Japan has close economic and military relations with the United States, with which it maintains a security alliance. It is the world’s fifth-largest donor of official development assistance, donating US$9.2 billion in 2014. Since the late 19th century, the judicial system has been largely based on the civil law of Europe, notably Germany. Historically influenced by Chinese law, the Japanese legal system developed independently during the Edo period through texts such as Kujikata Osadamegaki. It consists of a lower House of Representatives with 465 seats, elected by popular vote every four years or when dissolved, and an upper House of Councillors with 248 seats, whose popularly-elected members serve six-year terms.
National Anthem
Minority ethnic groups in the country include the indigenous Ainu and Ryukyuan people. Japan is an ethnically and culturally homogeneous society, with the Japanese people forming 97.4% of the country’s population. Japan has a population of over 123 million, of whom nearly 120 million are Japanese nationals (2024 estimates). Since privatization in 1987, dozens of Japanese railway companies compete in regional and local passenger transportation markets; major companies include seven JR enterprises, Kintetsu, Seibu Railway and Keio Corporation. The Japanese agricultural sector accounts for about 1.2% of the country’s total GDP as of 2018update. Japan is widely considered to be a great power due to its economic power and political, cultural, and military https://www.richyfox.co.uk/ influence.
The Ryukyu and Nanpō Islands have a subtropical climate, with warm winters and hot summers. Precipitation is not heavy, but the islands usually develop deep snowbanks in the winter. The northernmost region, Hokkaido, has a humid continental climate with long, cold winters and very warm to cool summers.
Climate
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). Modern Japan’s economic growth began in this period, resulting in roads (Kaidō) and water transportation routes, as well as financial instruments such as futures contracts, banking and insurance of the Osaka rice brokers. When open war broke out, Ieyasu defeated rival clans in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Tokugawa Ieyasu served as regent for Hideyoshi’s son Toyotomi Hideyori within the Council of Five Elders and used his position to gain political and military support. During the 16th century, Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries reached Japan for the first time, initiating direct commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West (see Nanban trade and Nanban art).
- The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands alongside 14,121 smaller islands.
- Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji and the lyrics of Japan’s national anthem “Kimigayo” were written during this time.
- The prime minister as the head of government has the power to appoint and dismiss Ministers of State, and is appointed by the emperor after being designated from among the members of the Diet.
- Japan has nine forest ecoregions which reflect the climate and geography of the islands.
- This marked the beginning of the Heian period (794–1185), during which a distinctly indigenous Japanese culture emerged.
- The Japanese population doubled from 35 million in 1873 to 70 million by 1935, with a significant shift to urbanization.
Population
Since the 19th century, Japan has incorporated much of Western modern architecture into construction and design. Japan has one of the world’s highest suicide rates, which is considered a major social issue. Since 1981, the principal cause of death in Japan is cancer, which accounted for 27% of the total deaths in 2018—followed by cardiovascular diseases, which led to 15% of the deaths. Since 1973, all elderly persons have been covered by government-sponsored insurance.
In 645, the government led by Prince Naka no Ōe and Fujiwara no Kamatari devised and implemented the far-reaching Taika Reforms. Before 日本 was adopted in the early 8th century, the country was known in China as Wa (倭, changed in Japan around 757 to 和) and in Japan by the endonym Yamato. A developed country with one of the world’s largest economies by nominal GDP, it is a global leader in the automotive, electronics, and robotics industries, in addition to making significant contributions to science and technology. Widely considered a great power and the only Asian member of the G7, it maintains one of the world’s strongest militaries but has constitutionally renounced its right to declare war. The country annexed Korea in 1910, invaded China in 1937, and attacked the U.S. and European colonial powers in 1941, thus entering World War II as an Axis power. After rule by the Kamakura and Ashikaga shogunates and a century of warring states, Japan was unified in 1600 by the Tokugawa shogunate, which implemented an isolationist foreign policy.
