Portal:Japan

Coordinates: 36°30′N 139°00′E / 36.5°N 139°E / 36.5; 139
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Imperial Seal of Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. It is in the northwest Pacific Ocean and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans an archipelago of 14,125 islands, with the five main islands being Hokkaido, Honshu (the "mainland"), Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is the country's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto.

Japan has over 125 million inhabitants and is the 11th most populous country in the world, as well as one of the most densely populated. About three-fourths of the country's terrain is mountainous, concentrating its highly urbanized population on narrow coastal plains. Japan is divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world. Japan has the world's highest life expectancy, although it is experiencing a population decline due to its very low birth rate.

Japan has been inhabited since the Upper Paleolithic period (30,000 BC). Between the fourth and ninth centuries AD, the kingdoms of Japan became unified under an emperor and the imperial court based in Heian-kyō. Beginning in the 12th century, political power was held by a series of military dictators (shōgun) and feudal lords (daimyō), and enforced by a class of warrior nobility (samurai). After a century-long period of civil war, the country was reunified in 1603 under the Tokugawa shogunate, which enacted an isolationist foreign policy. In 1854, a United States 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. In the Meiji period, the Empire of Japan adopted a Western-modeled constitution, and pursued a program of industrialization and modernization. Amidst a rise in militarism and overseas colonization, Japan invaded China in 1937 and entered World War II as an Axis power in 1941. After suffering defeat in the Pacific War and two atomic bombings, Japan surrendered in 1945 and came under a seven-year Allied occupation, during which it adopted a new constitution.

Under the 1947 constitution, Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature, the National Diet. Japan is a developed country and a great power, with one of the largest economies by nominal GDP. Japan has renounced its right to declare war, though it maintains a Self-Defense Force that ranks as one of the world's strongest militaries. A global leader in the automotive, robotics, and electronics industries, the country has made significant contributions to science and technology, and is one of the world's largest exporters and importers. It is part of multiple major international and intergovernmental institutions. (Full article...)

Tokyo Tower
Tokyo Tower
Tokyo Tower is a communications and observation tower located in Shiba Park, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. At 333 meters (1,091 ft), it is the tallest self-supporting steel structure in the world and the tallest artificial structure in Japan. The structure is an Eiffel Tower-inspired lattice tower that is painted white and international orange to comply with air safety regulations. Built in 1958, the tower's main sources of revenue are tourism and antenna leasing. Over 150 million people have visited the tower since its opening. FootTown, a 4-story building located directly under the tower, houses museums, restaurants and shops. Departing from here, guests can visit two observation decks. The 2-story Main Observatory is located at 150 meters (490 ft), while the smaller Special Observatory reaches a height of 250 meters (820 ft). The tower acts as a support structure for an antenna. Originally intended for television broadcasting, radio antennas were installed in 1961 and the tower is now used to broadcast both signals for Japanese media outlets such as NHK, TBS and Fuji TV. Japan's planned switch from analog to digital for all television broadcasting by July 2011 is problematic, however. Tokyo Tower's current height is not high enough to adequately support complete terrestrial digital broadcasting to the area. A taller digital broadcasting tower known as Tokyo Sky Tree is currently planned to open in 2011. A large broadcasting tower was needed in the Kantō region after NHK, Japan's public broadcasting station, began television broadcasting in 1953. (Full article...)

Selected pictures

On this day...

April 28:

Events

  • 1661 - 伊達堀(神田川)完成 (Japanese Date: Twenty-ninth Day of the Third Month, 1661)
  • 1883 - 日本銀行開業。日本で唯一の銀行券を発行できる銀行=日本銀行がこの日開業。
  • 1908 - ブラジル移民が出発。日本人最初のブラジル移民780人が、神戸港からブラジルに向け出発した。1960年代の高度成長期に衰退するが、戦前・戦後を通じ、約25万人が移住した。
  • 1937 - 初の文化勲章の授与式が行われる(横山大観、幸田露伴ら)。
  • 1948 - 夏時刻法が公布される(サマータイム・実施は5月2日から)。5月第1土曜日から、9月第2土曜日まで時計の針を1時間進める「夏時刻法」が公布されたが、睡眠不足になったなどクレームが相次ぎ1952年に廃止。
  • 1952 - The San Francisco Peace Treaty between Japan and part of the Allied Powers comes into force.
  • 1964 - Japan formally joins the OECD.
  • 1964 - The male-oriented magazine Heibon Punch publishes its first issue.

