Japan

Japan (Nippon/Nihon ??, literal meaning: "Source of Sun") is an archipelago
country in eastern East Asia, made up of an island chain between the Pacific
Ocean and the Sea of Japan, east of the Korean peninsula. Known as the Land
of the Rising Sun, it has a huge but presently stagnant economy, 13
centuries of recorded history, and a distinctly ethnocentric 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 Portugese traders in
Moluccas in the 16th century. It is thought the Portugese traders were the
first to bring the word to Europe. It was first recorded in English in 1577
spelled Giapan.

                                           National motto: None
                                           Official
                                           language        Japanese
                                           Capital         Tokyo
                                           Emperor         Akihito
History                                    Prime minister  Koizumi Junichiro
                                           Area            Ranked 60th
                                           Ê- Total        377,835 km²
Traditional Japanese legend maintains that Ê- % water      0.8%
Japan was founded in the 7th century BC by Population
the ancestral Emperor Jimmu. During the    Ê- Total (2000) Ranked 10th
                                                           126,771,662
5th and 6th centuries, the Chinese writing
system and Buddhism were introduced with   Ê- Density      335/km²
other Chinese cultures by way of the       Currency        Yen
Korean pennisula. The emperors were the
nominal rulers, but actual power was       Time zone       UTC +9
usually held by powerful court nobles,     National anthem Kimi Ga Yo
regents, or shoguns (military governors).  Internet TLD    .JP
During the 16th century, traders from      Calling Code    81
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.
Japan's new ambitions led to invasion wars that exploited and killed
thousands of people in mainland China (1895) and Russia (1905) and led to
the illegal annexation by Japan of Korea, Taiwan 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), and an attack on the US naval base in Pearl Harbor
(1941) that brought the United States into World War II. After a long and
brutal Pacific campaign, Japan lost Okinawa and was pushed back to the four
main islands. Reluctant to launch a full-scale invasion of Japan, the United
States obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki with two atomic bombs. These two
atomic bombs killed approximately 130,000 people instantly, but with
Hirohito's unconditional surrender to the United States on August 15, 1945,
sovereignty was returned back to all of Japan's former colonies.

A devasted 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.

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. There is universal adult suffrage with a secret ballot for
all elective offices.

Prefectures

Japan is subdivided into 47 prefectures:

   * 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

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 (Fujisan) 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.

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 summers and early
autumns typhoons, grown from tropical depressions generated near the
equator, attack Japan with a furious rainstorm.

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
     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-shot 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 most
technologically powerful economy in the world after the US and fourth
largest economy in the world after the US, the European Union and China.
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.

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
aftereffects 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.

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 uniform with 99% of
the population speaking Japanese. The other 1% consists of an immigrant
population of primarily Koreans, Chinese and Loochoos, as well as the tiny
indigenous minority of the Ainu on Hokkaido. The government of Japan, as an
official policy, does not acknowledge full citizenship of many foreigners
who have lived in Japan for many decades and generations. Typically, only
children born in Japan and to married parents both holding Japanese
citizenship are considered 'naturally Japanese'. Japanese citizenship can be
obtained for children born outside Japan but to Japanese parents via a
Japanese consulate office. Racism and other forms of intolerance are also
normal facts of life for gaijin and non-100% Japanese alike (Okinawans,
Ainu, Korean-Japanese).

Most Japanese people do not believe in any particular religion. Many people,
especially those in younger generations, are opposed to religions because of
historical reason and development of science. During World War II people
were required to believe in Shintoism and prohibited to believe any other
religion. Many others are neutral on 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.
A number of new religions established after or slightly before World War II
are also influential.

Holidays

Notes: Single days between two national holidays are taken as a bank
holiday. This applies to May 4, which is a holiday each year. When a
national holiday falls on Sunday the following Monday is being taken as a holiday.

        Date              English Name       Remarks
 January 1         New Year's Day
 Moveable Monday   Coming-of-age Day         2nd Monday of January
 February 11       National Foundation Day
 March 20 or 21    Vernal Equinox Day
 April 29          Greenery Day
 May 3             Constitution Memorial Day  Golden Week
 May 4             Bank Holiday
 May 5             Children's Day
 Moveable Monday   Maritime Day              3rd Monday of July
 September 15      Respect for the Aged Day  
 September 23 or 24Autumnal Equinox Day      

 Moveable Monday   Health-Sports Day         2nd Monday of October
 November 3        Culture Day
 November 23       Labor Thanksgiving Day
 December 23       The Emperor's Birthday

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