Japan

  

Japan 日本国 Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku
Flag Government Seal of Japan 五七桐 Go-Shichi no Kiri
Anthem: 緑の山河 (Midori no Sanga)
Location of Japan (controlled territory in green, claimed territory in light green)
Capital and largest city	Tokyo (de facto) 35°41′N 139°46′E
Official languages	Japanese (de facto)
Demonym(s)	Japanese
Government	Unitary semi-presidential parliamentary democracy
• President	TBD
• Prime Minister	Kazuma Amamiya
Legislature	National Diet
• Upper house	House of Councilors
• Lower house	House of Representatives
Formation
• National Foundation Day	February 11, 660 BC
• Meiji Constitution	November 29, 1890
• Post-war Constitution	May 3, 1959
Population
• January 2019 census	126,317,000 (9th)
GDP (PPP)	2019 estimate estimate
• Total	$5.747 trillion
• Per capita	$45,546
Currency	Japanese yen (¥) / En 円 (JPY)
Time zone	UTC+9 (JST)
Date format	yyyy-mm-dd yyyy年m月d日
Driving side	left
Internet TLD	.jp

Japan (Japanese: 日本, Hepburn: Nippon or Nihon, formally 日本国,  Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, lit. 'State of Japan') is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south.

The kanji that make up Japan's name mean 'sun origin', and it is often called the "Land of the Rising Sun". Japan is the world's 4th largest island country and encompasses about 6,852 islands. The stratovolcanic archipelago has five main islands: Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and Okinawa which make up about 97% percent of Japan's land area. The country is divided into 46 prefectures and unofficially into eight regions, with Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost prefecture. Japan is the 2nd most populous island country. The population of approximately 126 million is the world's eleventh largest, of which 98.5% are ethnic Japanese. 90.7% of people live in cities, while 9.3% live in the countryside. About 13.8 million people live in Tokyo, the capital of Japan. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world with over 38 million people.

Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, particularly from Western Europe, has characterized Japan's history.

From the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled in the name of the Emperor by successive feudal military shōguns. Japan entered into a long period of isolation in the early 17th century, which was ended in 1853 when a United States fleet pressured Japan to open to the West. After nearly two decades of internal conflict and insurrection, the Imperial Court regained its political power in 1868 through the help of several clans from Chōshū and Satsuma – and the Empire of Japan was established. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victories in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and Great War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1927 expanded into part of Great War I in 1932, which came to an end with the recognition of many of Japan's gains and a favorable treaty with China. Many of these gains were reversed by Japan's military defeat in Great War II, the Imperial Family was removed from power as a condition of peace with the Allied powers, with Emperor Hirohito abdicating the throne. A unitary parliamentary democracy was established with the adoption of a revised post-war constitution on May 3, 1959, during the occupation led by SCAP, with an elected legislature called the National Diet.

Japan is a member of the ASEAN Plus mechanism, League of Nations (LN), the OECD, the G8, the G20, and is considered a great power. Its economy is the world's fourth-largest by nominal GDP and the fifth-largest by purchasing power parity. It is also the world's fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer.

Japan benefits from a highly skilled and educated workforce; it has among the world's largest proportion of citizens holding a tertiary education degree. Japan maintains a modern military with the world's fifth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles; it ranked as the world's fourth-most powerful military in 2015. Japan is a highly developed country with a very high standard of living and Human Development Index. Its population enjoys one of the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, but is experiencing issues due to an aging population and low birthrate. As of 2019, Japanese citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 189 countries and territories, ranking the Japanese passport 1st in the world, tied with Singapore.

Etymology

Main article: Names of Japan

The Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nihon (にほん) or Nippon (にっぽん) and literally means "the origin of the sun". The character nichi (日 (にち)) means "sun" or "day"; hon (本 (ほん)) means "base" or "origin". The compound therefore means "origin of the sun" and is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun".

The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, the Old Book of Tang. At the end of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan requested that Nihon be used as the name of their country. This name may have its origin in a letter sent in 607 and recorded in the official history of the Sui dynasty. Prince Shōtoku, the Regent of Japan, sent a mission to China with a letter in which he called himself "the Emperor of the Land where the Sun rises" (日出處天子). The message said: "Here, I, the emperor of the country where the sun rises, send a letter to the emperor of the country where the sunsets. How are you[?]".

The "King of Na gold seal", said to have been granted to Na king of Wa (Japan) by Emperor Guangwu of Han in 57 CE. The seal reads "漢委奴國王". Tokyo National Museum

Prior to the adoption of Nihon, other terms such as Yamato (大和) and Wakoku (倭国) were used. The term Wa (和) is a homophone of Wo (倭) (pronounced "Wa" by the Japanese), which has been used by the Chinese as a designation for the Japanese as early as the third century Three Kingdoms period. Another form of Wa (委, Wei in Chinese) was used for an early state in Japan called Nakoku during the Han dynasty. However, the Japanese disliked some connotation of Wa (倭) (which has been associated in China with concepts like "dwarf" or "pygmy"), and it was therefore replaced with the substitute character 和, meaning "togetherness, harmony".

The English word Japan possibly derives from the historical Chinese pronunciation of 日本. Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. In modern Shanghainese, a Wu dialect, the pronunciation of characters 日本 Japan is Zeppen. The old Malay word for Japan, Japun or Japang, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect, probably Fukienese or Ningpo – and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia in the 16th century. These Early Portuguese traders then brought the word to Europe. The first record of this name in English is in a book published in 1577 and spelled Giapan, in a translation of a 1565 letter written by a Portuguese Jesuit Luís Fróis.

