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Government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, mastery of high technology, and a comparatively small defense allocation (1% of GDP) helped Japan advance with extraordinary rapidity to the rank of second most technologically powerful economy in the world after the US and the third-largest economy in the world after the US and China, measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis.

Some fear that a rise in taxes could endanger the current economic recovery. Debate also continues on the role of and effects of reform in restructuring the economy, particularly with respect to increasing income disparities.

China and Taiwan dispute both Japan's claims to the uninhabited islands of the Senkaku-shoto (Diaoyu Tai) and Japan's unilaterally declared exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea, the site of intensive hydrocarbon prospecting

, when Israel started to divert the water for agriculture and other domestic use.

ronmentalists

ordan and Syria built a series of dams and canals on the Yarmouk River, the Jordan's main tributary, further cutting the flow to the river. Yet another large Jordanian-Syrian

dam is slated to open by 2006, a fact that makes the issue that much more urgent for envi

The river's slow but steady decline began in the 1950s

If it were up to environmentalists, local countries would import more produce in order to save the Jordan and other water sources in the water-deprived Middle East.

"if Christians knew that just a mile down the river a toxic mix was being dumped, they would be very upset about it."