Japan: International

1. International Trade - Japan has a high amount of imports on coal and oil from both the Middle East and Australia. It runs a trade deficit with these regions, but it has a trade surplus with technological goods with the US that runs a trade surplus. Japan also exports these technological goods to other parts of Asia such as China and South Korea.

2. The current exchange rate for the Japanese currency of the yen is 102.4 yen per 1 US dollar. This exchange rate has seen a general increase in the last few years as the exchange rate was about 80 yen to 1 US dollar back in 2012.

3. The net immigration rate of Japan is 0, meaning that there is relatively no change in population to to immigration. A large percentage of immigrants to Japan are comprised from China, South Korea, Brazil, and the Philippines. The emigrants from Japan include countries such as China, South Korea, and the US.


4. Relations with other countries - Because of Japan's large amount of international trade, the country has taken a view to try and keep strong international relations with other countries. This has led to ties with the US, Australia, China, and south Korea. There has been some territorial disputes with countries such as Russia over islands that has led to some complications in their relationship.

A Fez of the Heart

a. Choose one passage from the reading that you found particularly interesting.  Why was this interesting?

"The bikini signs had been taken down, and the locals had come up with a new message in tidy English, which they relaunched on postcards as the slogan of a radically reinvented society, one that claimed to have gone from stonings to toplessness in twenty years."

I found this particular passage interesting because I really feel that it encompasses the change that the author described the society to go through. The fact that the culture can go from completely barring the behavior of wearing as little clothes as a bikini to being completely acceptable of nude beaches is quite the drastic change. It amazes me that an force could cause people to radically change their ideas so much in a time period such as this.


b. Use examples from this reading to illustrate the interaction between economics and culture.

The fact that the culture was able to change so quickly in just twenty years can be attributed to the economy. The author makes it seem that it was really the tourism, and most likely the money brought in by this business, that was the driving force of the change. An example of this would be the farmers son who gave up his farming in order to manage a hotel. This man gave up what was previously his life and the history of his father in order to uptake a new trade that would be economically more feasible.

c. Beyond the specific example of this town in Turkey, what connections or conflicts do you see between tourism and economics or tourism and culture?

In the world today tourism and culture has a huge impact on many places. In places such as Dubai, tourism is the life that keeps the culture thriving. For some place to build an outlet shaped like a tree shows just how much tourism and the money it brings has been able to influence some societies. The downside of this though is that it inevitably changes the culture that the tourists most likely first sought out. Although tourism is a great thing for people as they get to experience a new culture and it helps the economy of the place they visit, it can have drastic effects on the culture that is visited.

Japan part 3: Tourism

1. Important tourism to country: In 2013, over 10 million foreign tourists visited Japan. The top three countries that made up this 10 million were people from South Korea, China, and the US.

2. Major Tourist Attractions: Japan has many tourist attractions including 16 World Heritage Sites. There is also a variety of castles and historical structures such as Himeji Castle. Japan also has many cities to visit such as Kyoto and Tokyo.

3.National Parks, Wildlife, Nature Preserves: Japan has 30 National Parks to visit as well as 56 Quasi-National Parks. These national parks include many attractions such as the mountains, and in particular Mount Fuji.

4. Important Museums: Japan has a large amount of museums. Many of these consist of art museums such as The National Art Center in Tokyo and the Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto.

Part Two: Economics of Japan

1. GDP: 5.96 Trillion USD
2. GDP per Capita: 46,720 USD
3. Life Expectancy: 82.59 years
4. Poverty Rate: 15.7 percent
5. Literacy Rate: 99%
6. Unemployment Rate: 3.6 percent
7. Inflation: 1.5%


1. Natural Resources: Because of the fact that it is an island, Japan does not have an abundance of natural resources. A large amount of the land is used for agriculture and forestry. Its island status does grant it an abundant source of ocean, which means that it has a large amount of fish and ocean life as a natural resource. It was also discovered in 2012 that there was a large mineral deposit in the country, which gave the country an abundance to resources used in modern day technologies. Otherwise, the country imports a lot of resources in that it needs, especially coal and oil.

2. Labor: The labor force of Japan is comprised of approximately 63 million employed people. The education of this labor force is through 6 years of elementary, 3 years of middle, and 3 years of high school. There is also the option in Japan to achieve education at the university level eventually leading to the possibility of a PhD.

3. Capital: Japan has a very large place in manufacturing. It has a lot of capital in things like robotics and cars because of some large companies like Toyota. Japan has also developed a highly developed transportation system, as much of the country is covered with roads and railroads.

News Story #1

http://www.japantoday.com/category/business/view/imf-cuts-japan-growth-forecast-issues-warning-over-abenomics


1. Recently, the International Monetary Fund has declared that they expect a decrease in the rate of growth of Japan's economy. This is in part due to Japan's national debt as well as its large amount of tariff and non-tariff barriers on imported goods. The current Prime Minister has tried to implement a plan to help alleviate these issues, but as been questioned by the IMF in whether it will work or not.

