Kosovo (2008) | Japan (2001) | |
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Administrative divisions | 30 municipalities (komunat, singular - komuna in Albanian; opstine, singular - opstina in Serbian); Decan (Decani), Dragash (Dragas), Ferizaj (Urosevac), Fushe Kosove (Kosovo Polje), Gjakove (Dakovica), Gllogoc/Drenas (Glogovac), Gjilan (Gnjilane), Istog (Istok), Kacanik, Kline (Klina), Kamenice/Dardana (Kamenica), Leposaviq (Leposavic), Lipjan (Lipljan), Malisheve (Malisevo), Mitrovice (Mitrovica), Novoberde (Novo Brdo), Obiliq (Obilic), Peje (Pec), Podujeve (Podujevo), Prishtine (Pristina), Prizren, Rahovec (Orahovac), Shtime (Stimlje), Shterpce (Strpce), Skenderaj (Srbica), Suhareke (Suva Reka), Viti (Vitina), Vushtrri (Vucitrn), Zubin Potok, Zvecan | 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 |
Age structure | - | 0-14 years:
14.64% (male 9,510,296; female 9,043,074) 15-64 years: 67.83% (male 43,202,513; female 42,790,187) 65 years and over: 17.53% (male 9,351,340; female 12,874,252) (2001 est.) |
Agriculture - products | NA | rice, sugar beets, vegetables, fruit; pork, poultry, dairy products, eggs; fish |
Airports | 10 (2008) | 173 (2000 est.) |
Airports - with paved runways | total: 6
2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 1,524 to 2,437 m: 1 under 914 m: 4 (2008) |
total:
142 over 3,047 m: 8 2,438 to 3,047 m: 36 1,524 to 2,437 m: 38 914 to 1,523 m: 30 under 914 m: 30 (2000 est.) |
Airports - with unpaved runways | total: 4
under 914 m: 4 (2008) |
total:
31 914 to 1,523 m: 4 under 914 m: 27 (2000 est.) |
Area | total: 10,887 sq km
land: 10,887 sq km water: 0 sq km |
total:
377,835 sq km land: 374,744 sq km water: 3,091 sq km note: includes Bonin Islands (Ogasawara-gunto), Daito-shoto, Minami-jima, Okino-tori-shima, Ryukyu Islands (Nansei-shoto), and Volcano Islands (Kazan-retto) |
Area - comparative | slightly larger than Delaware | slightly smaller than California |
Background | Serbs migrated to the territories of modern Kosovo in the 7th century, but did not fully incorporate them into the Serbian realm until the early 13th century. The Serbian defeat at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 led to five centuries of Ottoman rule, during which large numbers of Turks and Albanians moved to Kosovo. By the end of the 19th century, Albanians replaced the Serbs as the dominant ethnic group in Kosovo. Serbia reacquired control over Kosovo from the Ottoman Empire during the First Balkan War (1912), and after World War II (1945) the government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia led by Josip Broz TITO reorganized Kosovo as an autonomous province within the constituent republic of Serbia. Over the next four decades, Kosovo Albanians lobbied for greater autonomy and Kosovo was granted the status almost equal to that of a republic in the 1974 Yugoslav Constitution. Despite the legislative concessions, Albanian nationalism increased in the 1980s leading to nationalist riots and calls for Kosovo's independence. Serbs in Kosovo complained of mistreatment and Serb nationalist leaders, such as Slobodan MILOSEVIC, exploited those charges to win support among Serbian voters, many of whom viewed Kosovo as their cultural heartland. Under MILOSEVIC's leadership, Serbia instituted a new constitution in 1989 that drastically curtailed Kosovo's autonomy and Kosovo Albanian leaders responded in 1991 by organizing a referendum that declared Kosovo independent from Serbia. The MILOSEVIC regime carried out repressive measures against the Albanians in the early 1990s as the unofficial government of Kosovo, led by Ibrahim RUGOVA, tried to use passive resistance to gain international assistance and recognition of its demands for independence. In 1995, Albanians dissatisfied with RUGOVA's nonviolent strategy created the Kosovo Liberation Army and launched an insurgency. In 1998, MILOSEVIC authorized a counterinsurgency campaign that resulted in massacres and massive expulsions of ethnic Albanians by Serbian military, police, and paramilitary forces. The