Japan

Japan (; Romanized as Nihon or Nippon) is a country in East Asia. It is a group of islands close to the east coast of Korea, China and Russia. The Pacific Ocean is to the east of Japan and the Sea of Japan is to the west. Most people in Japan live on one of the four islands. The biggest of these islands, Honshu, has the most people. Honshu is the 7th largest island in the world. Tokyo is the capital of Japan and its biggest city.

The Japanese people call their country “Nihon” or “Nippon”, which means “the origin of the Sun” in Japanese. Japan is a monarchy whose head of state is called the Emperor. Japan is the oldest monarchy in the world, lasting more than 2,000 years.

History

The first people in Japan were the Ainu people and other Jōmon people. They were closely related to Europeans or Mongols. They were later conquered and replaced by the Yayoi people (early Japanese and Ryukyuans). The Yayoi were an ancient ethnic group that migrated to the Japanese archipelago mainly from southeastern China during the Yayoi period (300 CE–300 AD). Modern Japanese people have primarily Yayoi ancestry at an average of 97%. The indigenous Ryukyuan and Ainu peoples have more Jōmon ancestry on the other hand.

The earliest records on Japan are from Chinese documents. One of those records said there were many small countries (in Japan) which had wars between them and later a country, ruled by a queen, became the strongest, unified others, and brought peace.

The Japanese began to write their own history after the 5th and 6th century, when people from Korea and China taught Japan about the Chinese writing system. Japan’s neighbors also taught them Buddhism. The Japanese changed Buddhism in many ways. For example, Japanese Buddhists used ideas such as Zen more than other Buddhists.

Japan had some contact with the Europeans in the 16th century. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to visit Japan. Later, the Spanish and Dutch came to Japan to trade. Also, they brought Christianity. Japan’s leaders welcomed them at first, but because Europeans had conquered many places in the world, the Japanese were scared that they would conquer Japan too. That made the Japanese not let the Europeans come into Japan anymore, except in a small area in Nagasaki. Many Christians were killed. Only the Chinese, Korean, and Dutch people were allowed to visit Japan, in the end, and they were under careful control of the Japanese government. Japan was opened for visitors again in 1854 by Commodore Matthew Perry, when the Americans wanted to use Japanese ports for American whale boats. Perry brought steamships with guns, which scared the Japanese into making an agreement with him.

This new contact with Europeans and Americans changed the Japanese culture. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 stopped some old ways and added many new ones. The Empire of Japan was created, and it became a very powerful nation and tried to invade the countries next to it.

It invaded and annexed Ryukyu Kingdom, Taiwan, and Korea. It had wars with China and Russia: the First Sino-Japanese War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Russo-Japanese War, World War I and the Siberian intervention.

In 1918, World War I allowed Japan, which joined the side of the victorious Allies, to capture German possessions in the Pacific and in China.

The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) grew to become a part of World War II when Japan became allies with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

In 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii and destroyed or damaged many ships and airplanes of the United States. That started the Americans’ involvement in World War II. American and Japanese forces fought each other in the Pacific. The Americans captured most of the islands in the Pacific, started dropping bombs on Japanese cities, and prepared to invade Japan. To make Japan surrender, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing 150,000 Japanese citizens. Soon, the Soviet Union began to fight against Japan, and the Japanese army in Manchuria lost. Japan surrendered all places that it had taken from other countries. It also accepted the Potsdam Proclamation. The United States occupied Japan from September 1945 to April 1952 and forced it to write a new constitution in which it promised to never go to war again.

Japan was granted membership in the United Nations in 1956. A period of record growth propelled Japan to become the second-largest economy in the world. On 11 March 2011, Japan suffered one of the largest earthquakes in its recorded history, triggering the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. On 1 May 2019, after the historic abdication of Emperor Akihito, his son Naruhito became emperor and started the Reiwa era. On 8 July 2022, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while he was giving a campaign speech in Nara.

On 21 October 2025, Sanae Takaichi was confirmed as the country’s first female prime minister.

Geography

Japan is a group of islands in the Western Pacific, off the coast of China. The four biggest islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Kyushu, and there are about 6,000 smaller islands there. Japan is separated from the Asian continent by the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea. Honshu, which means ‘Mainland’ in the Japanese language, is the biggest island. Hokkaido is the island north of Honshu. Kyushu is the island west of Honshu. Shikoku is the island to the south-west of Honshu.

