Japan
Japan (in Japanese, 日本語, Nippon //ippo//(
listen) or Nihon //iho//( listen)), officially the State of Japan, is an insular East Asia country located in the northwest of the Pacific Ocean. It borders the sea of Japan west and extends from the sea of Ojotsk in the north to the sea of Eastern China and Taiwan in the south. Its territory comprises an archipelago of 6852 islands covering 377 975 square kilometres on the so-called Pacific fire ring; the five main islands of the country, from north to south, are Hokkaidō, Honshū, Shikoku, Kyūshū and Okinawa. Tokyo is Japan's largest capital and city, although the country has numerous other cities of great cultural and economic importance such as Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe and Kyoto.
Japan is the 11th most populous country in the world, as well as one of the most densely populated and urbanized. About three-quarters of the country's terrain is mountainous, and it concentrates its population of 126 million on narrow coastal plains. It is divided into forty-seven administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions, including the Tokyo metropolitan area, the most populous metropolitan area in the world, with more than thirty-seven million residents.
Japan has been inhabited since the Upper Paleolithic (30,000 BCE), although the first mentions of the archipelago appear in Chinese chronicles of the 18th century I. Between the centuries IV and IX , the kingdoms of Japan were unified under one emperor and his imperial court based in Heian-kyō. However, beginning in the 12th century, political power was in the hands of a series of military dictators (shōgun ) and feudal lords (daimyō), and was imposed by a class of warrior nobility (samurais). After a century of civil war, the country was reunited in 1603 under the Tokugawa shogunate, when it pursued an isolationist foreign policy. In 1854, a United States fleet forced Japan to open up trade with the West, leading 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-style constitution and continued a program of industrialization and modernization. In 1937 Japan invaded China and four years later entered World War II as an Axis power. After suffering defeat in the Pacific War and two atomic bombings, Japan surrendered in 1945 and came under a seven-year Allied occupation, adopting a new constitution. Since 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature, the National Diet.
Japan is a great power and a member of numerous international organizations, including the United Nations (since 1956), the OECD, and the G7. Although it has renounced its right to declare war, the country maintains Self Defense Forces that are ranked as the fourth most powerful army in the world. After World War II, Japan experienced high economic growth, becoming the world's second-largest economy in 1972 before being overtaken by China in 2010. Despite economic stagnation since the "lost decade", the country's economy country remains the third largest by nominal GDP and the fourth largest by PPP. A leader in the automotive and electronics industries, Japan has made significant contributions to science and technology. Ranked as the second highest country on Asia's Human Development Index after Singapore, Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world, although it is experiencing a population decline. Japanese culture is well known around the world, including its art, cuisine, music, and popular culture, which spans the prominent industries of animation, video games, and manga.
Etymology
The name of Japan in Japanese is written using the kanji «日本» and is pronounced Nippon or Nihon. Before it was adopted in the early VIII century century, the country was known in China as Wa (倭, Wa ?) and in Japan by the endonym Yamato. Nippon, the original Sino-Japanese reading of the characters, is preferred today for official uses, including on banknotes and postage stamps. Nihon is commonly used in everyday speech and reflects changes in Japanese phonology during the Edo period. The combination of the characters "日本" means "origin of the sun", referring to Japan's relatively eastern location. It is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun".
The name "Japan" is based on the Chinese pronunciation and was introduced into European languages through early trade relations. In the 13th century, Marco Polo recorded the early Mandarin or Wu Chinese pronunciation of the characters «日本國» as Cypango. The old Malay name for Japan, Japang or Japun, was borrowed from a South Coast Chinese dialect and found by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia, who brought the word to Europe in the early 1900s XVI. The first English version of the name appears in a book published in 1577, which spelled the name as Giapan in a translation of a 1565 Portuguese letter.