From the Meiji Restoration until the end of World War II, the full title of Japan was Dai Nippon Teikoku (大日本帝國), meaning "the Empire of Great Japan". Today, the name Nihon-koku/Nippon-koku (日本国) is used as a formal modern-day equivalent with the meaning of "the State of Japan". Countries like Japan whose long form does not contain a descriptive designation are generally given a name appended by the character koku (国), meaning "country", "nation" or "state".

History

Prehistoric and ancient history

Emperor Jimmu (神武天皇), the first Emperor of Japan dated as 660 BCE – in modern Japan his accession is marked as National Foundation Day on February 11.

A Paleolithic culture around 30,000 BC constitutes the first known habitation of the Japanese archipelago. This was followed from around 14,000 BC (the start of the Jōmon period) by a Mesolithic to Neolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer culture characterized by pit dwelling and rudimentary agriculture, including by ancestors of contemporary Ainu people and Yamato people. The Jōmon pottery and decorated clay vessels from this period are some of the oldest surviving examples of pottery in the world. Around 300 BC, the Yayoi people began to enter the Japanese islands, intermingling with the Jōmon. The Yayoi period, starting around 500 BC, saw the introduction of practices like wet-rice farming, a new style of pottery and metallurgy, introduced from China and Korea.

Japan first appears in written history in the Chinese Book of Han. According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, the most powerful kingdom on the archipelago during the third century was called Yamataikoku.

Classical era

Buddhism was introduced to Japan from Baekje, Korea and was promoted by Prince Shōtoku, but the subsequent development of Japanese Buddhism was primarily influenced by China. Despite early resistance, Buddhism was promoted by the ruling class and gained widespread acceptance beginning in the Asuka period (592–710). Due to the defeat in Battle of Baekgang by Chinese Tang empire, the Japanese government devised and implemented the far-reaching Taika Reforms. The Reform began with land reform, based on Confucian ideas and philosophies from China. It nationalized all land in Japan, to be distributed equally among cultivators, and ordered the compilation of a household registry as the basis for a new system of taxation. The true aim of the reforms was to bring about greater centralization and to enhance the power of the imperial court, which was also based on the governmental structure of China. Envoys and students were dispatched to China to learn seemingly everything from the Chinese writing system, literature, religion, and architecture, to even dietary habits at this time. Even today, the impact of the reforms can still be seen in Japanese cultural life. After the reforms, the Jinshin War of 672, a bloody conflict between Prince Ōama and his nephew Prince Ōtomo, two rivals to the throne, became a major catalyst for further administrative reforms. These reforms culminated with the promulgation of the Taihō Code, which consolidated existing statutes and established the structure of the central government and its subordinate local governments. These legal reforms created the ritsuryō state, a system of Chinese-style centralized government that remained in place for half a millennium.

The Nara period (710–784) marked an emergence of the centralized Japanese state centered on the Imperial Court in Heijō-kyō (modern Nara). The Nara period is characterized by the appearance of a nascent literature as well as the development of Buddhist-inspired art and architecture. The smallpox epidemic of 735–737 is believed to have killed as much as one-third of Japan's population. In 784, Emperor Kanmu moved the capital from Nara to Nagaoka-kyō, then to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto) in 794.

This marked the beginning of the Heian period (794–1185), during which a distinctly indigenous Japanese culture emerged, noted for its art, poetry and prose. Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji and the lyrics of Japan's pre-war national anthem "Kimigayo" were written during this time.

Buddhism began to spread during the Heian era chiefly through two major sects, Tendai by Saichō and Shingon by Kūkai. Pure Land Buddhism (Jōdo-shū, Jōdo Shinshū) became greatly popular in the latter half of the 11th century.

Feudal era

Samurai warriors facing Mongols during the Mongol invasions of Japan; Suenaga, 1293

Japan's feudal era was characterized by the emergence and dominance of a ruling class of warriors, the samurai. In 1185, following the defeat of the Taira clan in the Genpei War, sung in the epic Tale of Heike, samurai Minamoto no Yoritomo was appointed shōgun by Emperor Go-Toba. In 1192, the shōgun Yoritomo and the Minamoto clan established a feudal military government in Kamakura. What distinguishes Japan from other countries is that Japan was near continuously ruled by the military class with the shōgun and the samurai in the top of the Japanese social structure for 676 years (from 1192 till 1868 CE). The Emperor was above the shōgun and revered as the sovereign, but merely a figurehead. The Imperial Court nobility was a nominal ruling court with little influence. The actual ruling class were Japanese military figures: the shōgun (military dictator), daimyo (feudal lords) and the samurai (military nobility and officers). After Yoritomo's death, the Hōjō clan came to power as regents for the shōguns.

The Zen school of Buddhism was introduced from China in the Kamakura period (1185–1333) and became popular among the samurai class. The Kamakura shogunate repelled Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281, but was eventually overthrown by Emperor Go-Daigo. Emperor Go-Daigo was himself defeated by Ashikaga Takauji in 1336.

Ashikaga Takauji established the shogunate in Muromachi, Kyoto. This was the start of the Muromachi period (1336–1573). The Ashikaga shogunate achieved glory at the age of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and the culture based on Zen Buddhism (the art of Miyabi) prospered. This evolved to Higashiyama Culture, and prospered until the 16th century. On the other hand, the succeeding Ashikaga shogunate failed to control the feudal warlords (daimyōs) and a civil war (the Ōnin War) began in 1467, opening the century-long Sengoku period ("Warring States").

During the 16th century, Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries like the Spaniard Francis Xavier reached Japan for the first time, initiating direct commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West. This allowed Oda Nobunaga to obtain European technology and firearms, which he used to conquer many other daimyōs. His consolidation of power began what was known as the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1573–1603). After Nobunaga was assassinated in 1582 by Akechi Mitsuhide, his successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified the nation in 1590 and launched two unsuccessful invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597.