The culture of Japan is well known around the world, particularly its popular culture as expressed in animation, art, comics, cuisine, fashion, films, music, television, and video games. It has one of the world’s highest life expectancies, but is undergoing a population decline. Since the collapse of the Japanese asset price bubble in the early 1990s, it has experienced a prolonged period of economic stagnation referred to as the Lost Decades. It underwent rapid economic growth in the following decades and became one of the first major non-NATO allies of the U.S. The Meiji period saw Japan pursue rapid industrialization, modernization, militarism, and overseas colonization. In 1853, an American fleet forced Japan to open trade to the West, which led to the end of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial power in 1868.
- It consists of a lower House of Representatives with 465 seats, elected by popular vote every four years or when dissolved, and an upper House of Councillors with 248 seats, whose popularly-elected members serve six-year terms.
- Popular Japanese beverages include sake, a brewed rice beverage that typically contains 14–17% alcohol and is made by multiple fermentation of rice.
- Precipitation is not heavy, but the islands usually develop deep snowbanks in the winter.
- It underwent rapid economic growth in the following decades and became one of the first major non-NATO allies of the U.S.
- The culture of Japan is well known around the world, particularly its popular culture as expressed in animation, art, comics, cuisine, fashion, films, music, television, and video games.
- Japan ranks 20th in the 2018 Environmental Performance Index, which measures a country’s commitment to environmental sustainability.
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The country’s military, the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), is restricted by Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which renounces Japan’s right to declare war or use military force in international disputes. From the 12th century, actual power was held by military aristocrats known as shōgun and feudal lords called daimyō, enforced by warrior nobility named samurai. English has taken a major role in Japan as a business and international link language, and is a compulsory subject at the junior and senior high school levels.
By 2015, Japan had become the world’s fourth-largest PC game market by revenue, behind China, the United States, and South Korea. However, Japan’s video game sector remains a major industry; in 2014, Japan’s consumer video game market grossed $9.6 billion, with $5.8 billion coming from mobile gaming. The Japanese shipbuilding industry faces increasing competition from its East Asian neighbors, South Korea and China; a 2020 government initiative identified this sector as a target for increasing exports.
Go-Daigo was defeated by Ashikaga Takauji in 1336, beginning the Muromachi period (1336–1573). After Yoritomo’s death, the Hōjō clan came to power as regents for the shōgun. Japan’s feudal era was characterized by the emergence and dominance of a ruling class of warriors, the samurai.
The Nara period (710–784) marked the emergence of a Japanese state centered on the Imperial Court in Heijō-kyō (modern Nara). These legal reforms created the ritsuryō state, a system of Chinese-style centralized government that remained in place for half a millennium. These reforms culminated with the promulgation of the Taihō Code, which consolidated existing statutes and established the structure of the central and subordinate local governments.
GDP per capita
The 1920s saw a political shift towards statism, a period of lawlessness following the 1923 Great Tokyo Earthquake, the passing of laws against political dissent, and a series of attempted coups. The early 20th century saw a period of Taishō democracy (1912–1926) overshadowed by increasing expansionism and militarization. The Edo period gave rise to kokugaku (“national studies”), the study of Japan by the Japanese.
Oda Nobunaga used European technology and firearms to conquer many other daimyō; his consolidation of power began what was known as the Azuchi–Momoyama period. The Zen school of Buddhism was introduced from China in the Kamakura period (1185–1333) and became popular among the samurai class. In 1185, following the defeat of the Taira clan by the Minamoto clan in the Genpei War, samurai Minamoto no Yoritomo established a military government at Kamakura. 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.
Because of its far-flung outlying islands, Japan’s exclusive economic zone is the eighth-largest in the world, covering 4,470,000 km2 (1,730,000 sq mi). The country’s five main islands, from north to south, are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa. The Allies convened the International Military Tribunal for the Far East to prosecute Japanese leaders except the Emperor for Japanese war crimes. In 1931, Japan invaded China and occupied Manchuria, which led to the establishment of puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932; following international condemnation of the occupation, it resigned from the League of Nations in 1933.
