4. A) Read the text: Economy of Japan

Japan's industrialized, free-market economy is the world's third-largest purchasing power parity (PPP) after the United States and the People's Republic of China. It is the second-largest by market exchange rates. Its economy is highly efficient and competitive in areas linked to international trade although productivity is lower in areas such as agriculture, distribution, and services.

Government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, mastery of high technology, and a comparatively small defense allocation have helped Japan advance with extraordinary speed to become one of the largest economies in the world. Its reservoir of industrial leadership and technicians, well-educated and industrious work force, high savings and investment rates, and intensive promotion of industrial development and foreign trade have produced a mature industrial economy. Japan has few natural resources, and trade helps it earn the foreign exchange needed to purchase raw materials for its economy.

Distinguishing characteristics of the Japanese economy include the cooperation of manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and banks in closely-knit groups called keiretsu; the powerful enterprise unions and shuntō; cozy relations with government bureaucrats, and the guarantee of lifetime employment (shushin koyo) in big corporations and highly unionized blue-collar factories. Recently, Japanese companies have begun to gradually move away from some of these norms in an attempt to increase their global competitiveness and profitability (the latter due mostly to their increased reliance on equity rather than debt financing).

For three decades, Japan's 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 due to the after-effects of over-investment during the late 1980s and domestic policies intended to wring speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets. Government efforts to revive economic growth have met with little success and were further hampered in 2000 to 2001 by the slowing of the global economy.

Sliding stock and real estate prices marked the end of the "bubble economy" of the late 1980s, and ushered in a decade of stagnant economic growth. Real GDP in Japan grew at an average of roughly 1.5% yearly between 1991-1999, compared to growth in the 1980s of about 4% per year. Growth in Japan throughout the 1990s was slower than growth in other major industrial nations, and the same as France and Germany. Japan endured periods of recession around the turn of the millennium, exacerbated by recession in the United States, but from 2003 began to grow strongly again at 2.0% and this rate has held steady through 2004. The economy saw signs of strong recovery in 2005. GDP growth for the year was 2.8%, with an annualized fourth quarter expansion of 5.5%, surpassing the growth rate of the US and European Union during the same period. Unlike previous recovery trends, domestic consumption has been the dominant factor in leading the growth.

The Koizumi administration, which held office until 2006, enacted or attempted to pass (sometimes with failure) major privatization and foreign-investment laws intended to help stimulate Japan's dormant economy. Although the effectiveness of these laws is still ambiguous, the economy has begun to respond, but Japan's aging population is expected to place further strain on growth in the near future.

Heterodox economists tend to claim that Japan is far stronger economically than is usually appreciated. Some mainstream economists acknowledge that Japan, which unlike most Western countries has maintained its industrial base, and has vast capital reserves, currently has a strong economic outlook.

The privatization of Japan Post, the Japanese postal system which also runs insurance and deposit-taking businesses, is a major issue. A political battle over privatization caused a political stalemate in August, 2005, and ultimately led to the dissolution of the Japanese House of Representatives. The Postal Savings deposits, which have until now been used to fund public works projects, many of which have had questionable economic value, stands in excess of 1.9 trillion U.S. dollars, and could be a major force in energizing the private sector.

The decline in the Japanese population as a result of a low birthrate threatens the long-term economic vitality of Japan. A higher percentage of elderly in the population will put pressures on the pension system, and will ultimately force a higher burden on the current generation of laborers.

The Japanese monetary authorities' continued desire to depress the price of yen relative to other key specific currencies to protect domestic business from imports may no longer be feasible. The most recent record intervention in 2003 amounted to over 17 trillion yen, more than one third of one trillion US dollars at the time and nearly 3% of Japan's 2003 GDP, being sold in favor of other non-yen denominated assets.

Japan's main export partners are the United States 22.9%, China 13.4%, South Korea 7.8%, Taiwan 7.3% and Hong Kong 6.1% (for 2005). Japan's main exports are transport equipment, motor vehicles, electronics, electrical machinery and chemicals. With very limited natural resources to sustain economic development, Japan depends on other nations for most of its raw materials; thus it imports a wide variety of goods. Its main import partners are China 21%, U.S. 12.7%, Saudi Arabia 5.5%, UAE 4.9%, Australia 4.7%, South Korea 4.7% and Indonesia 4% (for 2005). Japan's main imports are machinery and equipment, fossil fuels, foodstuffs (in particular beef), chemicals, textiles and raw materials for its industries. Overall, Japan's largest trading partner is China.

b) Put 10 questions to the text. Use 5 types of questions (general, special, alternative, disjunctive and question to the subject). Ask each other in turn.

c) Match 1-6 with a-f to form word partnerships from the text. Translate them into Russian.

1. government-industry	a. ethic
2. work	b. economy
3. high	c. trade
4. defense	d. technology
5. intensive	e. cooperation
6. industrial	f. allocation
7. foreign	g. promotion
8. mature	h. development