international community tried to resolve the conflict peacefully, but MILOSEVIC rejected the proposed international settlement - the Rambouillet Accords - leading to a three-month NATO bombing of Serbia beginning in March 1999, which forced Serbia to withdraw its military and police forces from Kosovo in June 1999. UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999) placed Kosovo under a transitional administration, the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), pending a determination of Kosovo's future status. Under the resolution, Serbia's territorial integrity was protected, but it was UNMIK who assumed responsibility for governing Kosovo. In 2001, UNMIK promulgated a Constitutional Framework, which established Kosovo's Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG), and in succeeding years UNMIK increasingly devolved responsibilities to the PISG. A UN-led process began in late 2005 to determine Kosovo's future status. Negotiations held intermittently between 2006 and 2007 on issues related to decentralization, religious heritage, and minority rights failed to yield a resolution between Serbia's willingness to grant a high degree of autonomy and the Albanians' call for full independence for Kosovo. On 17 February 2008, the Kosovo Assembly declared its independence from Serbia. | While retaining its time-honored culture, Japan rapidly absorbed Western technology during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After its devastating defeat in World War II, Japan recovered to become the second most powerful economy in the world and a staunch ally of the US. While the emperor retains his throne as a symbol of national unity, actual power rests in networks of powerful politicians, bureaucrats, and business executives. The economy experienced a major slowdown in the 1990s following three decades of unprecedented growth. |
Birth rate | - | 10.04 births/1,000 population (2001 est.) |
Budget | revenues: $893.2 million
expenditures: $796.6 million (2006 est.) |
revenues:
$441 billion expenditures: $718 billion, including capital expenditures (public works only) of about $84 billion (FY01/02 est.) |
Capital | name: Pristina (Prishtine)
geographic coordinates: 42 40 N, 21 10 E time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October |
Tokyo |
Climate | influenced by continental air masses resulting in relatively cold winters with heavy snowfall and hot, dry summers and autumns; Mediterranean and alpine influences create regional variation; maximum rainfall between October and December | varies from tropical in south to cool temperate in north |
Coastline | 0 km (landlocked) | 29,751 km |
Constitution | Constitutional Framework of 2001; note - the Kosovo Government is charged with putting forward an AHTISAARI (UN Special Envoy) Plan-compliant draft of a new constitution soon after independence | 3 May 1947 |
Country name | conventional long form: Republic of Kosovo
conventional short form: Kosovo local long form: Republika e Kosoves (Republika Kosova) local short form: Kosova (Kosovo) former: Kosovo i Metohija, Autonomna Pokrajina |
conventional long form:
none conventional short form: Japan |
Currency | - | yen (JPY) |
Death rate | - | 8.34 deaths/1,000 population (2001 est.) |
Debt - external | Serbia continued to pay Kosovo's external debt, which it claimed was around $1.2 billion; Kosovo was willing to accept around $900 million, according to the national bank of Serbia (2007) | $NA |
Diplomatic representation from the US | - | chief of mission:
Ambassador-designate Howard H. BAKER, Jr. embassy: 10-5 Akasaka 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8420 mailing address: Unit 45004, Box 205, APO AP 96337-5004 telephone: [81] (03) 3224-5000 FAX: [81] (03) 3224-5856 consulate(s) general: Naha (Okinawa), Osaka-Kobe, Sapporo consulate(s): Fukuoka, Nagoya |
Diplomatic representation in the US | - | chief of mission:
Ambassador Shunji YANAI chancery: 2520 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008 telephone: [1] (202) 238-6700 FAX: [1] (202) 328-2187 consulate(s) general: Anchorage, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Hagatna (Guam), Honolulu, Houston, Kansas City (Missouri), Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Portland (Oregon), San Francisco, and Seattle consulate(s): Saipan (Northern Mariana Islands) |
Disputes - international | Serbia with several other states protest the US and other states' recognition of Kosovo's declaring itself as a sovereign and independent state in February 2008; ethnic Serbian municipalities along Kosovo's northern border challenge final status of Kosovo-Serbia boundary; several thousand NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers under UNMIK authority continue to keep the peace within Kosovo between the ethnic Albanian majority and the Serb minority in Kosovo; Kosovo authorities object to alignment of the Kosovo boundary with Macedonia in accordance with the 2000 Macedonia-Serbia and Montenegro delimitation agreement | islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, and Shikotan, and the Habomai group occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945, now administered by Russia, claimed by Japan; Liancourt Rocks (Takeshima/Tokdo) disputed with South Korea; Senkaku-shoto (Senkaku Islands) claimed by China and Taiwan |
Economic aid - donor | - | ODA, $9.1 billion (1999) |
Economic aid - recipient | $252 million (2006) | - |
Economy - overview | Kosovo's economy has largely transitioned to a market-based system but is highly dependent on the international community and the diaspora for financial and technical assistance. Remittances from the diaspora - located mainly in Germany and Switzerland - account for about 30% of GDP. Kosovo's citizens are the poorest in Europe with an average per capita income of only $1900 - about one-third the level of neighboring Albania. Unemployment - at 50% of the population - is a severe problem that encourages outward migration. Most of Kosovo's population lives in rural towns outside of the largest city, Pristina. Inefficient, near-subsistence farming is common - the result of small plots, limited mechanization, and lack of technical expertise. The complexity of Serbia and Kosovo's political and legal relationships created uncertainty over property rights and hindered the privatization of state-owned assets. Minerals and metals - including lignite, lead, zinc, nickel, chrome, aluminum, magnesium, and a wide variety of construction materials - once formed the backbone of industry, but output has declined because investment is insufficient to replace ageing Eastern Bloc equipment. Technical and financial problems in the power sector also impede industrial development, and deter foreign investment. Economic growth is largely driven by the private sector - mostly small-scale retail businesses. Both the euro and the Serbian dinar circulate. Kosovo's tie to the euro has helped keep inflation low. Kosovo has maintained a budget surplus as a result of efficient tax collection and inefficient spending. While maintaining ultimate oversight, UNMIK continues to work with the EU and Kosovo's provisional government to accelerate economic growth, lower unemployment, and attract foreign investment. In order to help integrate Kosovo into regional economic structures, UNMIK signed (on behalf of Kosovo) its accession to the Central Europe Free Trade Area (CEFTA) in 2006. | Government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, mastery of high technology, and a comparatively small defense allocation (1% of GDP) have helped Japan advance with extraordinary rapidity to the rank of second most technologically powerful economy in the world after the US and third largest economy in the world after the US and China. One notable characteristic of the economy is the working together of manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors in closely-knit groups called keiretsu. A second basic feature has been the guarantee of lifetime employment for a substantial portion of the urban labor force. Both features