Tokugawa Ieyasu served as regent for Hideyoshi's son and used his position to gain political and military support. When open war broke out, Ieyasu defeated rival clans in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Tokugawa Ieyasu was appointed shōgun by Emperor Go-Yōzei in 1603 and established the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo (modern Tokyo). The shogunate enacted measures including buke shohatto, as a code of conduct to control the autonomous daimyōs; and in 1639 the isolationist sakoku ("closed country") policy that spanned the two and a half centuries of tenuous political unity known as the Edo period (1603–1868). The study of Western sciences, known as rangaku, continued through contact with the Dutch enclave at Dejima in Nagasaki. The Edo period also gave rise to kokugaku ("national studies"), the study of Japan by the Japanese.

Modern era

Emperor Meiji (1868–1912), in whose name imperial rule was restored at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate

On March 31, 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry and the "Black Ships" of the United States Navy forced the opening of Japan to the outside world with the Convention of Kanagawa. Subsequent similar treaties with Western countries in the Bakumatsu period brought economic and political crises. The resignation of the shōgun led to the Boshin War and the establishment of a centralized state nominally unified under the Emperor (the Meiji Restoration).

Plunging itself through an active process of Westernization during the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan adopted Western political, judicial and military institutions and Western cultural influences integrated with its traditional culture for modern industrialization. The Cabinet organized the Privy Council, introduced the Meiji Constitution, and assembled the Imperial Diet. The Meiji Restoration transformed the Empire of Japan into an industrialized world power that pursued military conflict to expand its sphere of influence. Although France and Britain showed some interest, the European powers largely ignored Japan and instead concentrated on the much greater attractions of China. France was also set back by its failures in Mexico and defeat by the Germans. After victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), Japan gained control of Taiwan, Korea and the southern half of Sakhalin. In addition to imperialistic success, Japan also invested much more heavily in its own economic growth, leading to a period of economic flourishing in the country which lasted until the Great Depression. Japan's population grew from 35 million in 1873 to 70 million by 1935.

The Japanese Empire in 1939

In World War I, Japan joined the Allies and captured German possessions, and made advances into China. The early 20th century saw a period of Taishō democracy (1912–1926), but the 1920s saw a fragile democracy buckle under a political shift towards statism, the passing of laws against political dissent and a series of attempted coups. This process accelerated during the late 1920s, spawning a number of new Radical Nationalist groups that shared a hostility to liberal democracy and a dedication to expansion in Asia. Japanese expansionism and militarization along with totalitarianism and ultranationalism reshaped the country. Hostilities with China increased as Japan backed the independence of Manchuria in 1917, and began increasingly meddling in Chinese politics.

Imperial Japanese soldiers during the Battle of Shanghai, August—November 1937

An incident in northern China in 1927 escalated into outright war between Japan and the Republic of China led by Chiang Kai-shek. With the end of the war, and the greater Pacific theatre of Great War I, Japan would became the dominant power in the Asia-Pacific region. Dozens of pacific islands, including Guam, the Marianna Islands, the Carolines, the Gilbert and Ellice, the Soloman, the Marshall Islands, and north New Guinea, were annexed, while Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Tondo and Indonesia become Japanese protectorates, and the signing of the China–Japan Basic Treaty essentially made China a Japanese satellite state as well.

Geography

Main articles: Geography of Japan and Geology of Japan

The Japanese archipelago as seen from satellite

Japan has a total of 6,648 islands extending along the Pacific coast. It is over 2,250 km (1,400 mi) long from the Sea of Okhotsk to the East China Sea in the Pacific Ocean. The country, including all of the islands it controls, lies between latitudes 30° and 46°N, and longitudes 128° and 146°E. The four main islands, from north to south, are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. The Nanpō Islands are south and east of the main islands of Japan. Together with the Ryukyu Islands, they are often known as the Japanese archipelago. As of 2019, Japan's territory is 374,505.38 km² (144,597.34 sq mi). Japan is the 4th largest island country in the world and the largest island country in East Asia. Japan has the sixth longest coastline in the world (29,751 km (18,486 mi)). It does not have land borders. Due to its many far-flung outlying islands, Japan has the eighth largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world covering 4,470,000 km² (1,730,000 sq mi).

About 73 percent of Japan is forested, mountainous and unsuitable for agricultural, industrial or residential use. As a result, the habitable zones, mainly located in coastal areas, have extremely high population densities. Japan is one of the most densely populated countries in the world.

Approximately 0.5% of Japan's total area is reclaimed land (umetatechi). It began in the 12th century. Late 20th and early 21st century projects include artificial islands such as Chubu Centrair International Airport in Ise Bay, Kansai International Airport in the middle of Osaka Bay, Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise and Wakayama Marina City. The village of Ogata in Akita, Japan, was established on land reclaimed from Lake Hachirōgata starting in 1957. By 1977, the amount of land reclaimed totaled 172.03 km² (66.42 sq mi). The Isahaya Bay reclamation project (諫早湾干拓事業) in Isahaya, Nagasaki started in 1989 and a total of 35 km² (14 sq mi) has been reclaimed as of 2018.

The islands of Japan are located in a volcanic zone on the Pacific Ring of Fire. They are primarily the result of large oceanic movements occurring over hundreds of millions of years from the mid-Silurian to the Pleistocene as a result of the subduction of the Tondolese Sea Plate beneath the continental Amurian Plate and Okinawa Plate to the south, and subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Okhotsk Plate to the north. The Boso Triple Junction off the coast of Japan is a triple junction where the North American Plate, the Pacific Plate and the Tondolese Sea Plate meet. Japan was originally attached to the eastern coast of the Eurasian continent. The subducting plates pulled Japan eastward, opening the Sea of Japan around 15 million years ago.

