Economy

Economic statistics from two directions: Japan's 47 prefectures (gross prefectural product, income per capita, manufacturing shipments, retail sales) and the world's top 30 countries (nominal GDP, GDP per capita, trade as a share of GDP, foreign direct investment, foreign reserves).

One habit pays off across all of them. When a ratio moves, ask whether the numerator or the denominator did the moving — a rising manufacturing share can mean industry grew or that services shrank, and the ratio alone cannot tell you which. For anything denominated in nominal US dollars, exchange rates feed straight into the ranking.