Japan became the world's richest nation on paper in 1987, surpassing the United States in national assets for the first time with $43.7 trillion worth of land, factories, stocks and other wealth, a leading Japanese newspaper said Monday.
The value of Japan's assets in 1987 jumped sharply from $28.3 trillion worth of assets in 1986, said Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the country's top economic daily, quoting figures from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board and Japan's Economic Planning Agency.In 1985, Japan's assets were $19.6 trillion, $11 trillion behind those of the United States, the paper said. It said the statistics at the end of 1987 were the latest available from the two countries.
Officials of the Economic Planning Agency said the statistics from Japan and the United States were issued separately toward the end of last year, but the agency did not make any specific comparison.
Contributing to the rise in Japan's assets were soaring stock and land prices, coupled with a nominal increase in the overall national assets due to the Japanese currency's appreciation against the U.S. dollar, the report said.
On a yen basis, Japan's national assets rose by 17 percent in 1987 over the previous year, mainly because of increases in stock and land prices, while the yen's value against the U.S. dollar rose 54 percent in 1987. The yen rose from about 160 yen to the dollar to about 122 yen from the end of 1986 to the end of 1987, the report said.
Monday, the dollar closed at 143.35 yen, down 0.17 yen from Friday's close.
National assets are the total value of financial assets such as stocks and deposits and insurance, and actual assets such as production facilities, housing, land and inventories.
According to U.S. Federal Reserve Board figures, the United States had $30.6 trillion in assets at the end of 1985, $34 trillion worth in 1986 and $36.2 trillion in 1987, the newspaper said.