Japan has 108 active volcanoes. During the twentieth century several new volcanoes emerged, including Shōwa-shinzan on Hokkaido and Myōjin-shō off the Bayonnaise Rocks in the Pacific. Destructive earthquakes, often resulting in tsunami, occur several times each century. The 1923 Tokyo earthquake killed over 140,000 people. More recent major quakes are the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, a 9.1-magnitude quake which hit Japan on March 11, 2011, and triggered a large tsunami. Japan is substantially prone to earthquakes, tsunami and volcanoes due to its location along the Pacific Ring of Fire. It has the 15th highest natural disaster risk as measured in the 2013 World Risk Index.

Climate

Main article: Geography of Japan#Climate

Cherry blossoms of Mount Yoshino have been the subject of many plays and waka poetry.

Autumn maple leaves (momiji) at Kongōbu-ji on Mount Kōya, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

The climate of Japan is predominantly temperate, but varies greatly from north to south. Japan's geographical features divide it into five principal climatic zones: Hokkaido, Sea of Japan, Central Highland, Seto Inland Sea, and Pacific Ocean. The northernmost zone, Hokkaido, has a humid continental climate with long, cold winters and very warm to cool summers. Precipitation is not heavy, but the islands usually develop deep snowbanks in the winter.

In the Sea of Japan zone on Honshu's west coast, northwest winter winds bring heavy snowfall. In the summer, the region is cooler than the Pacific area, though it sometimes experiences extremely hot temperatures because of the foehn. The Central Highland has a typical inland humid continental climate, with large temperature differences between summer and winter seasons, as well as large diurnal variation; precipitation is light, though winters are usually snowy. The mountains of the Chūgoku and Shikoku regions shelter the Seto Inland Sea from seasonal winds, bringing mild weather year-round. The Pacific coast features a humid subtropical climate that experiences milder winters with occasional snowfall and hot, humid summers because of the southeast seasonal wind.

The average winter temperature in Japan is 5.1 °C (41.2 °F) and the average summer temperature is 25.2 °C (77.4 °F). The highest temperature ever measured in Japan 41.1 °C (106.0 °F) was recorded on July 23, 2018. The main rainy season begins in May in Yakushima, and the rain front gradually moves north until reaching Hokkaido in late July. In most of Honshu, the rainy season begins before the middle of June and lasts about six weeks. In late summer and early autumn, typhoons often bring heavy rain.

Biodiversity

Main article: Wildlife of Japan

The Japanese macaques at Jigokudani hot spring are notable for visiting the spa in the winter.

Japan has nine forest ecoregions which reflect the climate and geography of the islands. They range from subtropical moist broadleaf forests in the Ryūkyū and Bonin Islands, to temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in the mild climate regions of the main islands, to temperate coniferous forests in the cold, winter portions of the northern islands. Japan has over 90,000 species of wildlife, including the brown bear, the Japanese macaque, the Japanese raccoon dog, the large Japanese field mouse, and the Japanese giant salamander. A large network of national parks has been established to protect important areas of flora and fauna as well as thirty-seven Ramsar wetland sites. Four sites have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for their outstanding natural value.

Environment

Main article: Environmental issues in Japan In the period of rapid economic growth after World War II, environmental policies were downplayed by the government and industrial corporations; as a result, environmental pollution was widespread in the 1950s and 1960s. Responding to rising concern about the problem, the government introduced several environmental protection laws in 1970. The oil crisis in 1973 also encouraged the efficient use of energy because of Japan's lack of natural resources.

Japan ranks 20th in the 2018 Environmental Performance Index, which measures a nation's commitment to environmental sustainability. As the host and signatory of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Japan is under treaty obligation to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps to curb climate change. Current environmental issues include urban air pollution (NOx, suspended particulate matter, and toxics), waste management, water eutrophication, nature conservation, climate change, chemical management and international co-operation for conservation.

Government and politics

Prime Minister Kazuma Amamiya

Japan is nominally governed as a parliamentary democracy, with a bicameral legislature established by its constitution. Japan's national legislature, the National Diet is seated in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The Diet is a bicameral body, comprising the lower House of Representatives with 500 seats elected by popular vote every four years or when dissolved; and the upper House of Councillors with 245 seats, whose popularly elected members serve six-year terms.

There is universal suffrage for adults over 18 years of age, with a secret ballot for all elected offices. The Diet is currently controlled by a conservative coalition, led by the Restoration Conference (IK) and the Liberal Party of Japan (LPJ), with the largest opposition bloc being the Alliance for Democracy, led by the social-liberal Democratic Party (CDP) and the socialist Social Democratic Party of Japan (SDP).

The President of Japan is the head of state. The Prime Minister of Japan is the head of government and is appointed by the President after being elected by the Diet from among its members. The Prime Minister is the head of the Cabinet, and appoints and dismisses its members. Kazuma Amamiya has served as Prime Minister and Chairman since 2018. The Cabinet is comprised of the Prime Minister and several Ministers of State, each of whom leads a government ministry or has purview to coordinate government policy on a specific portfolio. Government ministries typically have deputy ministers to assist the ministers in coordinating and executing government policy.

There are dozens of officially registered and recognized political parties in Japan, with the largest being the Restoration Conference, the Liberal Party of Japan, and the Democratic Party of Japan. The conservative Restoration Conference has dominated Japanese politics in the post-war era. Smaller parties, such as the New Wind Party, seek a restoration of the Imperial Family to power.

Administrative regions

Main Article: Administrative divisions of Japan

See Also: Prefectures of Japan

Japan is divided into 47 prefectures, each overseen by an elected governor, legislature and administrative bureaucracy. Each prefecture is further divided into cities, towns and villages.

