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    Twirling dragon Maciamo's Avatar
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    Post Where does Japan stand in the world economically and politically nowadays ?

    Politics

    Democracy, freedom of press, corruption

    The World Audit on corruption, democracy and freedom of press in 2005, ranks Japan 21st in terms of political corruption, behind all Western countries (+ Singapore & Mongolia), except Portugal, Italy and Greece.

    Japan is ranked 30th for democracy, before Greece, Singapore and Mongolia, but after Portugal, Italy, and even Uruguay, Costa Rica and Mauritius.

    Regarding freedom of press, Japan ranks 25th, just ahead of some Eastern European countries, but well behind all (other) Western countries.

    Thw World Audit has classified Japan in division 2 in terms of democracy, along with South Korea, South Africa, Latvia, Bulgaria, Greece and Panama. All Western countries apart from Greece are in division 1.

    Economy

    Public debt

    The CIA Factbook's public debt ranking shows that Japan's current public debt was 154.60% of its GDP, the third highest figure in the world after Malawi and Lebanon. Among Western countries, the highest figures are for Italy (106.40%), Belgium (102%) and Greece (100.90%), while all other Western countries stand between 18.20% for Australia and 77% for Canada. The UK's public debt is 51%, while the USA, Spain, Germany and France's are between 62 and 69%.

    GNI/GDP per capita

    As the data for the GDP or GNI per capita sometimes vary from one source to another, I chose the two most reliable sources I know for a comparison, the CIA Worldfact Book and World Bank (pdf file).

    The CIA ranks Japan 17th worldwide in terms of GDP/capita ($28,200), while the World Bank ranks it 7th in GNI/capita ($34,510) and also 17th for GNI/capita at PPP* ($28,620). Both data are for 2003.

    Of course, many of the countries outranking Japan are tiny (Cayman, Bermuda, San Marino, Luxembourg, Lichstenstein, Channel Isalnds...). Among major countries, the USA, Switzerland and Norway outrank Japan in all 3 lists.

    In the two lists where Japan ranks 17th, the following countries also have a higher GDP per capita than Japan : Denmark, Iceland, Austria, Canada, Ireland, Belgium, Australia, Hong Kong and the Netherlands. The UK, France, Germany and Italy come just after Japan, with almost the same figure.

    *purchasing power parity
    Last edited by Maciamo; Apr 12, 2005 at 13:25.

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