History
From prehistory to classical history
The first known settlement on the islands of Japan arose around 30,000 BCE. during the Paleolithic era. This was followed around 14,500 BC. by a Mesolithic to Neolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer culture characterized by ditch houses and rudimentary agriculture. ancient ones that are conserved. Approximately in the year 1000 a. BCE, the Yayoi people began to enter the archipelago from Kyushu, mixing with the Jōmon; the Yayoi period saw the introduction of practices including rice cultivation, a new style of pottery, and metallurgy from China and Korea.. According to legend, Emperor Jinmu—Amaterasu's grandson—founded a kingdom in central Japan in 660 BC. C., in which a continuous imperial line began.
Japan appears for the first time in written history in the Book of Han, completed in AD 111. Buddhism was introduced from Baekje—a Korean kingdom—in 552, but the further development of Japanese Buddhism was mainly influenced by China. Despite initial resistance, Buddhism was promoted by the ruling class, including such figures as Prince Shotoku, and gained wide acceptance beginning in the Asuka period (592–710).
The Taika reforms in 645 nationalized all land in Japan, to be distributed equally among cultivators, and mandated the compilation of a household register as the basis for a new tax system. The Jinshin War of 672, a bloody conflict between Prince Ōama and his nephew, Prince Ōtomo, became a major catalyst for further administrative reforms, culminating in the promulgation of the Taihō Code, which consolidated existing statutes and established the structure of central local governments and subordinates. They created the Ritsuryō state, a Chinese-style centralized system of government that lasted for half a millennium.
The Nara period (710–784) marked the rise of a Japanese state centered on the Imperial Court at Heijō-kyō—present-day Nara. The period is characterized by the emergence of a nascent literary culture with the completion of Kojiki (712) and Nihonshoki (720), as well as the development of works of art and architecture. Buddhist-inspired. A smallpox epidemic in 735–737 is believed to have killed up to a third of Japan's population. In 784, Emperor Kanmu moved the capital and settled in Heian-kyō—modern Kyoto—in 794, where it marked the beginning of the Heian period (794-1185), in which a distinctly indigenous Japanese culture emerged. Murasaki Shikibu's The Story of Genji and the lyrics to Japan's national anthem Kimigayo were written during this time.
Feudal era
The feudal era of Japan was characterized by the rise and dominance of a ruling class of samurai warriors. In 1185, following the defeat of the Taira clan in the Genpei War, the samurai Minamoto no Yoritomo established a military government in Kamakura. The Hōjō clan rose to power as regent of the shōguns after Yoritomo's death, introducing the Chinese school of Zen Buddhism that became popular among the samurai class during the Kamakura period (1185-1333). The Kamakura shogunate repelled Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281, but was eventually overthrown by Emperor Go-Daigo. This emperor was defeated by Ashikaga Takauji in 1336, beginning the Muromachi period (1336-1573).), however, the ensuing shogunate was unable to control the feudal warlords (daimyōs) and a civil war began in 1467, opening the century-long Sengoku period ("Warring States").
During the 16th century, Japan began a commercial and cultural exchange with the West when Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries arrived to the island for the first time. Oda Nobunaga used European technology and firearms to conquer many other daimyōs; his consolidation of power began what became known as the Azuchi-Momoyama period. After Nobunaga's death in 1582, his successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified the nation in the early 1590s and launched two unsuccessful invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597.
Tokugawa Ieyasu served as regent for Hideyoshi's son, Toyotomi Hideyori, and used his position to gain political and military support. When open warfare broke out, Ieyasu defeated the rival clans at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. He was named shōgun by Emperor Go-Yōzei in 1603 and established the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo (present-day Tokyo). The shogunate enacted measures that included the buke shohatto, as a code of conduct to control the autonomous daimyōs, and in 1639 the isolationist sakoku ("closed country") policy that spanned the two and a half centuries of tenuous political unity known as the Edo period (1603-1868). The economic growth of modern Japan began in this period, resulting in highways and water transportation routes, as well as financial instruments such as futures contracts, banking, and insurance from brokers. Osaka rice. The study of Western sciences (rangaku) continued through s from contact with the Dutch enclave in Nagasaki. The Edo period also gave rise to kokugaku ("national studies"), the study of Japan by the Japanese.
