creditor country in the world. Most of the country's investment capital is generated through its profitable foreign trading activities. Consumer price infla tion in the 1980s was less than 2.5 percent annually. The country's strong economy, together with its emphasis on produc tion for export, as opposed to production for domestic consump tion, has enabled the country to maintain modest inflation rates over the past two decades. Japan has the fastest growing gross national product (GNP) of any industrial country. In terms of per capita GNP, Japan is nearly equal to the United States. As a consequence of a much larger population, however, the total American GNP is much larger than that in Japan.
Private consumption accounts for approximately 51 percent of Japan's GNP (compared to about 60 percent in the United States). Japanese public consumption accounts for 8.7 percent 3of GNP (compared to about 17 percent in the United States). Investment in Japan accounts for approximately 29 percent of GNP (compared to about 17 percent in the United States), and exports account for approximately 11.3 percent of Japan's GNP (compared to about six percent in the United States).
Japan's principal exports (in trade value order) are (1) machinery and transportation equipment, (2) metals and metal products, (3) computers and electronics products, (4) textile products, and (5) chemicals. Japan's principal export trading partners (in trade value order) are (1) the United States, (2) China, (3)
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