Lack of natural resources
Japan has two great problems - a large population and a lack of
natural resources. As an industrialized country, Japan needs oil and
coal to produce energy. It needs raw materials like iron ore to make
iron and steel, as well as copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver. It
needs timber for building. But it produces only very small
quantities of all of these. Most have to be imported. Much of Japan’s
food, too, is imported. This makes the country dangerously dependent
on the rest of the world. Japan is currently developing nuclear
power stations, to reduce its dependence on imported oil and coal.