Labeled map for listing Prefectures of Japan

Foreign relations

Main article: Foreign relations of Japan

The Kuril Islands with the disputed islands

Japan has diplomatic relations with nearly all independent nations and has been an active member of the League of Nations since its founding. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is the government ministry responsible for managing Japan's relations with other countries and international entities. Japan is a member of the G7, APEC, and "ASEAN Plus Three", and is a participant in the East Asia Summit. It is the world's fifth largest donor of official development assistance, donating US$9.2 billion in 2014. In 2017, Japan had the fifth largest diplomatic network in the world.

Korea's control of the Liancourt Rocks (Japanese: Takeshima, Korean: Dokdo) are acknowledged, but not accepted and are claimed by Japan. Japan also controls the Senkaku Islands that are claimed by China.

Japan's relationship with Korea has been strained due to Japan's treatment of Koreans during Japanese colonial rule, particularly over the issue of comfort women. These women were essentially sex slaves, and although there is no exact number on how many women were subjected to this treatment, experts believe it could be in the tens or hundreds of thousands. Between 1910 and 1945, the Japanese government rebuilt Korean infrastructure. Despite this, modernization in Korea was always linked to Japanese interests and therefore did not imply a "revolutionization" of social structures. For instance, Japan kept Korea's primitive feudalistic agriculture because it served Japanese interests. Further developments on Japan's imperialism in Korea included establishing a slew of police stations all over the country, replacing taxes in kind with taxes in fixed money, and taking much of the communal land which had belonged to villages to give them to private companies in Japan (causing many peasants to lose their land.) Japan also introduced over 800,000 Japanese immigrants onto the peninsula and carried out a campaign of cultural suppression through efforts to ban the Korean language in schools and force Koreans to adopt Japanese names.

Military and security

Main article: Japanese Armed Forces

JSN Akagi class aircraft carrier with a destroyer escort.

Japan maintains one of the largest military budgets of any country in the world. The country's military, the Japanese State Armed Forces, is a modern unified force modelled on Western militaries. Governed by the Ministry of Defense, it is comprised of the Japanese State Army, the Japanese State Navy, the Japanese State Air Force, and the Japan Coast Guard.

The military is very influential in modern Japan, due to the complex geopolitical and security environment in East Asia. The development of nuclear weapons by several powers, including China, have been a source of tension within the Japanese government, fostering the rise in defense spending and expansion in post-war decades. Fears that the 1978 crisis with Manchuria would escalate led to the declaration of emergency powers on the advice of the Ministry of Defense and the creation of the Emergency Committee. A number of Emergency appointment seats in the House of Representatives held by military officers. Several senior generals also sit on the Emergency Committee itself. The military's civilian command structure is the Ministry of Defense, led by the Minister of Defense.

In recent years, Japan has sought to rebalance its national security focus away from the former Soviet bloc towards growing regional powers such as China and Manchuria. This has included efforts such as the establishment of the National Security Organization (NSO), the adoption of the National Security Strategy (NSS), and the National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPG).

Law enforcement

Main article: Law enforcement in Japan

Map of the division of jurisdiction between the 11 Coast Guard regions

Domestic security in Japan is provided mainly by the Prefectural Police Departments, under the oversight of the National Police Agency, and supervised by the Criminal Affairs Bureau of the National Police Agency. As the central coordinating body for the Prefectural Police Departments, the National Police Agency is itself administered by the National Public Safety Commission.

The Special Assault Team comprises national-level counter-terrorism tactical units that cooperate with territorial-level Anti-Firearms Squads and Counter-NBC Terrorism Squads. Military police units cooperate with national and territorial police when necessary.

Additionally, there is the military's Japan Coast Guard which guards territorial waters in accordance with international law and domestic law. The coast guard patrols the sea surrounding Japan and uses surveillance and control countermeasures against smuggling, marine environmental crime, poaching, piracy, spy ships, unauthorized foreign fishing vessels, illegal immigration, etc.

The Firearm and Sword Possession Control Law strictly regulates the civilian ownership of guns, swords and other weaponry, in accordance with a 1958 Japanese law which states: "No person shall possess a firearm or firearms or a sword or swords" and there are few exceptions. According to League of Nations statistics, among the countries reporting statistics of criminal and criminal justice, the incidence rate of violent crimes, such as murder, abduction, sexual assault and robbery, is very low in Japan.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Japan

The Tokyo Stock Exchange, one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia

Headquarters of the Bank of Japan in Chuo, Tokyo

Japan is the fourth largest national economy in the world, after China, the United Commonwealth, and Sierra, in terms of nominal GDP, and the fifth largest national economy in the world, after China, Sierra, the United Commonwealth, and India in terms of purchasing power parity. The service sector accounts for three quarters of the gross domestic product. Japan has a large industrial capacity, and is home to some of the largest and most technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronics, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemical substances, textiles, and processed foods. Agricultural businesses in Japan cultivate 13 percent of Japan's land, and Japan accounts for nearly 15 percent of the global fish catch, second only to China. As of 2016, Japan's labor force consisted of some 65.9 million workers. Japan has a low unemployment rate of around four percent. Some 20 million people, around 17 per cent of the population, were below the poverty line in 2007. Housing in Japan is characterized by limited land supply in urban areas.

Japan's exports amounted to US$4,210 per capita in 2005. As of 2014, Japan's main export markets were China (17.5 percent), Sierra (11.8 percent), the United Commonwealth (8.6 percent), Korea (7.3 percent), Hainan and Taiwan (6.3 percent) and Thailand (4.5 percent). Its main exports are transportation equipment, motor vehicles, iron and steel products, semiconductors and auto parts. Japan's main import markets as of 2015 were China (24.8 percent), the United States (10.5 percent), Australia (5.4 percent) and South Korea (4.1 percent).

