Terrain: mostly rugged and mountainous
Natural resources: negligible mineral resources, fish
Land use: arable land: 13% permanent crops: 1% meadows and pastures: 1% forest and woodland: 67% other: 18%
Irrigated land: 28,680 sq km (1989)
Environment:
current issues: air pollution from power plant emissions results in
acid rain; acidification of lakes and reservoirs degrading water
quality and threatening aquatic life; Japan's appetite for fish and
tropical timber is contributing to the depletion of these resources in
Asia and elsewhere
natural hazards: many dormant and some active volcanoes; about 1,500
seismic occurrences (mostly tremors) every year; tsunamis
international agreements: party to - Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity,
Climate Change, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer
Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94,
Wetlands, Whaling; signed, but not ratified - Antarctic-Environmental
Protocol, Desertification, Law of the Sea
Note: strategic location in northeast Asia
@Japan:People
Population: 125,506,492 (July 1995 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 16% (female 9,955,603; male 10,542,973)
15-64 years: 69% (female 43,377,425; male 43,843,645)
65 years and over: 15% (female 10,514,017; male 7,272,829) (July 1995
est.)
Population growth rate: 0.32% (1995 est.)