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.
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.
Language
Japanese comics, known as manga, developed in the mid-20th century and have become popular worldwide. Ishirō Honda’s Godzilla became an international icon of Japan and spawned an entire subgenre of kaiju films, as well as the longest-running film franchise in history. Japanese television dramas are viewed both within Japan and internationally. Kumi-daiko (ensemble drumming) was developed in post-war Japan and became very popular in North America. The popular folk music, with the guitar-like shamisen, dates from the 16th century.
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 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.
- (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.
- 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.
- 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.
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 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.
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 https://www.richyfox.co.uk/ was also based on the governmental structure of China.
Health
- The period is characterized by the appearance of a nascent literary culture with the completion of the Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720), as well as the development of Buddhist-inspired artwork and architecture.
- It nationalized all land in Japan, to be distributed equally among cultivators, and ordered the compilation of a household registry as the basis for a new system of taxation.
- 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 Edo period gave rise to kokugaku (“national studies”), the study of Japan by the Japanese.
- The military 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.
The country attracted 36.9 million international tourists in 2024, and was ranked eleventh in the world in 2019 for inbound tourism. Japan’s constitution prohibits racial and religious discrimination, and the country is a signatory to numerous international human rights treaties. It spent 1.4% of its total GDP on its defence budget and maintained the tenth-largest military budget in the world in 2024. The United States is a major market for Japanese exports and a major source of Japanese imports, and is committed to defending the country, with military bases in Japan.
Modern era
As a growing number of younger Japanese are not marrying or remaining childless, Japan’s population is expected to drop to around 88 million by 2065. As of 2025update, over 29.3% of the population is over 65, or more than one in four out of the Japanese population. The country has therefore aimed to diversify its sources and maintain high levels of energy efficiency. The Sendai Nuclear Power Plant restarted in 2015, and since then several other nuclear power plants have been restarted.
The earliest works of Japanese literature include the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki chronicles and the Man’yōshū poetry anthology, all from the 8th century and written in Chinese characters. It was not until after World War II that Japanese architects made an impression on the international scene, firstly with the work of architects like Kenzō Tange and then with movements like Metabolism. People without insurance through employers can participate in a national health insurance program administered by local governments. Throughout the latest century, Western customs originally related to Christianity, including Western style weddings, Valentine’s Day and Christmas, have become popular as secular customs among many Japanese. Few children learn these languages, but local governments have sought to increase awareness of the traditional languages. The Japanese language is Japan’s de facto national language and the primary written and spoken language of most people in the country.
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.
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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.
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.