Japan





Japan (Nippon/Nihon ??, literal meaning: "Origin of Sun") is a country in
Far East Asia, made up of a chain of islands - located between the Pacific
Ocean and the Sea of Japan, east of the Korean peninsula. Known as the Land
of the Rising Sun, its 13 centuries of recorded history have created a
distinctive culture.

The Japanese name Nippon is used on stamps and for international sporting
events, while Nihon is used more often within Japan. It is from the Chinese
version of the name that the English Japan was derived. The early Mandarin
Chinese word for Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. In Malay the
Chinese word became Japang and was thus encountered by Portuguese traders in
Moluccas in the 16th century. It is thought the Portuguese traders were the
first to bring the word to Europe. It was first recorded in English in 1577
spelled Giapan.

9.2 Other                                 Official
                                          language        Japanese
History                                   Capital         Tokyo
                                          Largest City    Tokyo
                                          Emperor         Akihito
People who live in Japan are ancient
descendants of those who came from the    Prime minister  Koizumi Junichiro
Asian continent through Sakhalin, Korea   Area            Ranked 60th
and China, especially around Beijing and  Ê- Total        377,835 km²
Shanghai, and from the South by marine    Ê- % water      0.8%
route.                                    Population
                                          Ê- Total (2003) Ranked 10th
According to traditional Japanese                         127,214,499
history, Japan was founded in the 7th     Ê- Density      335/km²
century BC by the ancestral Emperor
Jimmu. During the 5th and 6th centuries,  Currency        Yen
the Chinese writing system and Buddhism   Time zone       UTC +9
were introduced with other Chinese        National anthem Kimi Ga Yo
cultures via the Korean pennisula or
directly from China. The emperors were    Internet TLD    .JP
the nominal rulers, but actual power was  Calling Code    81
usually held by powerful court nobles,
regents, or shoguns (military governors).

Ancient political structure held that, once battles between rivals were
finished, the victoriuous Shogun would emigrate to the capital Kyoto to rule
under the grace of the Emperor. However, in the year 1185, general Minamoto
no Yoritomo was the first to break this tradition, refusing to relocate and
subsequently holding power in Kamakura, just south of present-day Yokohama.
While this Kamakura Shogunate was somewhat stable, Japan soon fell into
warring factions, and suffered through what became known as the Warring
States period. In the year 1600, at the Battle of Sekigahara, Shogun
Tokugawa Ieyasu either coopted or defeated his enemies, and formed the
Tokugawa Shogunate in the small fishing village of Edo, what is now known as
Tokyo (eastern capital).

During the 16th century, traders from Portugal, the Netherlands, England,
and Spain arrived, as did Christian missionaries. During the early part of
the 17th century, Japan's shogunate suspected that they were actually
forerunners of a military conquest by European powers and ultimately barred
all relations with the outside world except for severely restricted contacts
with Dutch and Chinese merchants at Nagasaki (Dejima). This isolation lasted
for 251 years, until Commodore Matthew Perry forced the opening of Japan to
the West with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854.

Within several years, renewed contact with the West profoundly altered
Japanese society. The shogunate was forced to resign, and the emperor was
restored to power. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 initiated many reforms. The
feudal system was abolished, and numerous Western institutions were adopted,
including a Western legal system and government, along with other economic,
social and military reforms that transformed Japan into a world power. As
results of Sino-Japanese war and Russo-Japanese war, Japan acqured Taiwan,
Korea and other territories.

The early 20th century saw Japan come under increasing influence of an
expansionist military, leading to the invasion of Manchuria, a second
Sino-Japanese War (1937). Japanese leaders felt it was necessary to attack
on the US naval base in Pearl Harbor (1941) to ensure Japanese supremecy in
the Pacific. However, the entry of the United States into World War II would
slowly tilt the balance in the Pacific against the Japanese. After a long
Pacific campaign, Japan lost Okinawa and was pushed back to the four main
islands. The United States made fierce attacks to Tokyo, Osaka and other
cities by strategic bombing, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki with two atomic
bombs. Japan eventually agreed to an unconditional surrender to the United
States on August 15, 1945.