are now eroding. Industry, the most important sector of the economy, is heavily dependent on imported raw materials and fuels. The much smaller agricultural sector is highly subsidized and protected, with crop yields among the highest in the world. Usually self-sufficient in rice, Japan must import about 50% of its requirements of other grain and fodder crops. Japan maintains one of the world's largest fishing fleets and accounts for nearly 15% of the global catch. For three decades overall real economic growth had been spectacular: a 10% average in the 1960s, a 5% average in the 1970s, and a 4% average in the 1980s. Growth slowed markedly in the 1990s largely because of the aftereffects of overinvestment during the late 1980s and contractionary domestic policies intended to wring speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets. Government efforts to revive economic growth have met little success and were further hampered in late 2000 by the slowing of the US and Asian economies. The crowding of habitable land area and the aging of the population are two major long-run problems. Robotics constitutes a key long-term economic strength, with Japan possessing 410,000 of the world's 720,000 "working robots". |
Electricity - consumption | 4.281 billion kWh (2006) | 947.038 billion kWh (1999) |
Electricity - exports | - | 0 kWh (1999) |
Electricity - imports | - | 0 kWh (1999) |
Electricity - production | 3.996 billion kWh (2006) | 1.018 trillion kWh (1999) |
Electricity - production by source | - | fossil fuel:
58.91% hydro: 8.35% nuclear: 30.31% other: 2.43% (1999) |
Elevation extremes | lowest point: Drini i Bardhe/Beli Drim 297 m (located on the border with Albania)
highest point: Gjeravica/Deravica 2,565 m |
lowest point:
Hachiro-gata -4 m highest point: Fujiyama 3,776 m |
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 is one of the largest consumers of fish and tropical timber, contributing to the depletion of these resources in Asia and elsewhere |
Environment - international agreements | - | party to:
Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol |
Ethnic groups | Albanians 88%, Serbs 7%, other 5% (Bosniak, Gorani, Roma, Turk) | Japanese 99.4%, Korean 0.6% (1999) |
Exchange rates | Serbian dinars per US dollar - 54.5 (2008 est.) | yen per US dollar - 117.10 (January 2001), 107.77 (2000), 113.91 (1999), 130.91 (1998), 120.99 (1997), 108.78 (1996) |
Executive branch | chief of state: President Fatmir SEJDIU (since 10 February 2006)
head of government: Prime Minister Hashim THACI (since 9 January 2008) cabinet: ministers; elected by the Kosovo Assembly elections: the president is elected for a 5-year term by the Kosovo Assembly; the prime minister is elected by the Kosovo Assembly election results: Fatmir SEJDIU and Hashim THACI elected to be president and prime minister respectively by the Assembly |
chief of state:
Emperor AKIHITO (since 7 January 1989) head of government: Prime Minister Junichiro KOIZUMI (since 24 April 2001) cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; the Diet designates the prime minister; the constitution requires that the prime minister must command a parliamentary majority, therefore, following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or leader of a majority coalition in the House of Representatives usually becomes prime minister note: following the resignation of Prime Minister Yoshiro MORI, Junichiro KOIZUMI was elected as the new president of the majority Liberal Democratic Party, and soon thereafter designated by the Diet to become the next prime minister |
Exports | $13.08 million (2006) | $450 billion (f.o.b., 2000) |
Exports - commodities | scrap metals, mining and processed metal products, plastics, wood | motor vehicles, semiconductors, office machinery, chemicals |
Exports - partners | Central Europe Free Trade Area (CFTA) 56% (2006) | US 30%, Taiwan 7%, South Korea 6.4%, China 6.2%, Hong Kong 5.6% (2000 est.) |
Fiscal year | - | 1 April - 31 March |
