In addition to its UN activities and its participation in Asian regional groupings, such as the Colombo Plan and the Asian Development Bank, Japan is also involved, beginning in the 1950s, in worldwide economic groupings largely made up of, or dominated by, the industrialized nations of Western Europe and North America. In 1952 Japan became a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF--see Glossary) and of the World Bank (see Glossary), where it played an increasingly important role. In 1955, it joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT--see Glossary). In 1966 Japan was admitted to the OECD, which brought it into what was essentially a club of leading industrialized nations. Japan has participated actively since 1975 in the annual summit meetings of the seven largest capitalist countries--the Group of Seven--Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Britain, and the United States.
Data as of January 1994