The economy of Asia is dominated by Japan, China, Russia and India, four of the World's major powerhouses which account for one-fifth of the World's total turnover combined. Japan slightly edges China for the title of highest GDP on the Asian continent, and with a yearly GDP of almost 5 trillion dollars Japan accounts for about 8% of our planet's total. The island nation - made up from almost 7,000 different islands - is second-only on the GDP rich-list to the United States, and as the World's 4th largest exporter, the Japanese have been able to finance a society which currently boasts the highest life expectancy on Earth, along with the third lowest infant mortality rate on the planet too.

We have chose to include both the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) estimates along with those from the World Bank, and the variations in the two sets of figures can be explained by different testing criteria and techniques by the World's two 'most trusted' financial institutions. The figures below are listed by 'nominal' Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which measures the market value of all goods and services from an entire nation in a given year.