A defeated post-war Japan remained under US occupation until 1952,
whereafter it embarked on a remarkable economic recovery that returned
prosperity to the islands. Okinawa remained under US occupation until 1972
to stabilize East Asia, and a major military presence remains there to this
day. The Soviet Union siezed 4 islands north of Hokkaido at the end of WWII,
and despite the collapse of the Soviet state and friendly relations between
countries, Russia has refused to return these islands.

Politics

Japan is academically considered a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral
parliament, the Kokkai or Diet but most of Japanese feel strange to the term
monarchy and quite a few scholars argue Japan is a republic. Japan has a
royal family led by an Emperor, but under the current constitution he holds
no power at all, not even emergency reserve powers. The executive branch is
responsible to the Diet, consisting of a cabinet composed of a prime
minister and ministers of state, all of whom must be civilians. The prime
minister must be a member of the Diet and is designated by his colleagues.
The prime minister has the power to appoint and remove ministers, a majority
of whom must be Diet members. Sovereignty, previously embodied in the
emperor, is vested by the constitution in the Japanese people, and the
Emperor is defined as the symbol of the state.

The legislative branch consists of a House of Representatives (Shugi-in) of
480 seats, elected by popular vote every four years, and a House of
Councillors (Sangi-in) of 247 seats, whose popularly elected members serve
six-year terms. Each house contains officials elected either directly or
proportionally by party. There is universal adult suffrage with a secret
ballot for all elective offices.

Prefectures

Japan is subdivided into 47 prefectures (ordered by ISO 3166-2):

   * Hokkaido      * Shiga
   * Aomori        * Kyoto
   * Iwate         * Osaka
   * Miyagi        * Hyogo
   * Akita         * Nara
   * Yamagata      * Wakayama
   * Fukushima     * Tottori
   * Ibaraki       * Shimane
   * Tochigi       * Okayama
   * Gunma         * Hiroshima
   * Saitama       * Yamaguchi
   * Chiba         * Tokushima
   * Tokyo         * Kagawa
   * Kanagawa      * Ehime
   * Niigata       * Kochi
   * Toyama        * Fukuoka
   * Ishikawa      * Saga
   * Fukui         * Nagasaki
   * Yamanashi     * Kumamoto
   * Nagano        * Oita
   * Gifu          * Miyazaki
   * Shizuoka      * Kagoshima
   * Aichi         * Okinawa
   * Mie

The order of this list is from the north to the south, which is commonly
accepted in Japan.

Geography

Japan, a country of islands, extends along the eastern or Pacific coast of
Asia. The main islands, running from north to south, are Karafuto (Jap.
1679-1875), Hokkaido, Honshu (or the mainland), Shikoku, and Kyushu.
Mairuppo in the Kuriru retto is over 800km to the northeast of Hokkaido;
Okinawa in the Ryukyu retto is over 600 km to the southwest of Kyushu. About
3,000 smaller islands are included in the archipelago. About 73% of the
country is mountainous, with a chain running through each of the main
islands. Japan's highest mountain is the famous Mount Fuji at 3,776 m .
Oyakobayama, at the northern end of Kuriru retto, is a beautifully formed
snow-clad peak (2337m) rising directly out of the sea. Since so little flat
area exists, many hills and mountainsides are cultivated all the way to the
summits. As Japan is situated in a volcanic zone along the Pacific deeps,
frequent low intensity earth tremors and occasional volcanic activity are
felt throughout the islands. Destructive earthquakes occur several times a
century, often resulting in tsunamis. Hot springs are numerous and have been
developed as resorts.

The Japanese Archipelago extends from north to south along the eastern coast
of Eurasia Continent or the farthermost west of Pacific Ocean. Japan belongs
to the temperate zone with distinct four seasons, but varies from cool
temperate in north to subtropical in south. The climate is also affected by
the seasonal winds blown from the continent to the ocean in winters and vise
versa in summers.

