Location: Eastern Asia, in the North Pacific Ocean Area: total: 377,835 sq km land: 374,744 sq km water: 3,091 sq km Climate: varies from tropical in south to cool temperate in north Terrian: mostly rugged and mountainous Capital: Tokyo Administrative divisions: 47 prefectures; Aichi, Akita, Aomori, Chiba, Ehime, Fukui, Fukuoka, Fukushima, Gifu, Gumma, Hiroshima, Hokkaido, Hyogo, Ibaraki, Ishikawa, Iwate, Kagawa, Kagoshima, Kanagawa, Kochi, Kumamoto, Kyoto, Mie, Miyagi, Miyazaki, Nagano, Nagasaki, Nara, Niigata, Oita, Okayama, Okinawa, Osaka, Saga, Saitama, Shiga, Shimane, Shizuoka, Tochigi, Tokushima, Tokyo, Tottori, Toyama, Wakayama, Yamagata, Yamaguchi, Yamanashi Population: 127,417,244 (2005 est.) Ethnic groups: Japanese 99%, other 1% Nationality: noun: Japanese (singular and plural) adjective: Japanese Languages: Japanese Religions: Shinto and Buddhist 84%, other 16% Literacy: 99.0%

Government type: constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government Executive branch: • chief of state: Emperor AKIHITO (since January 1989) • head of government: Prime Minister Junichiro KOIZUMI (since April 2001) • cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister National Holiday: birthday of Emperor AKIHITO, 23 December (1933) ACD Member: ACD Member since 2002 Prime Mover (PM) on Working Group: Environmental Education , Strengthening Legal Infrastructure Co-Prime Mover on Working Group: None Japan government official web site : www.kentei.go.jp

Currency (code): yen (JPY) GDP: $3.867 trillion (2005 est.) GDP per capita: $30,400 (2005 est.) Exports - commodities: transport equipment, motor vehicles, semiconductors, electrical machinery, chemicals Exports - partners: US , China , South Korea , Taiwan , Hong Kong Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, fuels, foodstuffs, chemicals, textiles, raw materials Imports - partners: China , US , South Korea , Australia , Indonesia , Saudi Arabia , UAE Agriculture - products: rice, sugar beets, vegetables, fruit, pork, poultry, dairy products, eggs, fish Industries: among world’s largest and technologically advanced producers of motorvihicles, electronic equipment, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ship, chemicals, textile, processed food Source : The World Fact Book 2005 (www.cia.gov)