Flag description | centered on a dark blue field is the shape of Kosovo in a gold color surmounted by six white, five-pointed stars - each representing one of the major ethnic groups of Kosovo - arrayed in a slight arc | white with a large red disk (representing the sun without rays) in the center |
GDP | - | purchasing power parity - $3.15 trillion (2000 est.) |
GDP - composition by sector | agriculture: NA
industry: NA services: NA |
agriculture:
2% industry: 35% services: 63% (1999 est.) |
GDP - per capita | - | purchasing power parity - $24,900 (2000 est.) |
GDP - real growth rate | 2.6% (2007) | 1.3% (2000 est.) |
Geographic coordinates | 42 35 N, 21 00 E | 36 00 N, 138 00 E |
Geography - note | - | strategic location in northeast Asia |
Heliports | 2 (2008) | 16 (2000 est.) |
Highways | - | total:
1,152,207 km paved: 863,003 km (including 6,114 km of expressways) unpaved: 289,204 km (1997 est.) |
Household income or consumption by percentage share | - | lowest 10%:
4.8% highest 10%: 21.7% (1993) |
Imports | $84.99 million (2006) | $355 billion (c.i.f., 2000) |
Imports - commodities | petroleum, foodstuffs, machinery and electrical equipment | fuels, foodstuffs, chemicals, textiles, office machinery |
Imports - partners | Central Europe Free Trade Area (CFTA) 48% (2006) | US 19%, China 14.5%, South Korea 5.4%, Taiwan 4.8%, Indonesia 4.3%, Australia 3.9% (2000 est.) |
Independence | - | 660 BC (traditional founding by Emperor Jimmu) |
Industrial production growth rate | - | 5.3% (2000 est.) |
Industries | NA | among world's largest and technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronic equipment, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemicals; textiles, processed foods |
Infant mortality rate | - | 3.88 deaths/1,000 live births (2001 est.) |
Inflation rate (consumer prices) | 2% (2007 est.) | -0.7% (2000 est.) |
International organization participation | - | AfDB, APEC, ARF (dialogue partner), AsDB, ASEAN (dialogue partner), Australia Group, BIS, CCC, CE (observer), CERN (observer), CP, EBRD, ESCAP, FAO, G- 5, G- 7, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, NAM (guest), NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE (partner), PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNRWA, UNU, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO, ZC |
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) | - | 73 (2000) |
Irrigated land | - | 27,820 sq km (1993 est.) |
Judicial branch | Supreme Court judges are appointed by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG); district courts judges are appointed by the SRSG; municipal courts judges are appointed by the SRSG | Supreme Court (chief justice is appointed by the monarch after designation by the cabinet; all other justices are appointed by the cabinet) |
Labor force | 832,000 (June 2007 est.) | 67.7 million (December 2000) |
Labor force - by occupation | agriculture: 21.4%
industry: NA services: NA (2006) |
services 65%, industry 30%, agriculture 5% |
Land boundaries | total: 700.7 km
border countries: Albania 111.8 km, Macedonia 158.7 km, Montenegro 78.6 km, Serbia 351.6 km |
0 km |
Land use | - | arable land:
11% permanent crops: 1% permanent pastures: 2% forests and woodland: 67% other: 19% (1993 est.) |
Languages | Albanian, Serbian, Bosniak, Turkish | Japanese |
Legal system | evolving legal system based on terms of UN Special Envoy Martii AHTISAARI's Plan for Kosovo's supervised independence | modeled after European civil law system with English-American influence; judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations |
Legislative branch | unicameral Kosovo Assembly of the Provisional Government (120 seats; 100 seats directly elected, 10 seats for Serbs, 10 seats for other minorities; to serve three-year terms)
elections: last held 17 November 2007 (next to be held NA) election results: percent of vote by party - Democratic Party of Kosovo 34.3%, Democratic League of Kosovo 22.6%, New Kosovo Alliance 12.3%, Democratic League of Dardania-Albanian Christian Democratic Party of Kosovo 10.0%, Alliance for the Future of Kosovo 9.6%; seats by party - Democratic Party of Kosovo 37, Democratic League of Kosovo 25, New Kosovo Alliance 13, Democratic League of Dardania-Albanian Christian Democratic Party of Kosovo 11, Alliance for the Future of Kosovo 10 |
