Between the 4th and 6th centuries, its kingdoms were united under an emperor in Nara and later in Heian-kyō. Japan’s neighbors include the Republic of Korea, China and Russia.
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The country hosted the official 2006 Basketball World Championship and co-hosted the 2023 Basketball World Championship. Popular Japanese beverages include sake, a brewed rice beverage that typically contains 14–17% alcohol and is made by multiple fermentation of rice. Japanese curry, since its introduction to Japan from British India, is so widely consumed that it can be termed a national dish, alongside ramen and sushi.
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In 1936, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany; the 1940 Tripartite Pact made it one of the Axis powers. This process accelerated in the 1930s, spawning several radical nationalist groups that shared a hostility to liberal democracy and a dedication to expansion in Asia. The Japanese population doubled from 35 million in 1873 to 70 million by 1935, with a significant shift to urbanization. Adopting Western political, judicial, and military institutions, the Cabinet organized the Privy Council, introduced the Meiji Constitution (November 29, 1890), and assembled the Imperial Diet.
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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.
- The old Malay name for Japan, Japang or Japun, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect and encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia, who brought the word to Europe in the early 16th century.
- Japan is the most successful Asian Rugby Union country and hosted the 2019 IRB Rugby World Cup.
- The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) coordinated by the OECD ranks the knowledge and skills of Japanese 15-year-olds as the third best in the world.
- Since the 19th century, Japan has incorporated much of Western modern architecture into construction and design.
- (The population of Tokyo Metropolitan Area as of June 1, 2021 is 13,999,568, approximately 10% of Japan’s total population.)
Western classical music, introduced in the late 19th century, forms an integral part of Japanese culture. Confucian ideals remain evident in the Japanese concept of society and the self, and in the organization of the government and the structure of society. Natsume Sōseki and Mori Ōgai were significant novelists in the early 20th century, followed by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, Kafū Nagai and, more recently, Haruki Murakami and Kenji Nakagami. During the Edo period, the chōnin (“townspeople”) overtook the samurai aristocracy as producers and consumers of literature. In the early Heian period, the system of phonograms known as kana (hiragana and katakana) was developed.
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.
However, it lacks any laws against discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity and does not have a national human rights institution. The Special Assault Team comprises national-level counter-terrorism tactical units that cooperate with territorial-level Anti-Firearms Squads and Counter-NBC Terrorism Squads. In December 2022, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida instructed the government to increase spending by 65% until 2027. The deployment of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan marked the first overseas use of Japan’s military since World War II. The military https://www.richyfox.co.uk/ is governed by the Ministry of Defense, and primarily consists of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. Japan is the third highest-ranked Asian country in the 2024 Global Peace Index.
With a population of over 123 million as of 2025, it is the world’s 11th most populous country. The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands alongside 14,121 smaller islands. (The population of Tokyo Metropolitan Area as of June 1, 2021 is 13,999,568, approximately 10% of Japan’s total population.) Japan is the most successful Asian Rugby Union country and hosted the 2019 IRB Rugby World Cup. The country gained the hosting rights for the official Women’s Volleyball World Championship on five occasions, more than any other country.
More recent major quakes are the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, which triggered a large tsunami. Destructive earthquakes, often resulting in tsunami, occur several times each century; the 1923 Tokyo earthquake killed over 140,000 people. As of 2014update, approximately 0.5% of Japan’s total area is reclaimed land (umetatechi). Honshu has the highest population density at 450 persons/km2 (1200/sq mi) as of 2010update, while Hokkaido has the lowest density of 64.5 persons/km2 as of 2016update. The Ryukyu Islands, which include Okinawa, are a chain to the south of Kyushu. In 2011, Japan suffered one of the largest earthquakes in its recorded history—the Tōhoku earthquake—triggering the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- It underwent rapid economic growth in the following decades and became one of the first major non-NATO allies of the U.S.
- Precipitation is not heavy, but the islands usually develop deep snowbanks in the winter.
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Japan has the highest ratio of public debt to GDP among advanced economies, with a national debt estimated at 248% relative to GDP as of 2022update. Its poverty rate is the second highest among the G7 countries, and exceeds 15.7% of the population. As of 2023update, Japan’s labor force is the world’s tenth-largest, consisting of over 69.2 million workers. Japan has the world’s fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP, after that of the United States, China, Germany and India; and the fifth-largest by PPP-adjusted GDP. Other human rights issues include the treatment of marginalized groups, such as ethnic minorities, refugees and asylum seekers.
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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.
Around 14,500 BC (the start of the Jōmon period), a Mesolithic to Neolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer culture characterized by pit dwelling and rudimentary agriculture emerged. The old Malay name for Japan, Japang or Japun, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect and encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia, who brought the word to Europe in the early 16th century. In the 13th century, Marco Polo recorded the Early Mandarin Chinese pronunciation of the characters 日本國 as Cipangu. The characters 日本 mean ‘sun origin’, which is the source of the popular Western epithet “Land of the Rising Sun”. Nihon is typically used in everyday speech and reflects shifts in Japanese phonology during the Edo period.
The war cost Japan millions of lives and many of its conquered territories, including de jure parts of Japan such as Korea, Taiwan, Karafuto, and the Kurils. Throughout areas occupied by Japan during the war, numerous abuses were committed against local inhabitants. In 1940, the Empire invaded French Indochina, after which the United States placed an oil embargo on Japan.
Japan is in the top three globally for both automobile production and export, and is home to Toyota, the world’s largest automobile company by production. The country’s manufacturing output is the fourth highest in the world as of 2023update. Japan maintains one of the world’s largest fishing fleets and accounts for nearly 15% of the global catch, prompting critiques that Japan’s fishing is leading to depletion in fish stocks such as tuna. Japan has a large cooperative sector, with three of the world’s ten largest cooperatives, including the largest consumer cooperative and the largest agricultural cooperative as of 2018update. In 2024, Japan was the world’s eight-largest exporter and sixth-largest importer. The Japanese yen is the world’s third-largest reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro.
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