Modern era
In 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry and the "black ships" of the United States Navy forced Japan open to the outside world with the Treaty of Kanagawa. Subsequent similar treaties with other Western countries led to economic and social crises. The resignation of the shōgun led to the Boshin War and the establishment of a nominally unified centralized state under the emperor (the Meiji Restoration). Adopting Western political, judicial, and military institutions, the Cabinet organized the Privy Council, introduced the Meiji Constitution, and assembled the Imperial Diet. During the Meiji era (1868–1912), the Empire of Japan emerged as Asia's most developed nation and an industrialized world power that pursued military conflict to expand its sphere of influence. After victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), Japan gained control of Taiwan, Korea, and the southern half of Sakhalin. The Japanese population doubled from 35 million in 1873 to 70 million in 1935, with a significant shift toward urbanization.
In the early 20th century, a period of Taishō democracy (1912-1926) was overshadowed by growing expansionism and militarism. World War I allowed Japan, which sided with the victorious Allies, to capture German possessions in the Pacific and in China. The 1920s saw a political shift toward statism, a period of anarchy after the Great Tokyo earthquake in September 1923, the passage of laws against political dissent and a series of coup attempts. This process accelerated during the 1930s, giving rise to a series of nationalist groups radicals who shared a hostility to liberal democracy and a dedication to expansion in Asia. In 1931 Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria; following international condemnation of the occupation, he resigned from the League of Nations two years later. In 1936, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany; the 1940 Tripartite Pact made it one of the Axis powers.
The Empire of Japan invaded other parts of China in 1937, precipitating the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). In 1940, the Empire invaded French Indochina, after which the United States imposed an oil embargo to Japan. On December 7–8, 1941, Japanese forces carried out surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, as well as British forces in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong, among others, beginning World War II in the Pacific. In all areas occupied by Japan during the war, numerous abuses were committed against the local inhabitants, many of whom were forced into sexual slavery. After Allied victories over the next four years, culminating in the invasion of Manchuria and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender. The war cost Japan its colonies and millions of lives. The Allies (led by the United States) repat they ripped millions of Japanese settlers from their former colonies and military camps throughout Asia, largely eliminating the Japanese empire and its influence over the territories it conquered. The Allies also convened the International Military Tribunal for the Far East to prosecute Japanese Japanese leaders for war crimes.
In 1947, Japan adopted a new constitution that emphasized liberal democratic practices. Allied occupation ended with the Treaty of San Francisco in 1952, and Japan gained membership in the United Nations in 1956. A period of growth record propelled Japan to become the second largest economy in the world; this ended in the mid-1990s after a financial and real estate bubble burst, beginning the "Lost Decade". On March 11, 2011, Japan suffered one of the largest recorded earthquakes in its history, triggering the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. On May 1, 2019, after Emperor Akihito's historic abdication, his son Naruhito became the new emperor, beginning the It was reiwa.
Politics
Japan is a unitary state with a constitutional monarchy in which the power of the emperor is that of a Head of State with an arbitration, diplomatic and ceremonial role, the implementation of which must be carried out under the advice of the Council of State Instead, executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, whose sovereignty rests with the Japanese monarch. Naruhito is the Emperor of Japan, having succeeded his father Akihito on his accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne in 2019.
Japan's legislative body is the National Diet, a bicameral parliament. It consists of a 465-seat Lower House of Representatives, elected by popular vote every four years or when dissolved, and a 245-seat Upper House of Councilors, whose members serve for life and in certain cases the position is hereditary. There is universal suffrage for adults over 18 years of age, with a secret ballot for all elected positions. The Prime Minister, as head of Government, has the power to appoint and dismiss ministers of state, and is appointed by the emperor after being appointed from among the members of the Diet. Elected in the 2021 Japanese prime ministerial election, Fumio Kishida is the current prime minister of Japan. Japan.
Historically influenced by Chinese law, the Japanese legal system developed independently during the Edo period through texts such as Kujikata Osadamegaki. However, since the late 20th century XIX, the judicial system has been based largely on the civil law of Europe, especially that of Germany. In 1896, Japan established a civil convention based on the German Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, which remains in effect with post-World War II modifications. Japan as well as the Commonwealth of Nations adopt a model Constitutional Convention, following the dissolution of the Constitution adopted in 1947. The constitution requires the emperor to enact legislation passed by the Diet without granting him the power to object. The main body of Japanese statutory law is called the Six Codes. The judicial system Japan is divided into four basic levels: the Supreme Court and three levels of lower courts.