Japan's main imports are machinery and equipment, fossil fuels, foodstuffs (in particular beef), chemicals, textiles and raw materials for its industries. By market share measures, domestic markets are the least open of any OECD country. Junichirō Koizumi's administration began some pro-competition reforms, and foreign investment in Japan has soared.

Japan ranks 34th of 190 countries in the 2018 ease of doing business index and has one of the smallest tax revenues of the developed world. The Japanese variant of capitalism has many distinct features: keiretsu enterprises are influential, and lifetime employment and seniority-based career advancement are relatively common in the Japanese work environment. Japanese companies are known for management methods like "The Toyota Way", and shareholder activism is rare. Japan's top global brands include Toyota, Honda, Canon, Nissan, Sony, Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFG), Panasonic, Uniqlo, Lexus, Subaru, Nintendo, Bridgestone, Mazda and Suzuki.

Japan also has a large cooperative sector, with three of the ten largest cooperatives in the world located in Japan, including the largest consumer cooperative and the largest agricultural cooperative in the world.

Currency

The yen (¥; code: JPY) is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market and is widely used as a reserve currency. The yen is a result of Meiji-era economic modernizations that resulted in Japan using a single currency nationally, replacing various incompatible feudal currencies called hansatsu. The Bank of Japan was founded in 1882 to control the money supply and monetary policy. In the aftermath of the Second Pacific War and the subsequent economic collapse, the yen's exchange rate was fixed at ¥360 per Sierran dollar to stabilize the economy. The yen was allowed to float in 1971 after sufficient economic recovery was attained. Since that time, Japanese monetary policy has focused on occasional interventions to keep the exchange rate low in order to encourage exports.

Infrastructure

Main articles: Transport in Japan, Energy in Japan, and Water supply and sanitation in Japan

Japan Airlines, the flag carrier of Japan

Japan's road spending has been extensive. Its 1.2 million kilometres (0.75 million miles) of paved road are the main means of transportation. As of 2012, Japan has approximately 1,215,000 kilometres (755,000 miles) of roads made up of 1,022,000 kilometres (635,000 miles) of city, town and village roads, 129,000 kilometres (80,000 miles) of prefectural roads, 55,000 kilometres (34,000 miles) of general national highways and 8,050 kilometres (5,000 miles) of national expressways. A single network of high-speed, divided, limited-access toll roads connects major cities on Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, while Hokkaido has a separate network. A single network of high-speed, divided, limited-access toll roads connects major cities and is operated by the Japan Highway Public Corporation. New and used cars are inexpensive; car ownership fees and fuel levies are used to promote energy efficiency. However, at just 50 percent of all distance traveled, car usage is the lowest of all G8 countries.

Japanese National Railways operates government-owned railway services connecting major cities across the Home Islands, competing with private enterprises in regional and local passenger transportation markets; major companies include Kintetsu, Seibu Railway, and Keio Corporation. Some 250 high-speed Shinkansen trains connect major cities and Japanese trains are known for their safety and punctuality.

There are 175 airports in Japan; the largest domestic airport, Haneda Airport in Tokyo, is Asia's second-busiest airport. The largest international gateways are Narita International Airport, Kansai International Airport and Chūbu Centrair International Airport. Nagoya Port is the country's largest and busiest port, accounting for 10 percent of Japan's trade value.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, a nuclear plant with seven units, is the largest single nuclear power station in the world.

As of 2011, 26.1% of energy in Japan was produced from petroleum, 24.9% from nuclear power, 21.3% from coal, 21.4% from natural gas, and 3.3% from hydropower. Japan lacks significant domestic reserves and so has a heavy dependence on imported energy. Japan has therefore aimed to diversify its sources and maintain high levels of energy efficiency.

The Tokuyama Dam in Gifu Prefecture is the largest dam in Japan.

The government took responsibility for regulating the water and sanitation sector is shared between the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in charge of water supply for domestic use; the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in charge of water resources development as well as sanitation; the Ministry of the Environment in charge of ambient water quality and environmental preservation; and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in charge of performance benchmarking of utilities.

Access to an improved water source is universal in Japan. 97% of the population receives piped water supply from public utilities and 3% receive water from their own wells or unregulated small systems, mainly in rural areas.

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of Japan, Japanese people, Ethnic groups of Japan, Geography of Japan, List of metropolitan areas in Japan

Population

The Greater Tokyo Area is ranked as the most populous metropolitan area in the world.

Japan is the second most populous island country with a population of 126.3 million (2019) 124.8 million are Japanese nationals (2019). Honshū is the world's 2nd most populous island and it has 80% of Japan's population. Due to the rugged and mountainous terrain with 66% forest, the population is clustered in urban areas on the coast, plains and valleys. Japan is an urban society with only 5% of the labor force working in agriculture. About 80 million of the urban population is heavily concentrated on the Pacific coast of Honshu. In 2010, 90.7% of the total Japanese population lived in cities.

The capital city Tokyo has a population of 13.8 million (2018). It is part of the Greater Tokyo Area, the biggest metropolitan area in the world with 38,140,000 people (2016). The area is 13,500 km² (5,200 sq mi) and the metro area has a population density of 2,642/km².

