Imports include fuels, minerals and other crude materials, manufactured goods, food and machinery. Exports range from machinery, motor vehicles and other transportation equipment to manufactured goods and electronic equipment. Recently, international pressures have led to significant changes in Japan's position as an international superpower with increasing pressure to coordinate its economic policies with those of its trade partners. Due in part to a continued preoccupation by many Western observers with the romance of China, the Japanese economy and its role in East Asia are often underrated. It is generally agreed that the Japanese economy now makes up three-quarters of the entire combined economies of all the nations of East Asia, including China.
Most children attend nursery school and kindergarten.
Increasing numbers of students are going to prep schools called Juku in addition to regular high school. Education is of paramount importance to parents and is fiercely competitive from elementary school right through to university. A child's education has a direct effect on later life, including one's job, social position and even who one's spouse will be. As a whole, the Japanese are not religious people, although they value traditions, customs and superstitions. There are two main religions, Shinto and Buddhism.