and communications networks. Tokyo especially is an incomparably large focus for transportation; also important are the Keihanshin metropolitan area—which includes the three cities of Ōsaka, Kōbe, and Kyōto—and Nagoya. Other cities—notably Kita-Kyūshū, Fukuoka, Sapporo, Sendai, and Hiroshima—function as regional hubs.

The largest volume of intercity or interregional transport of both passengers and goods moves between the two largest metropolitan regions. Kyushu is connected with Honshu by the world’s first undersea railway tunnel (built in 1941), by an undersea double-decked road tunnel (built in 1958), and by a huge suspension bridge (opened in 1973). With the opening in 1988 of a railway tunnel between Hokkaido and Honshu and of multiple-span railway-road bridges between Honshu and Shikoku, all four of Japan’s main islands are now linked by surface transport.

The development of Japan’s road network lags behind the country’s general economic progress and is especially inadequate for the large number of cars. Road construction is hampered by the limited area of land in proportion to population. The first limited-access expressway opened in the early 1960s, and by the early 21st century a growing network of such highways had been built throughout the country. The metropolitan regions of Tokyo and Ōsaka have fairly extensive expressway networks within their respective built-up areas. Surface street patterns in Japanese cities are manifold, however, and often hamper the flow of traffic. Cities such as Kyōto and Nara still preserve the gridiron street pattern of the ancient Chinese city plan, though with modifications in built-up inner parts of the cities. In many rural areas as well, the ancient pattern of land division and the resultant road pattern take the rectangular gridiron form. Feudal towns, especially fortified (castle) towns, may have somewhat similar street patterns, though in many cases these are modified (generally in the form of concentric rings) to follow former defensive lines.

Japan has an extremely high density of motor vehicles per unit area in the plains and in other inhabited areas. Trucks represent a much higher proportion of vehicular traffic than in other major motorized countries. The great bulk of domestic freight transport is by truck. Many families now have two or more automobiles and are more likely to drive to a destination than in the past, resulting in road congestion in the big cities and in industrial areas. Although railways still play the major role in carrying commuters, there appears to be no practical solution to the problem of how to reduce the number of cars on the roads. The increases in noxious exhaust gases and in the noise of the traffic are serious problems. Steps taken to alleviate them include stringent pollution-control standards for automobiles and the installation of noise barriers on highways in densely populated areas.

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Shinkansen (bullet train) near Yonezawa, northeastern Honshu, Japan.

© Thomas Nord/Shutterstock.com

Railways play an extremely important role in passenger travel, though they continue to give way to competition especially from road transport but also from air travel. The first Japanese rail line was financed by the British and built by British engineers. Although there was strong opposition to its construction, because many opposed the expansion of foreign economic and political influence, the development of a modern rail network was an early and farsighted goal of the government after the Meiji Restoration (1868). The first streetcar line was constructed in Kyōto in 1891 and used the electricity from the country’s first power station. In subsequent years Japan developed extensive intraurban and suburban railroad systems; the period between the two World Wars in particular was one during which many railroad lines to the suburbs were built to serve the needs of growing numbers of middle-income people. In 1927 the first subway was built in Tokyo’s downtown district, and over time it was expanded into one of the most extensive systems in the world. Subways subsequently were built in most of Japan’s largest cities.

The mainstay of the country’s extensive passenger rail network is the Japan Railways (JR) Group of companies that was formed in 1987 when the state-run Japan National Railways (JNR) was privatized. The jewel of the JR Group’s operations is the high-speed Shinkansen (“New Trunk Line”). The first trains began operations in 1964 on the New Tōkaidō Line, named for the Tōkaidō, the ancient highway between Kyōto and Tokyo, which provides frequent service on an electrified double-track route between Tokyo and Ōsaka. This original Shinkansen line subsequently was extended by lines westward to Fukuoka on Kyushu and northward to Hachinohe in far northern Honshu; branchlines also have been built to several cities on Honshu, and part of a line that eventually will link Fukuoka and Kagoshima on Kyushu has been completed. In order to compete with growing passenger air transport, speeds on the Shinkansen lines have been increased. In addition, the JR Group has conducted extensive research and development on high-speed train operations utilizing magnetic levitation and propulsion.

There are dozens of other private railway companies operating outside the JR Group. Most of them are long-established regional operators of commuter train service and members of larger conglomerates engaged in diverse businesses. Congestion on commuter rail transport has remained a serious problem within the large cities. Although these commuter trains are renowned for their cleanliness, punctuality, and safety, most are extremely crowded during rush hours, with some trains carrying many more than the number of passengers for which they were designed. Services have been gradually expanded to cope with the high demand.

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The Landmark Tower rising above Yokohama Harbor.

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Japan is one of the world’s principal seagoing countries and has one of the world’s largest merchant fleets. Although total annual shipping to and from Japan has continued to rise, the Japanese shipping sector has declined steadily since the 1970s, both in terms of cargo tonnage hauled and number of ships. Shipowners have been forced to streamline operations and scrap ships in order to cut rising operating costs. As a result, foreign charters and ships of foreign registry have risen in use.

Japan has engaged in seafaring since early times, but large modern trading ports were not developed until the second half of the 19th century, after the country had reopened to foreign trade following a period of near isolation from the rest of the world. The first of these, Yokohama and Kōbe, remain Japan’s leading trade entrepôts, the former being the outport of Tokyo and the latter the outport for Ōsaka and Kyōto. Other important modern ports include Chiba, Nagoya, Kawasaki, Kita-Kyūshū, Mizushima, and Sakai.

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Chubu Centrair International Airport near Nagoya, Japan.

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Before World War II, air transportation in Japan was considerably restricted, but, since the foundation of Japan Airlines (JAL), commercial air travel to both domestic and international destinations has become commonplace and widespread. Despite competition by railways, especially the Shinkansen, the volume of domestic air transport has continued to increase. In addition to JAL, the country’s other major airline is All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., and there are several smaller carriers.

All metropolitan areas in Japan are connected by air routes. Tokyo is the main center of the country’s domestic and international air travel, followed by Ōsaka. Other major airports are in Nagoya, Sapporo, and Fukuoka. The growth in air travel has severely strained the country’s airport capacity, despite the addition of new airports on artificial islands near Ōsaka (1994), Nagoya (2005), and Kōbe (2006) and expansion at existing facilities in Tokyo and Ōsaka.