2. In this article we see a market with many regulations on imports. This abundance of rules placed in the economy is perhaps a burden that is preventing the economy from working efficiently as talked about in John McMillan's Reinventing the Bazaar. This can also be explained by that fact that with higher restrictions on imports of goods, it is possible that this may reduce the supply of those goods which will in turn drive up prices and decrease the available quantity of good.

3. As stated before, the IMF blames the current situation on Japan's history of trade restrictions and national debt. Japan has appeared to take steps in deregulation of trade restrictions as well as tax increases to help get rid of the national debt. I believe that continuing to eliminate trade restrictions with countries will help to make Japan's economy run at its fullest potential which will help it to both grow and reduce the debt.

Part One of Culture: Japan

1. Popular Sports: Baseball, Soccer, Sumo (National Sport), and Martial Arts
Popular baseball teams include the Yomiuri Giants and the Hanshin Tigers
2. Music: Modern music in Japan is much like that in the US with a variety of popular genres including hip-hop, pop, and rock
Some modern Japanese artists include NMB48, Boyfriend, and Sandaime J Soul Brothers
Traditional Japanese music consists of Taiko, which is a drum
3.Food : Traditonal foods include Sashimi, which is raw fish with soy sauce, sushi, which is raw seafood placed on rice, and Soba and Udon noodles
These dishes are still popular today alongside others such as ramen, tempura, and yakizakana
4. Religion: The two largest religions in Japan are Buddhism and Shinto, they are largely optimistic views, considering humans to be naturally good
5. National Holidays and Traditional Customs: There are many holidays including New Years', Culture Day, and Geenery Day. There is also a Coming of Age Day that coongatulates people who turn 20 during that year and reach maturity.
6.Popular TV Shows and Movies: Television in Japan mostly consists of anime, dramas, science fiction, and varieties. Some well known shows include Pokemon, Naruto, and Ninja Warrior. Well known movies include My Neighbor Totor, Godzilla, and Akira.
7.News: http://www.japantoday.com/
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/
http://the-japan-news.com/
8. Forums: http://www.expatforum.com/expats/japan-expat-forum-expats-living-japan/
http://www.internations.org/japan-expats
9. Government: Constitutional Monarchy with an Emperor of limited power. A prime minister which is the head of the government. A bicameral Parliament consisting of a House of Representatives and House of Councillors . Political Parties include liberal democratic, democratic, restoration, and new komeito.

Chapter 1 of Reinventing the Bazaar by John McMillan

John McMillan tries to describe the government in his book Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets. He dissuades the notion that the economy is driven by magical unknown forces, and instead by people and different rules both explicit and implicit. McMillan states that "Decision-making autonomy is key," when describing the market (McMillan 2002). By this he means that the most important aspect of a market is the ability to freely make decisions. This allows for market transactions to occur as well as help to maintain a healthy trade.
An important thing that McMillan notes in his book is that, "Markets provoke clashing opinions. Some people revile them as the source of exploitation and poverty. Others extol them as the font of liberty and prosperity," (McMillan 2002). This statement points out how their are inevitable differing opinions of how the market should or shouldn't work. This is apparent in today's market with the political system that we have in the US. It is clear in most cases that the democratic party advocates for more government control while the republic party does the opposite. This idea of distrusting the government and their intervention in the market is born from fears of a communist society or an all-powerful dictatorship. I feel that these fears are unwarranted in that the government needs to intervene in the market in some ways or else there would be anarchy.
McMillan's analogy of comparing the market to football is brilliant. The lawless market with no rules being compared to folk football shows how when there are no rules anything can go and can result in dire consequences. A modern market governed by rules however, is much like the modern american football which has become a huge part of the culture in this nation. This proves that there is a need for some rules in the market in order for it to be truly prosperous. Rules such as minimum wage and child-protection laws allow for workers to not be taken advantage of and rules set against monopolies help to keep free decision making available by preventing there from being only one option.

Response to Jared Diamond Article

Jared Diamond explains many points on how the world become what it has today in his talk. He talks about how history should be viewed as a science, and how it can be used to explain things we see today through trends in history. He specifically notes how today's world can be viewed as racist, in that there are certain groups of people that clearly have more power than others and that they view others as less human. He says how this can be traced to things in history like the fall of the New World to the Old World and even further back to the ice age. Diamond states how the Eurasian domination over the new world can be explained through a few things such as domesticated animals and climate. This lends to Diamond explaining that difference in current human societies is due more to environment that biological differences. He states that some of the most important determinants to a society's success the ability and suitability to domesticate animals, a high rate of increasing agriculture and herding, and a dense population and food surplus. These things allow a society to grow and develop new technologies and innovations that make the society more complex. This can be applied today in that the countries in today's world that have the most power tend to have densely populated areas and cities. They are also able to come up with an abundance of agriculture and herding in order to feed and grow such a population. This allows these countries to also possibly sell surplus food on the global economy. The growth then also allows for new innovations and technologies that can further put ahead those countries. In conclusion it can be seen today some of the trends that have occurred in history and it is vital to understanding that history in order to gain insight on what is occurring in the world today.