Portal:Japan

Coordinates: 36°30′N 139°00′E / 36.5°N 139°E / 36.5; 139
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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.

Japanese archipelago has been inhabited since the Upper Paleolithic period (30,000 BC). Between the fourth and ninth centuries AD, the kingdoms of the region 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 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. 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 one of the world's longest life expectancies but has a population decline due to its very low birth rate.

Japan is a cultural superpower as the culture of Japan is well known around the world, including its art, cuisine, film, music, and popular culture, which encompasses prominent manga, anime, and video game industries. (Full article...)

Sheet music of Kimigayo
Sheet music of Kimigayo
Kimigayo, often translated as "May your reign last forever" is Japan's National Anthem, and is also one of the world's shortest national anthems in current use. The lyrics are based on a Waka poem written in the Heian Period, sung to a melody written in the later Meiji Era. The current melody was chosen in 1880, replacing an unpopular melody composed eleven years earlier. Although Kimigayo has long been Japan's de facto national anthem, it was only legally recognized as such in 1999 with the passing of the Law Regarding the National Flag and National Anthem. After its adoption, there was controversy over the performance of the anthem at public school ceremonies. Along with the national flag, Kimigayo was considered to be a symbol of imperialism and militarism in wartime. The lyrics first appeared in a poem anthology, Kokin Wakashū, as an anonymous poem. While anonymous poems were not uncommon at that time, and the author may have been in fact known, the anonymity might be because the author belonged to one of the lower classes. The poem was also included in a lot of anthologies, and in a later period used as a celebration song by people of all walks of life. Unlike the current anthem, the poem began with "Wa ga Kimi wa" ('you, my lord') instead of "Kimigayo wa" ('your reign'). The change of the lyrics occurred during the Kamakura period. (Full article...)

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On this day...

May 1:

Events

  • 1457 - Edo Castle is fortified by Ōta Dōkan. (Japanese Date: Eighth Day of the Fourth Month, 1457)
  • 1837 - Ōshio Heihachirō dies. (Japanese Date: Twenty-seventh Day of the Third Month, 1837)
  • 1907 - Sakichi Toyoda is the first subject to patent the world's first automatic loom.
  • 1923 - The Tokyo high-speed rail is renamed and Odakyu Electric Railway is founded.
  • 1929 - The Imperial Palace of the Times changes its cannons from "Don" to "Siren". When the signal is noon at Tokyo, the sound from the cannon fire in the imperial palace of "Don" was handed to the siren. It is established in three places, but it is inaudible and unpopular. It is not mistaken for a factory whistle and is sounded at 19:00.
  • 1932 - The first radio surveys are performed.
  • 1937 - Nishinomiya Stadium is opened.
  • 1948 - Hibari Misora debuted in the Yokohama international theater. (as Kazue Misora at the time)
  • 1952 - A blood incident happened on Labor Day.
  • 1975 - Japan's first Nagasaki airport is opened to be the offshore airport.
  • 2000 - The Japan Coast Guard introduced "118 = Emergency Telephone Number". It notified incidents and accidents at sea. It has faster sea rescue and helps to prevent the water's edge from smuggling.

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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)

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Ariwara no Narihira by Kanō Tan'yū, 1648.

Ariwara no Narihira (在原 業平, 825 – 9 July 880) was a Japanese courtier and waka poet of the early Heian period. He was named one of both the Six Poetic Geniuses and the Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses, and one of his poems was included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu collection. He is also known as Zai Go-Chūjō, Zai Go, Zai Chūjō or Mukashi-Otoko.

There are 87 poems attributed to Narihira in court anthologies, though some attributions are dubious. Narihira's poems are exceptionally ambiguous; the compilers of the 10th-century Kokin Wakashū thus treated them to relatively long headnotes. (Full article...)

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Flag of Nagasaki Prefecture
Nagasaki Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. The capital is the city of Nagasaki. Nagasaki Prefecture, a unification of former provinces of Hizen, Tsushima, and Iki, has had close ties with foreign civilization for centuries. Facing China and Korea, the region around Hirado was a traditional center for traders and pirates. During the 16th century, Catholic missionaries and traders from Portugal arrived and became active in Hirado and Nagasaki, which became a major center for foreign traders. After being given free rein in Oda Nobunaga's period, the missionaries were forced out little by little, until finally, in the Tokugawa era, Christianity was banned under the Sakoku policy. After the prohibition of Christianity in the Edo period, foreign trade was restricted to Chinese and Dutch traders in Nagasaki, Dejima, but Kirishitan (Japanese Christian) worship continued underground. These Kakure Kirishitan (hidden Christians) were tried at every step, forced to step on fumi-e ("trample pictures", images of the Holy Mother Mary and saints) to prove that they were non-Christian. And with the banishment of all Catholic missionaries, traders from Catholic countries were also forced out of the country. Along with them, their children, half Japanese and half European, were also forced to leave the country. The majority was sent to Jagatara (Jakarta) and are still remembered by the locals as the people who wrote the poignant letters which were smuggled across the sea to their homeland. Today, Nagasaki has a prominent Chinatown and Catholic churches.

Did you know... – show different entries

Midtown Tower in Tokyo, Japan

  • ... that, at 248.1 metres (814 ft), Midtown Tower (pictured) is the tallest building in Tokyo?

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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