Japan From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the country. For other uses, see Japan (disambiguation). "Nippon" redirects here. For other uses, see Nippon (disambiguation). Japan 日本国 Nippon-koku Nihon-koku Flag Imperial Seal Anthem: "Kimigayo" "君が代" Government Seal of Japan 五七桐 (Go-Shichi no Kiri?) Tokyo Capital 35°41′N 139°46′E 35.683°N and largest city 139.767°E Official languages None[1] Aynu itak Ryukyuan languages Recognised regional languages Eastern Japanese Western Japanese several other Japanese dialects National language Japanese 98.5% Japanese 0.5% Korean Ethnic groups ([2]) 0.4% Chinese 0.6% other Demonym Japanese Unitary parliamentary democracy Government under constitutional monarchy - Emperor Akihito - Prime Minister Shinzō Abe Legislature National Diet - Upper house House of Councillors - Lower house House of Representatives Formation National Foundation - 11 February 660 BC[3] Day - Meiji Constitution 29 November 1890 - Current constitution 3 May 1947 San Francisco - 28 April 1952 Peace Treaty Area 377,944 km2[4] (62nd) - Total 145,925 sq mi - Water (%) 0.8 Population - 2012 estimate 126,659,683[5] (10th) - 2010 census 128,056,026[6] 337.1/km2 (36th) - Density 873.1/sq mi GDP (PPP) 2012 estimate - Total $4.616 trillion[7] (4th) - Per capita $36,179[7] (25th) GDP (nominal) 2012 estimate - Total $5.984 trillion[7] (3rd) - Per capita $46,895[7] (18th) 0.912[8] HDI (2013) very high · 10th Currency Yen (¥) / En (円 or 圓) (JPY) Time zone JST (UTC+9) - Summer (DST) not observed (UTC+9) yyyy-mm-dd Date format yyyy 年 m 月 d 日 Era yy 年 m 月 d 日 (CE−1988) Drives on the left Calling code +81 ISO 3166 code JP Internet TLD .jp For an overview of Japanese topics, see the Index of Japan-related articles or the Japan portal. See also Outline of Japan. This article contains Japanese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of kanji and kana. Japan i / dʒ ə ˈ p æ n / (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon; formally 日本国 Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, literally "[the] State of Japan") is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun". Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku, which together comprise about ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people. Honshū's Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents. Archaeological research indicates that people lived in Japan as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other nations followed by long periods of isolation has characterized Japan's history. From the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military dictatorships (shogunates) in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a long period of isolation in the early 17th century, which was only ended in 1853 when a United States fleet pressured Japan to open to the West. Nearly two decades of internal conflict and insurrection followed before the Meiji Emperor was restored as head of state in 1868 and the Empire of Japan was proclaimed, with the Emperor as a divine symbol of the nation. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino- Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected legislature called the Diet. A major economic power,[2] Japan has the world's third-largest economy by nominal GDP and by purchasing power parity. It is also the world's fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer. Although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the sixth largest military budget,[9] used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. After Singapore, Japan has the lowest homicide rate (including attempted homicide) in the world.[10] According to Japan's health ministry, Japanese women have the second highest life expectancy of any country in the world.[11] According to the United Nations, Japan also has the third lowest infant mortality rate.[12][13] Contents [hide] 1 Etymology 2 History o 2.1 Prehistory and ancient history o 2.2 Feudal era o 2.3 Modern era 3 Government and politics 4 Foreign relations and military 5 Administrative divisions 6 Geography o 6.1 Climate o 6.2 Biodiversity o 6.3 Environment 7 Economy o 7.1 Science and technology o 7.2 Infrastructure 8 Demographics o 8.1 Religion o 8.2 Languages o 8.3 Education o 8.4 Health 9 Culture o 9.1 Art o 9.2 Music o 9.3 Literature o 9.4 Cuisine o 9.5 Sports 10 References 11 External links Etymology Main article: Names of Japan The English word Japan derives from the Chinese pronunciation of the Japanese name, 日本, pronounced Nippon listen (help·info) or Nihon listen (help·info) in Japanese. The pronunciation Nippon is more formal, and is in Japanese used for most official purposes, including international sporting events. From the Meiji Restoration until the end of World War II, the full title of Japan was Dai Nippon Teikoku (大日本帝國?), meaning "the Empire of Great Japan". Today the name Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku (日本国?) is used as a formal modern-day equivalent; countries like Japan whose long form does not contain a descriptive designation are generally given a name appended by the character koku (国?), meaning "country", "nation" or "state". Japanese people refer to themselves as Nihonjin (日本人?) and to their language as Nihongo (日 本語?). Both Nippon and Nihon mean "sun-origin" and are often translated as Land of the Rising Sun. This nomenclature comes from Japanese missions to Imperial China and refers to Japan's eastward position relative to China. Before Nihon came into official use, Japan was known as Wa (倭?) or Wakoku (倭国?).[14] The English word for Japan came to the West via early trade routes. The early Mandarin or possibly Wu Chinese (吳語) pronunciation of Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. In modern Shanghainese, a Wu dialect, the pronunciation of characters 日本 'Japan' is Zeppen [zəʔ pən]. The old Malay word for Japan, Jepang, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect, probably Fukienese or Ningpo,[15] and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in Malacca in the 16th century. Portuguese traders were the first to bring the word to Europe.[16] It was first recorded in English in a 1565 letter, spelled Giapan.[17] History Main article: History of Japan Prehistory and ancient history The Golden Hall and five-storey pagoda of Hōryū-ji, among the oldest wooden buildings in the world, National Treasures, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site A Paleolithic culture around 30,000 BC constitutes the first known habitation of the Japanese archipelago. This was followed from around 14,000 BC (the start of the Jōmon period) by a Mesolithic to Neolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer culture, who include ancestors of both the contemporary Ainu people and Yamato people,[18][19] characterized by pit dwelling and rudimentary agriculture.[20] Decorated clay vessels from this period are some of the oldest surviving examples of pottery in the world. Around 300 BC, the Yayoi people began to enter the Japanese islands, intermingling with the Jōmon.[21] The Yayoi period, starting around 500 BC, saw the introduction of practices like wet-rice farming,[22] a new style of pottery,[23] and metallurgy, introduced from China and Korea.[24] Japan first appears in written history in the Chinese Book of Han.[25] According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, the most powerful kingdom on the archipelago during the 3rd century was called Yamataikoku. Buddhism was first introduced to Japan from Baekje of Korea, but the subsequent development of Japanese Buddhism was primarily influenced by China.[26] Despite early resistance, Buddhism was promoted by the ruling class and gained widespread acceptance beginning in the Asuka period (592–710).[27] The Nara period (710–784) of the 8th century marked the emergence of a strong Japanese state, centered on an imperial court in Heijō-kyō (modern Nara). The Nara period is characterized by the appearance of a nascent literature as well as the development of Buddhist-inspired art and architecture.[28] The smallpox epidemic of 735–737 is believed to have killed as much as one- third of Japan's population.[29] In 784, Emperor Kammu moved the capital from Nara to Nagaoka-kyō before relocating it to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto) in 794. Byōdō-in (1053) is a temple of Pure Land Buddhism.