bicameral Diet or Kokkai consists of the House of Councillors or Sangi-in (252 seats; one-half of the members elected every three years - 76 seats of which are elected from the 47 multi-seat prefectural districts and 50 of which are elected from a single nationwide list; members elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms) and the House of Representatives or Shugi-in (480 seats - 180 of which are elected from 11 regional blocks on a proportional representation basis and 300 of which are elected from 300 single-seat districts; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
elections: House of Councillors - last held 12 July 1998 (next to be held NA July 2001); House of Representatives - last held 25 June 2000 (next to be held by June 2004) election results: House of Councillors - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - LDP 102, DPJ 47, JCP 23, Komeito 22, SDP 13, Liberal Party 12, independents 26, others 7; note - the distribution of seats as of February 2001 is as follows - LDP 112, DPJ 58, Komeito 24, JCP 23, SDP 13, Liberal Party 5, independents 7, others 10; House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - LDP 233, DPJ 127, Komeito 31, Liberal Party 22, JCP 20, SDP 19, other 28; note - the distribution of seats as of February 2001 is as follows - LDP 239, DPJ 129, Komeito 31, Liberal Party 22, JCP 20, SDP 19, other 20 |
Life expectancy at birth | - | total population:
80.8 years male: 77.62 years female: 84.15 years (2001 est.) |
Literacy | - | definition:
age 15 and over can read and write total population: 99% (1970 est.) male: NA% female: NA% |
Location | Southeast Europe, between Serbia and Macedonia | Eastern Asia, island chain between the North Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan, east of the Korean Peninsula |
Map references | Europe | Asia |
Maritime claims | none (landlocked) | contiguous zone:
24 NM exclusive economic zone: 200 NM territorial sea: 12 NM; between 3 NM and 12 NM in the international straits - La Perouse or Soya, Tsugaru, Osumi, and Eastern and Western Channels of the Korea or Tsushima Strait |
Merchant marine | - | total:
630 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 11,691,174 GRT/15,484,848 DWT ships by type: bulk 137, cargo 51, chemical tanker 15, combination bulk 22, combination ore/oil 3, container 22, liquefied gas 49, passenger 9, passenger/cargo 2, petroleum tanker 194, refrigerated cargo 15, roll on/roll off 49, short-sea passenger 6, vehicle carrier 56 (2000 est.) |
Military branches | - | Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (Army), Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (Navy), Japan Air Self-Defense Force (Air Force) |
Military expenditures - dollar figure | - | $43 billion (FY01) |
Military expenditures - percent of GDP | - | 0.96% (FY01) |
Military manpower - availability | - | males age 15-49:
29,926,614 (2001 est.) |
Military manpower - fit for military service | - | males age 15-49:
25,876,484 (2001 est.) |
Military manpower - military age | - | 18 years of age |
Military manpower - reaching military age annually | - | males:
765,817 (2001 est.) |
National holiday | - | Birthday of Emperor AKIHITO, 23 December (1933) |
Nationality | noun: Kosovoan
adjective: Kosovoan |
noun:
Japanese (singular and plural) adjective: Japanese |
Natural hazards | - | many dormant and some active volcanoes; about 1,500 seismic occurrences (mostly tremors) every year; tsunamis; typhoons |
Natural resources | nickel, lead, zinc, magnesium, lignite, kaolin, chrome, bauxite | negligible mineral resources, fish |
Net migration rate | - | 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2001 est.) |
Pipelines | - | crude oil 84 km; petroleum products 322 km; natural gas 1,800 km |