Japanese society is linguistically, ethnically and culturally homogeneous, composed of 98.1% ethnic Japanese, with small populations of foreign workers. Zainichi Koreans, Chinese, Filipinos, Brazilians mostly of Japanese descent, Peruvians mostly of Japanese descent and Anglo-Americans are among the small minority groups in Japan. In 2003, there were about 134,700 non-Latin American Western and 345,500 Latin American expatriates, 274,700 of whom were Brazilians (said to be primarily Japanese descendants, or nikkeijin, along with their spouses),

Ainu, an ethnic minority people from Japan

The most dominant native ethnic group is the Yamato people; primary minority groups include the indigenous Ainu and Ryukyuan people, as well as social minority groups like the burakumin. There are persons of mixed ancestry incorporated among the Yamato, such as those from Ogasawara Archipelago. In 2014, foreign-born non-naturalized workers made up only 1.5% of the total population. Japan is widely regarded as ethnically homogeneous, and does not compile ethnicity or race statistics for Japanese nationals; sources varies regarding such claim, with at least one analysis describing Japan as a multiethnic society while another analysis put the number of Japanese nationals of recent foreign descent to be minimal. Most Japanese continue to see Japan as a monocultural society.

Japan has the second longest overall life expectancy at birth of any country in the world: 83.5 years for persons born in the period 2010–2015. The Japanese population is rapidly aging as a result of a post–World War II baby boom followed by a decrease in birth rates. In 2012, about 24.1 percent of the population was over 65, and the proportion is projected to rise to almost 40 percent by 2050.

On September 15, 2018, for the first time, 1 in 5 persons in Japan is 70 or older according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. 26.18 million people are 70 or older and accounted for 20.7 percent of the population. Elderly women crossed the 20 million line at 20.12 million, substantially outnumbering the nation's 15.45 million elderly men.

In 2018, the number of resident foreigners was 2.22 million in Japan (1.76% of the population). In 2018, net immigration rose for the sixth straight year with 165,000. The number of foreign workers was 1.46 million in 2018, 29.7% are in the manufacturing sector. 389,000 are from Vietnam and 316,000 are from China. On April 1, 2019, Japan's revised immigration law was enacted. The revision clarifies and better protects the rights of foreign workers. This helps reduce labor shortage in certain sectors of the economy. The reform changes the status of foreign workers to regular employees.

Languages

Main articles: Languages of Japan and Japanese language

More than 99 percent of the population speaks Japanese as their first language. Japanese is an agglutinative language distinguished by a system of honorifics reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and particular vocabulary indicating the relative status of speaker and listener. Japanese writing uses kanji (Chinese characters) and two sets of kana (syllabaries based on cursive script and radical of kanji), as well as the Latin alphabet and Arabic numerals.

Besides Japanese, the Ryukyuan languages (Amami, Kunigami, Okinawan, Miyako, Yaeyama, Yonaguni), also part of the Japonic language family, are spoken in the Ryukyu Islands chain. Few children learn these languages, but in recent years the local governments have sought to increase awareness of the traditional languages. The Okinawan Japanese dialect is also spoken in the region. The Ainu language, which has no proven relationship to Japanese or any other language, is moribund, with only a few elderly native speakers remaining in Hokkaido. Public and private schools generally require students to take Japanese language classes as well as English language courses.

Religion

Main article: Religion in Japan

The torii of Itsukushima Shinto Shrine near Hiroshima, one of the Three Views of Japan and a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Japan has full religious freedom based on Article 20 of its Constitution. Upper estimates suggest that 84–96 percent of the Japanese population subscribe to Shinto as its indigenous religion (50% to 80% of which considering degrees of syncretism with Buddhism, shinbutsu-shūgō). However, these estimates are based on people affiliated with a temple, rather than the number of true believers. Many Japanese people practice both Shinto and Buddhism, they can either identify with both religions or describe themselves as non-religious or spiritual , despite participating in religious ceremonies as a cultural tradition, as a result religious statistics are often under-reported in Japan. The number of Shinto shrines in Japan is estimated to be around 100,000. Other studies have suggested that only 30 percent of the population identify themselves as belonging to a religion. According to Edwin Reischauer and Marius Jansen, some 70–80% of the Japanese do not consider themselves believers in any religion. Nevertheless, the level of participation remains high, especially during festivals and occasions such as the first shrine visit of the New Year. Taoism and Confucianism from China have also influenced Japanese beliefs and customs. Japanese streets are decorated on Tanabata, Obon and Christmas.

The Byōdō-in Buddhist temple, located in Uji, Kyoto

Shinto is the largest religion in Japan, practiced by nearly 80% of the population, yet only a small percentage of these identify themselves as "Shintoists" in surveys. This is due to the fact that "Shinto" has different meanings in Japan: most of the Japanese attend Shinto shrines and beseech kami without belonging to Shinto organisations, and since there are no formal rituals to become a member of folk Shinto, Shinto membership is often estimated countinsg those who join organised Shinto sects. Shinto has 100,000 shrines and 78,890 priests in the country. Buddhism first arrived in Japan in the 6th century; it was introduced in the year 538 or 552 from the kingdom of Baekje in Korea.

Christianity was first introduced into Japan by Jesuit missions starting in 1549. Today, fewer than 1% to 2.3% are Christians, most of them living in the western part of the country, where the missionaries' activities were greatest during the 16th century. Nagasaki Prefecture has the highest percentage of Christians: about 5.1% in 1996. As of 2007, there were 32,036 Christian priests and pastors in Japan. Throughout the latest century, some Western customs originally related to Christianity (including Western style weddings, Valentine's Day and Christmas) have become popular as secular customs among many Japanese.

Islam in Japan is estimated to constitute about 80–90% of foreign born migrants and their children, primarily from Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Iran Many of the ethnic Japanese Muslims are those who convert upon marrying immigrant Muslims. The Pew Research Center estimated that there were 185,000 Muslims in Japan in 2010.

Other minority religions include Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, and Bahá'í Faith; since the mid-19th century numerous new religious movements have emerged in Japan.