Foreign Relations
A member of the United Nations since 1956, Japan is one of the G4 nations seeking permanent membership of the Security Council. Japan is a member of the G7, APEC, and the ASEAN Free Trade Area, and participates in the East Asia Summit. Japan signed a security pact with Australia in March 2007 and with India in October 2008. It is the world's fifth largest donor of official development assistance, with a donation of $9,200,000 000 in 2014. As of 2017, Japan had the fifth largest diplomatic network in the world.
Japan has extensive economic and military relations with the United States, with which it maintains a security alliance. 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. After Japan's defeat in World War II, the Japanese-ruled Northern Mariana Islands came under United States control.
Historically, Japan's relationship with South Korea had been strained due to Japan's treatment of Koreans during Japanese colonial rule, particularly over the issue of comfort women. In 2015, Japan agreed to settle the comfort women dispute with South Korea by issuing a formal apology and paying money to the surviving comfort women. The 1990s saw increased interest in Korean culture in Japan, particularly in relation to with food, travel, and the World Cup. The spread of the Korean Wave in the early 2000s (called the hanryu wave or kanryu in Japan) accelerated this trend, manifesting itself, for example, in a cult following for the Korean television series Winter Sonata. Japan is a major importer of South Korean music (K-pop), television (K-drama) and other cultural products.
Japan is involved in various territorial disputes with its neighbors. Japan contests Russia's control of the Kuril Islands, which were occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945. South Korea's control of the Liancourt Rocks is recognized but not accepted, as Japan claims it. relations with China and Taiwan over the Senkaku Islands and the status of Okinotorishima.
Armed Forces
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Japan is the second highest ranked Asian country in the Global Peace Index. Japan maintains one of the largest military budgets in the world. The country's military (Japan Self-Defense Forces) is restricted by Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan, which waives Japan's right to declare war or use military force in international disputes. The military is governed by the Ministry of Defense and consists mainly of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, the Japan Sea Force Japan Self-Defense Force and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. The Maritime Self-Defense Force is a regular participant in RIMPAC maritime exercises. The deployment of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan marked the first use of Japan's armed forces abroad since World War II.
The government of Japan has made changes to its security policy including the establishment of the National Security Council, the adoption of the National Security Strategy, and the development of the National Defense Program Guidelines. As of May 2014, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe said Japan wanted to shake off the passivity it has maintained since the end of World War II and take more responsibility for regional security. Recent tensions, particularly with North Korea and China, have reignited the debate on the status of the JSDF and its relationship with Japanese society.
Japan Police Forces
National security in Japan is provided mainly by the prefectural police departments, under the supervision of the National Police Agency. As the central coordinating body for the Prefectural Police Departments, the National Police Agency is administered by the National Public Safety Commission. The Strike Team comprises nationwide anti-terrorist tactical units that cooperate with the territorial-level Anti-Firearms Squads and NBC Counter-Terrorism Squads. Japan Coast Guard guarding territorial waters. The coast guard patrols the sea around Japan and uses surveillance and control measures against smuggling, marine environmental crime, poaching, piracy, spy ships, unauthorized foreign fishing vessels, and illegal immigration.
The Firearms and Swords Possession Control Act strictly regulates civilian ownership of guns, swords, and other weapons. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, among member states of the United Nations UN reporting statistics, the incidence rates of violent crimes such as murder, kidnapping, sexual violence, and robbery are very low in Japan.