Political parties and leaders | Albanian Christian Democratic Party of Kosovo or PSHDK [Mark KRASNIQI]; Alliance for the Future of Kosovo or AAK [Ramush HARADINAJ]; Alliance of Independent Social Democrats of Kososvo and Metohija or SDSKiM [Slavisa PETKOVIC]; Autonomous Liberal Party of SLS [Slobodan PETROVIC]; Bosniak Vakat Coalition [ Dzezair MURATI]; Citizens' Initiative of Gora or GIG [Murselj HALILI]; Council of Independent Social Democrats of Kosovo or SNSDKIM [Ljubisa ZIVIC]; Democratic League of Dardania or LDD [Nexhat DACI]; Democratic League of Kosovo or LDK [Fatmir SEJDIU]; Democratic Party of Ashkali of Kosovo or PDAK [Sabit RRAHMANI]; Democratic Party of Kosovo or PDK [Hashim THACI]; Kosovo Democratic Turkish Party of KDTP [Mahir YAGCILAR]; New Democratic Initiative of Kosovo or IRDK [Xhevdet Neziraj]; New Democratic Party or ND [Branislav GRBIC]; New Kosovo Alliance [Behgjet PACOLLI]; Popular Movement of Kosovo or LPK [Emrush XHEMAJLI]; Reform Party Ora; Serb National Party or SNS [Mihailo SCEPANOVIC]; Serbian Kosovo and Metohija Party or SKMS [Dragisa MIRIC]; United Roma Party of Kosovo or PREBK [Haxhi Zylfi MERXHA]; Democratic Action Party or SDA [Numan BALIC] | Democratic Party of Japan or DPJ [Yukio HATOYAMA, leader, Naoto KAN, secretary general]; Japan Communist Party or JCP [Kazuo SHII, chairman, Tadaaki ICHIDA, secretary general]; Komeito [Takenori KANZAKI, president, Tetsuzo FUYUSHIBA, secretary general]; Liberal Democratic Party or LDP [Junichiro KOIZUMI, president, Taku YAMASAKI, secretary general]; Liberal Party [Ichiro OZAWA, president, Hirohisa FUJII, secretary general]; New Conservative Party [Chikage OGI, president, Takeshi NODA, secretary general]; Social Democratic Party or SDP [Takako DOI, chairperson, Sadao FUCHIGAMI, secretary general] |
Political pressure groups and leaders | - | NA |
Population | 2,126,708 (2007 est.) | 126,771,662 (July 2001 est.) |
Population below poverty line | 30% (2006 est.) | NA% |
Population growth rate | - | 0.17% (2001 est.) |
Ports and harbors | - | Akita, Amagasaki, Chiba, Hachinohe, Hakodate, Higashi-Harima, Himeji, Hiroshima, Kawasaki, Kinuura, Kobe, Kushiro, Mizushima, Moji, Nagoya, Osaka, Sakai, Sakaide, Shimizu, Tokyo, Tomakomai |
Radio broadcast stations | - | AM 190, FM 88, shortwave 24 (1999) |
Radios | - | 120.5 million (1997) |
Railways | total: 430 km (2005) | total:
23,670.7 km standard gauge: 2,893.1 km 1.435-m gauge (entirely electrified) narrow gauge: 89.8 km 1.372-m gauge (89.8 km electrified); 20,656.8 km 1.067-m gauge (10,383.6 km electrified); 31 km 0.762-m gauge (3.6 km electrified) (1994) |
Religions | Muslim, Serbian Orthodox, Roman Catholic | observe both Shinto and Buddhist 84%, other 16% (including Christian 0.7%) |
Sex ratio | - | at birth:
1.05 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.73 male(s)/female total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2001 est.) |
Suffrage | 18 years of age; universal | 20 years of age; universal |
Telephone system | - | general assessment:
excellent domestic and international service domestic: high level of modern technology and excellent service of every kind international: satellite earth stations - 5 Intelsat (4 Pacific Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean), 1 Intersputnik (Indian Ocean region), and 1 Inmarsat (Pacific and Indian Ocean regions); submarine cables to China, Philippines, Russia, and US (via Guam) (1999) |
Telephones - main lines in use | 106,300 (2006) | 60.381 million (1997) |
Telephones - mobile cellular | 562,000 (2006) | 63.88 million (2000) |
Television broadcast stations | - | 7,108 (plus 441 repeaters; note - in addition, US Forces are served by 3 TV stations and 2 TV cable services) (1999) |
Terrain | flat fluvial basin with an elevation of 400-700 m above sea level surrounded by several high mountain ranges with elevations of 2,000 to 2,500 m | mostly rugged and mountainous |
Total fertility rate | - | 1.41 children born/woman (2001 est.) |
Unemployment rate | 50% (2007 est.) | 4.7% (2000) |
Waterways | - | 1,770 km approximately
note: seagoing craft ply all coastal inland seas |