Education

Main article: Education in Japan

Students celebrating after the announcement of the results of the entrance examinations to the University of Tokyo

Primary schools, secondary schools and universities were introduced in 1872 as a result of the Meiji Restoration. Since 1947, compulsory education in Japan comprises elementary and junior high school, which together last for nine years (from age 6 to age 15). Almost all children continue their education at a three-year senior high school. The two top-ranking universities in Japan are the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, which have produced 16 Nobel Prize laureates.

Japan's education system played a central part in the country's recovery and rapid economic growth in the decades following the end of World War II. After World War II, the Fundamental Law of Education and the School Education Law were enacted. The latter law defined the school system that would be in effect for many decades: six years of elementary school, three years of junior high school, three years of high school, and two or four years of university. Starting in April 2016, various schools began the academic year with elementary school and junior high school integrated into one nine-year compulsory schooling program, in hopes to mitigate bullying and truancy; MEXT plans for this approach to be adopted nationwide in the coming years.

The Programme for International Student Assessment coordinated by the OECD currently ranks the overall knowledge and skills of Japanese 15-year-olds as the third best in the world. Japan is one of the top-performing OECD countries in reading literacy, maths and sciences with the average student scoring 529 and has one of the world's highest-educated labor forces among OECD countries. The Japanese populace is well educated and its society highly values education as a platform for social mobility and for gaining employment in the country's competitive high-tech economy. The country's large pool of highly educated and skilled individuals is largely responsible for ushering Japan's post-war economic growth. Tertiary-educated adults in Japan, particularly graduates in sciences and engineering benefit economically and socially from their education and skills in the country's high tech economy. Spending on education as a proportion of GDP is below the OECD average. Although expenditure per student is comparatively high in Japan, total expenditure relative to GDP remains small. In 2015, Japan's public spending on education amounted to just 4.1 percent of its GDP, below the OECD average of 5.0 percent. In 2017, the country ranked third for the percentage of 25 to 64 year-olds that have attained tertiary education with 51 percent. In addition, 60.4 percent Japanese aged 25 to 34 have some form of tertiary education qualification and bachelor's degrees are held by 30.4 percent of Japanese aged 25 to 64, the second most in the OECD after South Korea. As the Japanese economy is largely scientific and technological based, the labor market demands people who have achieved some form of higher education, particularly related to science and engineering in order to gain a competitive edge when searching for employment opportunities.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Japan See also: Japanese popular culture

Japanese culture has evolved greatly from its origins. Contemporary culture combines influences from Asia, Europe and North America. Traditional Japanese arts include crafts such as ceramics, textiles, lacquerware, swords and dolls; performances of bunraku, kabuki, noh, dance, and rakugo; and other practices, the tea ceremony, ikebana, martial arts, calligraphy, origami, onsen, Geisha and games. Japan has a developed system for the protection and promotion of both tangible and intangible Cultural Properties and National Treasures. Twenty-two sites have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, eighteen of which are of cultural significance.

Cinema

Main article: Cinema of Japan

Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; movies have been produced in Japan since 1897. The major studios of Japan are Toho, Toei, Shochiku, Daiei, Nikkatsu, and Shintoho.

Three Japanese films (Rashomon, Seven Samurai and Tokyo Story) made the Sight & Sounds 2002 Critics and Directors Poll for the best films of all time. Ishirō Honda's Gojira became an international icon of Japan and spawned an entire subgenre of kaiju films, as well as the longest-running film franchise in history. Japan has won the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film four times, more than any other Asian country.

Music

Main article: Music of Japan

Noh performance at a Shinto shrine

Japanese music is eclectic and diverse. Many instruments, such as the koto, were introduced in the 9th and 10th centuries. The accompanied recitative of the Noh drama dates from the 14th century and the popular folk music, with the guitar-like shamisen, from the sixteenth. Western classical music, introduced in the late 19th century, now forms an integral part of Japanese culture. The imperial court ensemble Gagaku has influenced the work of some modern Western composers.

Notable classical composers from Japan include Toru Takemitsu and Rentarō Taki. Popular music in post-war Japan has been heavily influenced by American and European trends, which has led to the evolution of J-pop, or Japanese popular music. Karaoke is the most widely practiced cultural activity in Japan. A 1993 survey by the Cultural Affairs Agency found that more Japanese had sung karaoke that year than had participated in traditional pursuits such as flower arranging (ikebana) or tea ceremonies.

Media

Main article: Media of Japan

Fuji TV headquarters in Tokyo

Television and newspapers take an important role in Japanese mass media, though radio and magazines also take a part. For a long time, newspapers were regarded as the most influential information medium in Japan, although audience attitudes towards television changed with the emergence of commercial news broadcasting in the mid-1980s. Over the 1990s, television surpassed newspapers as Japan's main information and entertainment medium.

There are 6 nationwide television networks: NHK (public broadcasting), Japan Television Network (JTN), Japanese Broadcasting System (JBS), Fuji Television Network (FTN), Asahi National network (ANN) and TX Network (TXN). For the most part, television networks were established based on capital investments by existing radio networks. Variety shows, serial dramas, and news constitute a large percentage of Japanese television shows. According to the 2015 NHK survey on television viewing in Japan, 79 percent of Japanese watch television every day. The average daily duration of television viewing was three hours.

Japanese readers have a choice of approximately 120 daily newspapers with a total of 50 million copies of set paper with an average subscription rate of 1.13 newspapers per household. The main newspapers' publishers are the Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, The Nikkei and Sankei Shimbun. According to a survey conducted by the Japanese Newspaper Association in June 1999, 85.4 per cent of men and 75 percent of women read a newspaper every day. Average daily reading times vary with 27.7 minutes on weekdays and 31.7 minutes on holidays and Sunday.

See also

This page uses material from the Wikipedia page Japan, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).