Considering Oil Prices are going wayyyy up, and there's all this talk about PEAK OIL, I was thinking about how well off Japan would be.

When I thought about, I figured a hell of a lot better than places such as America.

I mean, there's an efficient rail system, they eat Japanese food which is made locally. Whereas in America people eat food that comes from halfway across the country. The country is small, so it wouldn't take like a month to get something from one place to another.

I know Japan has a lot of imports too, but they seem wayyy better off than many other countries.

Some good points Sky Dragon.I never thought of it that way.

The Public transport in Japan is excellent.If you need to go anywhere you can without any fuss and effort.

Yes.The rice and most of the food is from the Japan which cuts the cost of imports.

Although the highway tolls are very high.Especially for trucks.About 200 US dollars for 1000km.Coupled with the Gasoline cost,it could add up to a higher price for consumers once products get on the supermarket shelf.

I think Japan is much energy saving country then North American countries... Yes, Japan do importants many resources from different countries. But since they knows that tre resouces are limited... they have thought of many way to save it, and use it wisely. Transportation can be a good examples.

City with bad example is like... Detroit or Toronto.... You have to drive far in distance to get things done. The city are soooo wide spread... without any good use of public transportation... People have to simple drive a car for every damn things. What a waste of time and energy! Also... since everybody is driving a car.. the insurance are soooo expensive too. You can spend 2K/Yr or 3K/Yr easily! Hopeless...

lol, I agree, I had company car for few years, I driven it for first few moths cose of first time feel, and sense owning something new, lol, but getting stuck in traffic piles ups and smog infested roads I left car more often at home and got used to travel to work by tube , station is only 2 minutes walk from home and took me only 25-30 minutes on tube as to 45-55 minutes by car to get to my work... In peek hours in evening it would take me about 90-100 minutes to get home in car of 25-30 minutes by tube train, lol...

I am also eco-friendly and sold my car after owning it for 3 years (company policy allows me to sell it after 3 years) I no longer need to worry about car insurance, tax's discs and parking, lol.. I am no longer driving and anywhere I go IO can use public transport system which is quite good despite some ppl complaining about it, tickets are getting very expensive now but still it is better than driving around and polluting earth...

Add to it that Japan produces and installs 50% of solar cells.