In the middle of Japan there are mountains. They cover the middle of the islands and leave a very narrow strip of flat land on most coasts. Many of the mountains are extinct volcanoes, but some are still active. The highest of these mountains is the beautiful, volcano-shaped Mt Fuji (3,776 metres or 12,389 feet high). Japan has many earthquakes, in fact there are about 1500 of these every year. The biggest earthquake recorded in Japan was in 2011 - called ‘2011 Tohoku Earthquake’. It caused great damage to several power plants forcing Japan to shut down all its nuclear plants. There was nuclear core meltdown which caused a serious health risk to nearby villages and cities.

90% of the people living in Japan live in just 10% of the land, near the coast. The other 10% of the people in Japan live away from the coast.

Over 10 cities have more than a million people in them. The biggest city in Japan is Tokyo, which is the capital.

Science and technology

Japan has made many contributions to Science and Technology.

The QR code, the camera phone, the CD player, and the VHS were invented in Japan.

Japan is a leader in the robotics industry: It is the world’s largest maker of industrial robots. It has the 2nd most industrial robots behind the Chinese.

Economy

Japan has one of the strongest economies of any country. Its nominal gross domestic product (GDP) is the 4th highest in the world. It has a very low unemployment rate and was the 4th-largest exporter and 4th-largest importer in 2021.

Japan is known for its automotive industry: It is home to Toyota, the world’s largest car company. Honda, Nissan, Suzuki and Mazda are other popular car makers from Japan.

Tokyo is the most populous city in the world. It also has one of the largest economies of any city. It is an important financial center: It has the Tokyo Stock Exchange, one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia.

Society and culture

Many things in Japanese culture originated in China, like Go and bonsai.

Cherry blossom also known as Japanese cherry and Sakura is thought to be the national flower of Japan.

Japan’s traditional food is seafood, rice, miso soup, and vegetables. Noodles and tofu are also common. Sushi, a Japanese food made of cooked rice with vinegar with other ingredients such as raw fish, and sometimes fried shrimp, is popular around the world.

The religion in Japan is mostly Shinto and Buddhist. Due to the tolerant nature of the two main Japanese religions, and the resulting intermixing of the two, many Japanese identify as both Shinto and Buddhist at the same time. There are small numbers of Christians and Hindus, and a few Jews.

When it comes to popular culture, Japan is famous for making video games. Many of the biggest companies that make games, like Nintendo, Namco, and Sega, are Japanese. Other well-known parts of Japanese arts are its comics, called manga, and its digital animation, known as anime. Many people get to know Japanese or how life in Japan is like by reading manga or watching anime on television.

The Ryukyuans and the Ainu both have their own separate cultures, languages and religion.

Cities, regions and territories

The biggest cities in Japan are:

• Tokyo (capital city）
• Yokohama
• Nagoya
• Osaka
• Kyoto
• Kobe
• Hiroshima
• Fukuoka
• Kitakyushu
• Sendai
• Sapporo
• Nagasaki

In Japan there are seven traditional regions:

• Hokkaido
• Tohoku
• Kanto
• Chubu
• Kansai
• Chugoku
• Shikoku
• Kyushu

Territorial problem

Since Japan is an island nation, Japan has several problems over territory because maritime boundaries can be hard to protect. These days, Japan is competing for at least 4 different territories. It cannot agree with some neighboring countries on whether the land belongs to Japan or the other country.

• Senkaku Islands problem (with China and Taiwan)
• Liancourt Rocks island problem (with South Korea)
• Southern Chishima Islands problem (with Russia)
• Sea of Japan problem (with South Korea and North Korea)

Public transportation

There are several important international airports in Japan. Narita is the major international airport in the Tokyo area. Kansai International Airport serves as the main airport for Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Chūbu Centrair International Airport near Nagoya is the newest of the three. Haneda Airport is close to central Tokyo and is the largest domestic airport in the country.

The Shinkansen is one of the fastest trains in the world and connects cities in Honshu and Kyushu. Networks of public and private railways are over almost all the country. People mostly travel between cities in buses.

Subdivisions

Modern Japan is divided into 47 prefectures. Before the Meiji period (1868-1912), the nation was divided into provinces which were consolidated in the prefectural system.

Sports

Japan has many traditional sports such as sumo, judo, karate, kyudo, aikido, iaido and kendo. Also, there are sports which were imported from the West such as baseball, soccer, rugby, golf and skiing. Baseball is the most popular sport.

Japan has taken part in the Olympic Games since 1912. It hosted the Olympic Games in 1964, 1972, 1998 and 2020. From 1912 until now, Japanese sportspeople have won 398 medals in total.

Professional sports are also popular and many sports such as baseball (see Pacific League and Central League), soccer (see List of Japanese football teams), sumo, American football, basketball and volleyball, are played professionally.