Japan

Japan
Flag Coat of arms
Official flag Official Coat of Arms
National information
National motto: n/a
National anthem: Kimigayo (君が代)
About the people
Official languages: Japanese 日本語
Population: (# of people)
  - Total: 127,214,499 (ranked 10)
  - Density: 355 per km²
Geography / Places
country map
Here is the country on a map of the world.
Capital city: Tokyo
Largest city: Tokyo
Area
  - Total: 377,835 (ranked 60)
  - Water: 3,091 km² (0.8%)
Politics / Government
Established: According to legend, February 11, 660 BC
Leaders: Emperor Akihito
Prime Minister [Naoto Kan]]
Economy / Money
Currency:
(Name of money)
Yen (JPY)
International information
Time zone: +09:00
Telephone dialing code: 81
Internet domain: .jp, .co.jp

Japan (日本) is a country in Asia. It has many islands. Four of them are big, and the biggest is one of the largest islands in the world. The islands are on the east Asian coast in the western part of the Pacific Ocean.[1]

Japanese people call their country "Nihon" or "Nippon",[1] which in Japanese means "the origin of the sun".

History

The earliest records on Japan are from Chinese documents. One of those records said there were many small countries (in Japan) which had wars between them and later a country, ruled by a queen, became the strongest and peace came.

Japan began to write its own history after the 5th and 6th centuries, when people from Korea and China taught Japan about the Chinese writing system. Japan's neighbours also showed them the ways of Buddhism.[2] The Japanese changed Buddhism in many ways, for example, by building strongly on ideas such as Zen, which came from mainland Asia.[2]

In the ancient and the Middle Ages, China gave Japan lots of new cultural ideas, but their friendship became weaker later. In the late 13th century, Mongolians from China tried to invade Japan twice, but they could not. The samurai and shogun of Medieval Japan are similar to knights and lords in Medieval Europe .

Japan had contact with the Europeans for a little while in the 16th century. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to visit Japan. Later, the Spanish, English and Dutch came to Japan to trade. Also, they brought Christianity. Japan's leaders welcomed them originally, but the Europeans conquered many places in the world, and the Japanese were scared they would conquer Japan too. So the Japanese did not let the Europeans come into Japan anymore, except in a small area in Nagasaki city. Only Chinese, Korean and Dutch people were allowed to visit Japan, in the end, and they were under careful control of the Japanese government. Japan was opened again in 1854 by Matthew Perry, when the Americans wanted to use Japanese ports for American whale boats.

This new contact with Europeans and Americans changed the Japanese culture. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 stopped some old ways and added many new ones. The Empire of Japan was created, and it became a very powerful nation and tried to invade the countries next to it. It invaded and annexed Ryukyu Kingdom, Taiwan, and Korea. It had wars with China and Russia: the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and the Second Sino-Japanese War, which grew to become a part of World War 2.

In 1941, Japan hit Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, a water base of the United States and destroyed or damaged many ships and airplanes. This started the United States' involvement in World War 2. American and Japanese forces fought each other in the Pacific. Once airbases were established within range of the Japanese mainland America began to win, and started dropping bombs on Japanese cities. America was able to bomb most of the important cities and quickly brought Japan close to defeat. To make Japan surrender, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing 150,000 Japanese citizens. Soon after this the Soviet Union began to fight against Japan and the Japanese army in Manchuria lost. Japan surrendered and gave up all the places it took from other countries, accepting the Potsdam Proclamation. The United States occupied Japan and forced it to write a new constitution, in which it promised to never go to war again.

Japan was hurt very much after the widespread bombing hits and the big bombs, but soon it grew strong again. They did not try to make a strong army, but a lot of money. Because of this, they became very wealthy. The United States put their army bases in Japan, including Okinawa. Although America helps protect Japan, some people living near the bases do not like the soldiers there because of serious problems the soldiers sometimes make.

Geography

Mount Fuji with cherry blossom trees and a shinkansen in the foreground—all three are iconic of Japan

Japan is a group of islands in the Western Pacific, off the coast of China. The four biggest islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Kyushu, and there are about 6,000 smaller islands there. Japan is separated from the Asian continent by the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea. Honshu, which means 'Mainland' in Japanese language is the biggest island. Hokkaido is the island north of Honshu. Kyushu is the island west of Honshu. Shikoku is the island to the south-west of Honshu.[1]

In the middle of Japan there are mountains.[1] Most of mountains are volcanoes. Japan has many earthquakes. The recent big earthquake was in 1995, near Kobe. It killed many people. 90% of the people living in Japan only live in 10% of the land, near the coast. The other 10% of the people in Japan live away from the coast.

Over 10 cities have over a million people in them. The biggest city in Japan is Tokyo, which is the capital.

The biggest cities in Japan are:

In Japan there are eight regions:

Territorial problem

Japan has 4 problems about territory.

Transportation

High speed Shinkansen or Bullet trains are a common form of transportation in Japan.

Important international airports in Japan are Narita, serving as Tokyo's major airport and Kansai International Airport near Osaka, serving as the main airport for the Kansai region.

For moving around in Japan, airplanes, trains and buses are mainly used for the public transportation. The Shinkansen is one of the fastest trains in the world and connects biggest cities in Honshu and Kyushu.

Other pages

Subdivisons

Prefectures in Japan

Modern Japan is divided into 47 prefectures. Before the Meiji period (1868-1912), the nation was divided into provinces which were consolidated in the prefectural system.

Hokkaidō

1. Hokkaidō

Tōhoku

2. Aomori
3. Iwate
4. Miyagi
5. Akita
6. Yamagata
7. Fukushima

Kantō

8. Ibaraki
9. Tochigi
10. Gunma
11. Saitama
12. Chiba
13. Tokyo
14. Kanagawa

Chūbu

15. Niigata
16. Toyama
17. Ishikawa
18. Fukui
19. Yamanashi
20. Nagano
21. Gifu
22. Shizuoka
23. Aichi

Kansai

24. Mie
25. Shiga
26. Kyoto
27. Osaka
28. Hyōgo
29. Nara
30. Wakayama

Chūgoku

31. Tottori
32. Shimane
33. Okayama
34. Hiroshima
35. Yamaguchi

Shikoku

36. Tokushima
37. Kagawa
38. Ehime
39. Kōchi

Kyūshū and Okinawa

40. Fukuoka
41. Saga
42. Nagasaki
43. Kumamoto
44. Ōita
45. Miyazaki
46. Kagoshima
47. Okinawa

Sport

In Japan Sumo is the main sport, baseball has the most spectators in Japan, soccer, also called football is popular too.

Other pages

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Japan. CIA World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved on 16 June 2009.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Early Japan (until 710). japan-guide.com. Retrieved on 16 June 2009.

Other websites

Government