Manufacturing in Japan
's major export industries include automobiles, consumer electronics, computers, semiconductors, copper, and [|iron and steel]. Additional key industries in Japan's economy are [|petrochemicals], [|pharmaceuticals, bioindustry], shipbuilding, [|aerospace], [|textiles], and [|processed foods].
File:Chukyo Industrial Area.jpg|thumb|Chūkyō industrial region around Nagoya is home to automobile industries.
The Japanese manufacturing industry is heavily dependent on imported raw materials and fuels. Japanese manufacturing and industry is very diversified, with a variety of advanced industries that are highly successful. Industry accounts for 19.4 percent of the nation's GDP. The country's manufacturing output is the third highest in the world.
Well-known Japanese manufacturing and tech companies include Toyota, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric, Nissan, Honda, Fujitsu, Yamaha, Epson, Toshiba, Sony, Panasonic, Nintendo, Sega, Nippon, Takeda Pharma, Mazda, Subaru, Isuzu, Komatsu, Sharp, Nikon, Canon and NEC.
Steel
In 2018, the top TWO export markets for Japan were: South Korea, Thailand accounting for 85.25 million metric tons, or 82 percent of total 2018 production, based on available data.The iron and steel industry of Japan is mainly concentrated in the Tokyo-China region, Chukyo region, Osaka - Kobe, Fukuoka-Yamaguchi, Oka-Yamaha and Hokkaido region contributes about 20 percent of the Japanese steel production. Major cities in where steel industries based are Kobe, Osaka and Kitakyushu.
Shipbuilding
Japan dominated world shipbuilding in the late 1980s, filling more than half of all orders worldwide. Its closest competitors were South Korea and Spain, with 9 percent and 5.2 percent of the market, respectively.The Japanese shipbuilding industry was hit by a lengthy recession from the late 1970s through most of the 1980s, which resulted in a drastic cutback in the use of facilities and in the work force, but there was a sharp revival in 1989. The industry was helped by a sudden rise in demand from other countries that needed to replace their aging fleets and from a sudden decline in the South Korean shipping industry. In 1988, Japanese shipbuilding firms received orders for 4.8 million gross tons of ships, but this figure grew to 7.1 million gross tons in 1989.
Although facing competition from South Korea and China, Japan retains a successful, advanced shipbuilding manufacturing industry. Japan lost its leading position in the industry to South Korea in 2004, and its market share has since fallen sharply.
Biotechnology and pharmaceutics
The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries experienced strong growth in the late 1980s. Pharmaceutical production grew an estimated 8 percent in 1989 because of increased expenditures by Japan's rapidly aging population. Leading producers actively develop new drugs, such as those for degenerative and geriatric diseases. Pharmaceutical companies were establishing tripolar networks connecting Japan, the United States, and Western Europe to co-ordinate product development. They also increased merger and acquisition activity overseas. Biotechnology research and development was progressing steadily, including the launching of marine biotechnology projects, with full-scale commercialization expected to take place in the 1990s.Biotechnology research covered a wide variety of fields: agriculture, animal husbandry, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, food processing, and fermentation. Human hormones and proteins for pharmaceutical products were sought through genetic recombination using bacteria.
Biotechnology also is used to enhance bacterial enzyme properties to further improve amino-acid fermentation technology, a field in which Japan is the world leader. The government cautions Japanese producers, however, against overoptimism regarding biotechnology and bioindustry. The research race both in Japan and abroad intensified in the 1980s, leading to patent disputes and forcing some companies to abandon research. Also, researchers began to realize that such drug development continually showed new complexities, requiring more technical breakthroughs than first imagined. Yet, despite these problems, research and development was still expected to be successful and to end in product commercialization in the mid-term.
In 2006, the Japanese pharmaceutical market was the second largest individual market in the world. With sales of $60 billion it constitutes approximately 11 percent of the world market. The Japanese Pharmaceutical Industry and Laws are very particular. They are ruled by The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare which was established by a merger of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Labor, on January 6, 2001, as part of the Japanese government program for re-organizing government ministries.
