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Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku
Centered red circle on a white rectangle. Golden circle subdivided by golden wedges with rounded outer edges and thin black outlines.
File:Kimi ga Yo instrumental.ogg
Government Seal of Japan
五七桐 (Go-Shichi no Kiri?)
and largest city
Tokyo (de facto)
Official languages None[1]
National language Japanese
Demonym Japanese
Government Unitary parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy
 -  Emperor Akihito
 -  Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Legislature Diet of Japan (Kokkai)
 -  Upper house House of Councillors (Sangiin)
 -  Lower house House of Representatives of Japan (Shūgiin)
 -  National Foundation Day February 11, 660 BC[3] 
 -  Meiji Constitution November 29, 1890 
 -  Current constitution May 3, 1947 
 -  Treaty of
San Francisco

April 28, 1952 
 -  Total 377,944 km2[4] (62nd)
145,925 sq mi 
 -  Water (%) 0.8
 -  2011 estimate 127,960,000[5] (10th)
 -  2010 census 128,056,026[6]
 -  Density 337.1/km2 (36th)
873.1/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2011 estimate
 -  Total $4.396 trillion[7] (4th)
 -  Per capita $34,362[7] (25th)
GDP (nominal) 2011 estimate
 -  Total $5.855 trillion[7] (3rd)
 -  Per capita $45,774[7] (18th)
Gini (2008)37.6[8]
HDI (2011)Increase 0.901[9]
very high · 12th
Currency International Symbol ¥ Pronounced (Yen)
Japanese Symbol  or  Pronounced (En) (JPY)
Time zone JST (UTC+9)
 -  Summer (DST) not observed (UTC+9)
Date format yyyy-mm-dd
Era yy年m月d日 (CE−1988)
Drives on the left
Calling code 81
Internet TLD .jp

Japan (日本, Nippon) is a country in Asia. It has many islands. Four of them are big, and the biggest is the 7th largest island in the world. This island is called Honshu. The islands are near the east Asian coast, in the western part of the Pacific Ocean.[10]

Japanese people call their country "Nihon" or "Nippon",[10] which means "the origin of the sun" in Japanese.



The Japanese began to write their own history after the 5th and 6th centuries, when people from Korea and China taught Japan about the Chinese writing system. Japan's neighbours also showed them the ways of Buddhism.[11] The Japanese changed Buddhism in many ways, for example, by building strongly on ideas such as Zen, which came from mainland Asia.[11]




In 1941, Japan hit Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, a water base of the United States and destroyed or damaged many ships and airplanes. This started the United States' involvement in World War II. American and Japanese forces fought each other in the Pacific. Once airbases were established within range of the Japanese mainland America began to win, and started dropping bombs on Japanese cities. America was able to bomb most of the important cities and quickly brought Japan close to defeat. To make Japan surrender, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing 150,000 Japanese citizens. Soon after this the Soviet Union began to fight against Japan and the Japanese army in Manchuria lost. Japan surrendered and gave up all the places it took from other countries, accepting the Potsdam Proclamation. The United States occupied Japan and forced it to write a new constitution, in which it promised to never go to war again.


Mount Fuji with cherry blossom trees and a shinkansen in the foreground—all three are iconic of Japan


In the middle of Japan there are mountains.[10] 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 (3776m or 12,389 feet high). Japan has many earthquakes, in fact there are about 1500 of these every year.[10] The most recent big earthquake 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.



Politics and Government


Science and technology

In the past, much science in Japan was learnt either from China, or from Europe in the Meiji Era. However in recent decades Japan has been a leading innovator in several fields, including chemical engineering, nanotechnology and robotics. There are many technological companies in Japan, and these companies make products for export.


Society and culture

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


See also Tea ceremony, Noh, Kabuki, manga, anime, Bunraku.

The religion in Japan is mostly Shinto and Buddhist. There are small numbers of Christians and Muslims, and a few Jews.

Armed forces



The biggest cities in Japan are:

In Japan there are eight traditional regions:[13]

Territorial problem

Japan has 4 problems about territory. It cannot agree with some neighbouring countries on whether the land belongs to Japan or the other country.

Public transportation





Prefectures in Japan

Modern Japan is divided into 47 prefectures.[14] Before the Meiji period (1868-1912), the nation was divided into provinces which were consolidated in the prefectural system.


1. Hokkaidō


2. Aomori
3. Iwate
4. Miyagi
5. Akita
6. Yamagata
7. Fukushima


8. Ibaraki
9. Tochigi
10. Gunma
11. Saitama
12. Chiba
13. Tokyo
14. Kanagawa


15. Niigata
16. Toyama
17. Ishikawa
18. Fukui
19. Yamanashi
20. Nagano
21. Gifu
22. Shizuoka
23. Aichi


24. Mie
25. Shiga
26. Kyoto
27. Osaka
28. Hyōgo
29. Nara
30. Wakayama


31. Tottori
32. Shimane
33. Okayama
34. Hiroshima
35. Yamaguchi


36. Tokushima
37. Kagawa
38. Ehime
39. Kōchi

Kyūshū and Okinawa

40. Fukuoka
41. Saga
42. Nagasaki
43. Kumamoto
44. Ōita
45. Miyazaki
46. Kagoshima
47. Okinawa


Japan has many traditional sports such as sumo, judo, karate, taido and kendo. Also, there are sports which were imported from the West such as baseball, soccer, golf and skiing.[15]

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

Related pages


  1. "法制執務コラム集「法律と国語・日本語」" (in Japanese). Legislative Bureau of the House of Councillors. http://houseikyoku.sangiin.go.jp/column/column068.htm. Retrieved 19 January 2009.
  2. "World Factbook: Japan". CIA. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  4. "Japan Statistical Yearbook 2010". Statistics Bureau. p. 17. http://www.stat.go.jp/data/nenkan/pdf/yhyou01.pdf. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  5. "Official Japan Statistics Bureau estimate". Statistics Bureau. http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/jinsui/tsuki/index.htm. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
  6. "Preliminary Counts of the Population and Households". Statistics Bureau. http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/ListE.do?bid=000001029548&cycode=0. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "Japan". International Monetary Fund. 2011. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2011/02/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2010&ey=2016&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&pr1.x=25&pr1.y=8&c=158&s=NGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPGDP%2CPPPPC&grp=0&a=. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  8. "World Factbook: Gini Index". CIA. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2172.html. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  9. "Human Development Report 2011". UN. 2011. http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2011_EN_Table1.pdf. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 "Japan". CIA World Factbook. CIA. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html. Retrieved 2009-06-16.
  11. 11.0 11.1 "Early Japan (until 710)". japan-guide.com. http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2131.html. Retrieved 2009-06-16.
  12. "Perry & Opening of Japan". history.navy.mil. 2009 [last update]. http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/teach/ends/opening.htm. Retrieved December 1, 2011.
  14. Nussbaum, "Provinces and prefectures" at p. 780.
  15. Nussbaum, "Sports" at pp. 905-907.

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