Late June and early July are a rainy season except Hokkaido as a seasonal
rain front or baiu zensen (????) stays above Japan. In the late summer and
early autumn typhoons, grown from tropical depressions generated near the
equator, track from the south-west to the north-east and often bring heavy rain.

Its varied geographical features divide Japan into six principal climatic zones.

   * Hokkaido: Belonging to the cool temperate zone, Hokkaido has long, cold
     winters and cool summers. Precipitation is not large.
   * Sea of Japan: The northwest seasonal wind in winters give heavy
     snowfalls. In summers it is less hot than in the Pacific area but
     sometimes experiences extreme hot temperature due to the Foehn wind
     phenomenon.
   * Chuo-kochi or Central highland: A typical inland climate gives large
     temperature differences between summers and winters and between days
     and nights. Precipitation is not large throughout a year.
   * Setonaikai or Inland Sea: The mountains in Chugoku and Shikoku regions
     block the seasonal winds and bring mild climate and many fine days
     throughout a year.
   * Pacific Ocean): It experiences cold winters with little snowfall and
     hot, humid summers due to the southeast seasonal wind.
   * Nansei-shoto or Southwest Islands: It has a subtropical climate with
     warm winters and hot summers. Precipitation is very large especially
     affected by the rainy season and typhoons.

The Kuriru retto are fogbound. Attached to Nemuro, they comprise 5 'gun':
Kunashiri, Etorofu, Uruppu, Rakkoshima and Choka.

Japan has ten regions. Those from north to south are Hokkaido, Tohoku
region, Hokuriku region, Kanto region, Chubu region, Kinki region (commonly
called Kansai), Chugoku region, Shikoku region, Kyushu region, and Okinawa.?

Economy

Government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, mastery of high
technology, and a comparatively small defense allocation (1% of GDP) have
helped Japan advance with extraordinary rapidity to the rank of second
largest economy power in the world only next to the US.

Notable characteristics of the economy include the working together of
manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors in closely-knit groups called
keiretsu; the powerful enterprise unions and shunto; and the guarantee of
lifetime employment for a substantial portion of the urban labour force.
Most of the these features are now eroding, however, and the economy is
currently characterized by stagnation.

Industry, the most important sector of the economy, is heavily dependent on
imported raw materials and fuels. The much smaller agricultural sector is
highly subsidised and protected, with crop yields among the highest in the
world. Usually self-sufficient in rice, Japan must import about 50% of its
requirements of other grain and fodder crops. Japan maintains one of the
world's largest fishing fleets and accounts for nearly 15% of the global
catch. For three decades overall real economic growth had been spectacular:
a 10% average in the 1960s, a 5% average in the 1970s, and a 4% average in
the 1980s. Growth slowed markedly in the 1990s largely because of the after
effects of overinvestment during the late 1980s and contractionary domestic
policies intended to wring speculative excesses from the stock and real
estate markets. Government efforts to revive economic growth have met with
little success and were further hampered in 2000-2001 by the slowing of the
US and Asian economies. Furthermore, the declining birth rate in Japan has
led to speculation that more skilled immigrants will be required if Japan
wishes to maintain its current level of production. The demand for cheap
labor has created a boom in the illegal employment market made up mostly of
fake exchange students from around the globe.

The crowding of habitable land area and the aging of the population are two
major long-run problems. Robotics constitutes a key long-term economic
strength, with Japan possessing 410,000 of the world's 720,000 "working
robots".

Demographics

Japanese society is ethnically and linguistically very homogeneous, with
small populations of primarily Koreans and Chinese (including Taiwanese), as
well as the indigenous Ainu minority on Hokkaido. 99% of the population
speaks Japanese as their first language.

Most Japanese people do not believe in any particular religion. Many people,
especially those in younger generations, are opposed to religions for
historical reasons and the development of science. From the Meiji Era to
World War II, Shinto was organized by the government. Many others are
ambivalent to religions and use various religions in their life. One may
visit a Shinto shrine on New Year's day for the year's success and before
school entrance exam to pray to pass. The same person may have a wedding at
a Christian church and have funeral at a Buddhist temple.