Oil and gas and petrochemical
The petrochemical industry experienced moderate growth in the late 1980s because of steady economic expansion. The highest growth came in the production of plastics, polystyrene, and polypropylene. Prices for petrochemicals remained high because of increased demand in the newly developing economies of Asia.By 1990, the construction of factory complexes to make ethylene-based products in South Korea and Thailand was expected to increase supplies and reduce prices. In the long term, the Japanese petrochemical industry is likely to face intensifying competition as a result of the integration of domestic and international markets and the efforts made by other Asian countries to catch up with Japan.
Motor vehicles and machinery
The motor vehicle industry is one of the most successful industries in Japan, with large world shares in the automobile, electric vehicle, electronics, parts, tire and engine manufacturing industries. Global Japanese motor vehicle companies include:- Toyota
- *Lexus
- *Hino
- *Daihatsu
- Honda
- *Acura
- Nissan
- *Infiniti
- Suzuki
- Mazda
- Mitsubishi
- Subaru
- Isuzu
Denso is the world's largest company in automotive component manufacturing. In addition, Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki are global motorcycle companies.
File:Yamaha YZF-R1 .JPG|left|thumb|Yamaha YZF-R1 manufactured by Yamaha
Japan is home to six of the top ten largest vehicle manufacturers in the world. For example, it is home to multinational companies such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Suzuki and Mazda. Some of these companies cross-over to different sectors such as electronics to produce electronic equipment as some of them being a part of keiretsu. Japan's automobiles are generally known for their quality, durability, fuel efficiency and more features for a relatively lower price than their competitors.
Japanese automakers Mitsubishi and Toyota have had their patents violated by a number of Myanmar car companies, such as UD Group and Kyar Koe Kaung. These companies produced Mitsubishi and Toyota products including Mitsubishi Pajero, Toyota TownAce pickup trucks and other various types of Japanese cars under their own marques without license.
Exports and the Japanese market
In 1991, Japan produced 9.7 million automobiles, making it the largest producer in the world; the United States in that year produced 5.4 million. Just under 46 percent of the Japanese output was exported. Automobiles, other motor vehicles, and automotive parts were the largest class of Japanese exports throughout the 1980s. In 1991 they accounted for 17.8 percent of all Japanese exports, a meteoric rise from only 1.9 percent in 1960 with kaya being one of the largest exporters.File:01 全景 大 mazdaロゴなし.jpg|thumb|Disco Corporation - Mazda Motor plant in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture
Fear of protectionism in the United States led to major direct foreign investment in the U.S. by Japanese automobile manufacturers. By the end of the 1980s, all the major Japanese producers had automotive assembly lines operating in the United States: Isuzu has a joint plant with Subaru; one of Toyota's plants is in Alabama. Following the major assembly firms, Japanese producers of automobile parts also began investing in the United States in the late 1980s, most Japanese auto parts are nevertheless made in Japan.
File:Toyota Plant Ohira Sendai.jpg|thumb|Toyota factory in Ohira, near Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
Automobiles were a major area of contention for the Japan-United States relationship during the 1980s. When the price of oil rose in the 1979 energy crisis, demand for small automobiles increased, which worked to the advantage of Japan's exports to the United States market. As the Japanese share of the market increased, to 21.8 percent in 1981, pressures rose to restrict imports from Japan. The result of these pressures was a series of negotiations in early 1981, which produced a voluntary export agreement limiting Japan's shipments to the United States to 1.68 million units. This agreement remained in effect for the rest of the decade, but Japanese competition only increased with new plants being built and
with the export agreement being voluntary. The Japanese Big Three also sold luxury automobiles similar to its European counterparts where it was possible to yield profits - since the parent companies had a connotation as an econobox manufacturer with their mass market automobiles, they established their stand-alone luxury marques where the parent company marketed the same product as a JDM. The luxury marques may not have their own brand language or brand identity of its own since they are often associated with their parent companies. Similar voluntary restraints on Japanese exports were imposed by Canada and several West European countries. Nonetheless, Japanese car competition only increased due to new plants being built and with the export agreements being voluntary. Since then, tensions have greatly decreased. Canada and Western Europe, like the U.S., repealed restrictions on Japanese auto imports. Nissan has an assembly plant in Sunderland in England.