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Japan's service sector accounts for about two-thirds of its total economic output. Banking, insurance, real estate, retailing, transportation, and telecommunications are all major industries. The Koizumi government is attempting to privatize Japan Post, one of the country's largest private banking and insurance institutions, by 2007.
See also: List of Japanese companies
Main article: Demographics of Japan
Japanese society is ethnically and linguistically very homogeneous, with small populations of primarily North and South Koreans (1 million), Okinawan (1.5 million), Chinese and Taiwanese (0.5 million), Filipinos (0.5 million), and Brazilians (250,000), as well as the indigenous Ainu minority in Hokkaido. 99% of the population speaks Japanese as their first language.
Japanese citizenship is conferred on an infant when a family member registers the infant's birth in the family registry held by a neighborhood ward office. Simply being born in Japan does not assure citizenship. Monolingual Japanese-speaking minorities often reside in Japan for generations under permanent residency status without acquiring citizenship in their country of birth. People of Japanese heritage returning to Japan from overseas have citizenship if their birth in a foreign country was registered on their behalf by a family member. Sometimes these returnees are not considered truly Japanese and sometimes suspected of being a descent of old feudal Burakumin "unclean" caste, a group of people known to have immigrated to South American countries, and subject to discrimination.
The Japanese population is rapidly ageing, the effect of a post-war baby boom followed by a decrease in births as the country modernised in the latter part of the 20th century (notable aspects including the shift from agricultural to urban lifestyles and the increasing tendency for women to remain in the workplace). Japan now also has the highest life expectancy in the world. By 2007, when Japan's population growth is expected to stop completely, over 20% of the population will be over the age of 65. The changes in the demographic structure have created a number of social issues, particularly potential decline in workforces and increase in the cost of social securities like public pension plan . Japanese government planners are currently in a heated debate over how to cope with this problem. [1]. Immigration and birth incentives are sometimes suggested as a possible solution to provide younger workers to support the graying society. Immigration is not publicly popular as recent increased crime rates are often attributed to foreigners living in Japan.
Main article: Religions of Japan
The Toshodaiji Buddhist temple is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Nara. Japanese people usually have indifferent feelings regarding religion and see it as something cultural or traditional; such attitude is pervasive in East Asia. When asked to identify their religion, most Japanese people would profess to believe in Buddhism, merely because their family has belonged to some sect of Buddhism. Shinto, though it originated in Japan, is hardly practiced today and its teachings are known only among a few scholars. Many practices that Buddhism and Shinto teach remain largely as customs, like manners for wedding ceremony. A minority profess to Christianity, shamanism, and New Religions such as Soka Gakkai, some of which are related to Buddhism.
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