[29] Japan used to run a considerable trade surplus, but the decline of the manufacturing sector since the 1980s and increased fossil fuel imports after the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011 have changed this trend in recent years.

[43] Long having been an agricultural country, one study estimates that Japan’s economy was among the top ten in the world by size during the second millennium before the industrial revolution started.

After the defeat in the Second World War, Japan’s economy recovered and developed further rapidly, primarily propelled by its lucrative manufacturing exporting industries.

[26] Driven by speculative investments and excessive lending, the Japanese asset price bubble of the early 1990s burst, triggering a prolonged period of economic stagnation marked by deflation and persistently low or negative growth, now known as the Lost Decades.

[58] To eradicate Christian influence, Japan entered a period of isolation called sakoku in the 1630s, which led to economic stability and mild progress.

[62] Since the mid-19th century, after the Meiji Restoration, the country was opened up to Western commerce and influence and went through a period of economic development that extended through to the First World War.

During the Meiji period (1868–1912), leaders inaugurated a new Western-based education system for all young people, sent thousands of students to Europe and the United States, and hired more than 3,000 Westerners to teach modern science, mathematics, technology, and foreign languages in Japan (Oyatoi gaikokujin).

The government also built an extensive railway network, improved roads, and inaugurated a land reform program to prepare the country for further development.

Key factors in this growth included government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, advanced technology, and a focus on export-oriented manufacturing.

Japan’s economy diversified from textiles to steel, shipbuilding, and eventually electronics and automobiles, with companies such as Toyota, Sony, Hitachi and Honda becoming household names worldwide.

As a consequence Japan ran massive budget deficits (added trillions in Yen to Japanese financial system) to finance large public works programs.

In desperation, the Japanese government undertook "structural reform" policies intended to wring speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets.

The Bank of Japan used quantitative easing to expand the country's money supply in order to raise expectations of inflation and spur economic growth.

In 2008, the Japanese Central Bank still had the lowest interest rates in the developed world, but deflation had still not been eliminated[73] and the Nikkei 225 has fallen over approximately 50% (between June 2007 and December 2008).

[78] In October 2020 during the pandemic, Japan and the United Kingdom formally signed the first free-trade agreement post-Brexit, which will boost trade by approximately £15.2 billion.

Thus, 85.7% of these bonds are held by Japanese investors.”[82] The Bank of Japan's main policy aim since the Lost Decades started had been to end deflation and eventually achieve 2% inflation.

[49] The increased international economic tension brought about by events such as the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in 2022 finally helped the country achieve the much-anticipated inflation target of 2%, and the negative interest policy since 2016 was ended in March 2024.

[102] This results in one of the world's highest levels of crop yields per unit area, with an overall agricultural self-sufficiency rate of about 50% on fewer than 56,000 km2 (14 million acres) cultivated.

[113] Offshore fisheries accounted for an average of 50% of the nation's total fish catches in the late 1980s although they experienced repeated ups and downs during that period.

Among the nearly 300 fish species in the rivers of Japan are native varieties of catfish, chub, herring and goby, as well as such freshwater crustaceans as crabs and crayfish.

[146] Some of the most popular visited places include the Shinjuku, Ginza, Shibuya and Asakusa areas in Tokyo, and the cities of Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto, as well as Himeji Castle.

[179] In September 2019, Japan will invest 10 billion on liquefied natural gas projects worldwide, in a strategy to boost the global LNG market and reinforce the security of energy supply.

[224] Nemawashi (根回し), or "consensus building", in Japanese culture is an informal process of quietly laying the foundation for some proposed change or project, by talking to the people concerned, gathering support and feedback, and so forth.

When applied to the workplace, Kaizen activities continually improve all functions of a business, from manufacturing to management and from the CEO to the assembly line workers.

[227] The corporate application of the kaizen system has been criticized for neglecting or harming the quality of life of workers, particularly via the implementation of long working hours.

The practice is increasingly viewed as corrupt and a limitation on efforts to reduce ties between the private sector and the state that prevent economic and political reforms.

In modern use, the term carries associations of long working hours, low prestige in the corporate hierarchy, absence of significant sources of income other than salary, wage slavery, and karōshi.

[citation needed] Freeter (フリーター, furītā) is a Japanese expression for people between the age of 15 and 34 who lack full-time employment or are unemployed, excluding homemakers and students.

Department stores in Japan generally offer a wide range of services which can include foreign exchange, travel reservations, and ticket sales for local concerts and other events.

This, in turn, has led to a growing corporate acquisition industry in Japan, as companies are no longer able to be easily "bailed out" by their banks, as well as rising derivative litigation by more independent shareholders.