Japan
Japan (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon; formally 日本国 
Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku,
literally "[the] State of Japan") is an island nation
in East Asia.
Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan,
China,
North Korea,
South Korea
and Russia,
stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China
Sea and Taiwan
in the south. The characters
that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is
sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku,
literally "[the] State of Japan") is an island nation
in East Asia.
Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan,
China,
North Korea,
South Korea
and Russia,
stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China
Sea and Taiwan
in the south. The characters
that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is
sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands
are Honshu,
Hokkaido,
Kyushu,
and Shikoku,
which together comprise about ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan
has the world's tenth-largest population,
with over 127 million people. Honshū's Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city
of Tokyo
and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world,
with over 30 million residents.
Archaeological research indicates that people lived in Japan as early as
the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written
mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st
century AD. Influence from other nations followed by long periods of
isolation has characterized Japan's
history. From the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by
successive feudal military dictatorships (shogunates) in the name of the
Emperor. Japan entered into a long period of isolation in the early 17th
century, which was only ended in 1853 when a United States fleet pressured
Japan to open to the West. Nearly two decades of internal conflict and insurrection
followed before the Meiji Emperor was restored as head of state in
1868 and the Empire of Japan was proclaimed, with the
Emperor as a divine symbol of the nation. In the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I
allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism.
The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded
into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in
1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained
a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor
and an elected legislature called the Diet.
A major
economic power,
Japan has the world's third-largest economy by
nominal GDP and by purchasing power parity.
It is also the world's fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer. Although Japan
has officially renounced its right to declare war,
it maintains a modern military with the sixth largest military budget, used for
self-defense and peacekeeping roles. After Singapore,
Japan has the lowest homicide rate (including
attempted homicide) in the world. According to
Japan's health ministry, Japanese women have the second highest life
expectancy of any country in the world. According to
the United
Nations, Japan also has the third lowest infant
mortality rate.