Births

In the news

22 April 2024 – China–Japan relations
Controversies surrounding Yasukuni Shrine
China objects to an offering that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on Sunday. (Reuters)
15 April 2024 – Iran–Israel proxy conflict
2024 Iranian strikes in Israel, Iran–Japan relations
Japan increases its four-stage danger ranking level for most of Iran, including Tehran, to Level 3, which urges Japanese citizens to avoid all travel to Iran. (The Japan News)
3 April 2024 – 2024 Hualien earthquake
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake strikes off the coast of Taiwan, prompting tsunami warnings for Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. A large section of the uninhabited Guishan Island collapses into the ocean. Nine people are killed in Taiwan, including four by rockfalls, with more than 930 others injured. (AP) (Al Jazeera)
1 April 2024 –
North Korea fires a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan near South Korean territory. (AP)

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Selected biography – show another

Hamasaki in London (2010)

Ayumi Hamasaki (浜崎あゆみ, Hamasaki Ayumi, born October 2, 1978) is a Japanese singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, model, spokesperson, and entrepreneur. By 2002, Hamasaki had earned the nickname "Empress of J-pop" due to her popularity in Japan and throughout Asia, as well as being referred to as "the voice of the lost generation". Due to her success and relevance throughout her career, she is considered one of the top solo female artists of the Heisei era for her influence on the music industry and various fashion trends.

Born and raised in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Hamasaki moved to Tokyo at 14 in 1993 to pursue a career in singing and acting. In 1998, Hamasaki released her debut single "Poker Face" and debut major-label album A Song for ××. The album debuted at the top of the Oricon charts and remained there for five weeks, selling over a million copies. This rapid rise to fame is typically attributed to her insightful style of lyric-writing in contrast to her young age; this would continue to be a defining aspect of her work, listeners praising her poetic way of conveying relatable subjects. Her next ten albums shipped over a million copies in Japan, with her third, Duty, selling nearly three million. A Best, her first compilation album, further established her position as a crowning artist with more than four million copies sold in Japan. It was at this time that she represented more than 40% of her record label's income. (Full article...)

Selected prefecture – show another

Flag of Tokyo
Tokyo, officially Tokyo Metropolis, is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the city of Tokyo in the eastern part of the prefecture, and total over 8 million people. The population of the prefecture exceeds 12 million. Tokyo is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family. Tokyo was originally known as Edo, meaning estuary. Its name was changed to Tokyo (Tōkyō: (east) + kyō (capital)) when it became the imperial capital in 1868. During the early Meiji period, the city was also called "Tōkei", an alternative pronunciation for the same Chinese characters representing "Tokyo". Some surviving official English documents use the spelling "Tokei". This pronunciation is now obsolete. Tokyo was originally a small fishing village named Edo. In 1457, Ōta Dōkan built Edo Castle. In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu made Edo his base and when he became shōgun in 1603, the town became the center of his nationwide military government. During the subsequent Edo period, Edo grew into one of the largest cities in the world with a population topping one million by the 18th century. It became the de facto capital of Japan even while the emperor lived in Kyoto, the imperial capital. After about 263 years, the shogunate was overthrown under the banner of restoring imperial rule.

Did you know... – show different entries

Takashima Shūhan

  • ... that in the Battle of Sio, Papuan Corporal Bengari and his five companions ambushed 29 Japanese soldiers and killed them all before they could fire a shot?

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The following are images from various Japan-related articles on Wikipedia.

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36°30′N 139°00′E / 36.5°N 139°E / 36.5; 139