Territorial organization
Japan is divided into 47 prefectures, each overseen by an elected governor and a legislature. In the chart below, the prefectures are grouped by region:
 Prefectures of Japan with coloured regions. | Hokkaidō 1. Hokkaidō | Tōhoku 2. Aomori | Kantō 8. Ibaraki | Chūbu 15. Niigata |
Kansai 24. Mie | Chūgoku 31. Tottori | Shikoku 36. Tokushima | Kyūshū 40. Fukuoka |
Geography
Japan consists of 6,852 islands that stretch along the Pacific coast of Asia. It stretches for 3,000 km northeast-southwest from the Sea of Okhotsk to the East China Sea. The county's five main islands, from north to south, are Hokkaidō, Honshū, Shikoku, Kyūshū, and Okinawa. The Ryukyu Islands, which include Okinawa, are a chain south of Kyushu. The Nanpō Islands are to the south and east of the main islands of Japan. Together they are often referred to as the Japanese archipelago. As of 2019, the territory of Japan is 377,975.24 km². Japan has the sixth longest coastline in the world (29,751 km). Due to its many remote outlying islands, Japan has the sixth largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 4,470,000 km².
Approximately 73% of Japan's land area is forested, mountainous, and unsuitable for agricultural, industrial, or residential use. As a result, habitable zones, mainly in coastal areas, have extremely high population densities: Japan is one of the countries with the highest population density. The projects of the end of the XX century and the beginning of the XXI include artificial islands such as Chubu Centrair International Airport in Ise Bay, Kansai International Airport in the middle of Osaka Bay, Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise and Wakayama Marina City.
Japan is substantially prone to earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes due to its location along the Pacific Ring of Fire. It has the 17th highest risk of natural disasters as measured by the 2016 World Risk Index. Japan it has 111 active volcanoes. Destructive earthquakes, often resulting in tsunamis, occur several times each century; the 1923 Tokyo earthquake killed more than 140,000 people. The most recent major earthquakes are the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995 and the earthquake of 2011, which caused a large tsunami, killing more than 18,000 people.
Climate
Japan's climate is predominantly temperate, but it varies greatly from north to south. The northernmost region, Hokkaido, has a humid continental climate with long, cold winters and very hot to cool summers. Precipitation is not heavy, but the islands often develop deep snowdrifts in winter. In the Sea of Japan region off Honshu's west coast, north-westerly winter winds bring heavy winter snowfall. In the summer, the region sometimes experiences extremely high temperatures due to foehn. The central highlands have a typical humid continental inland climate, with large temperature differences between summer and winter. The mountains of the Chūgoku and Shikoku regions protect the Seto Inland Sea from seasonal winds, bringing mild weather year-round. The Pacific coast features a humid subtropical climate that experiences milder winters with occasional snowfall and hot and humid summers due to the seasonal wind from the southeast. The Ryukyu and Nanpō islands have a subtropical climate, with warm winters and hot summers. Rainfall is very heavy, especially during the rainy season.
The average winter temperature in Japan is 5.5 °C and the average summer temperature is 27.5 °C. The highest temperature ever recorded in Japan is 41.1 °C, recorded on July 23, 2018, and repeated on August 17, 2020. The main rainy season begins in early May in Okinawa, with the rain front gradually moving north until reaching Hokkaido in late June. In late summer and early autumn, typhoons often bring heavy rain. According to the Ministry of Environment, the heavy rain and rising temperatures have caused various problems in the agricultural industry and elsewhere.
Fauna and flora
Japan has nine forest ecoregions that reflect the climate and geography of the islands. They range from subtropical moist broadleaf forests on Ryūkyū and Bonin islands, to temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in the temperate regions of the main islands, to temperate coniferous forests in the cold, winter parts of the northern islands. Japan has over 90,000 species of wildlife, including the brown bear, Japanese macaque, Japanese raccoon dog, Japanese little field mouse, and Japanese giant salamander.
A large network of national parks has been established to protect important areas of flora and fauna, as well as 37 Ramsar wetlands. Four sites have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for their outstanding natural value.
Environment
In the period of rapid economic growth after World War II, the government and industrial corporations downplayed environmental policies; as a result, environmental pollution spread in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. In response to growing concern, the government introduced various environmental protection laws in 1970. The oil crisis in 1973 also encouraged efficient use of energy. energy due to Japan's lack of natural resources.
As of 2020, more than 22 coal-fired power plants are expected to be built in Japan, following the shutdown of the Japanese nuclear fleet caused by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Japan ranks 20th in the index 2018 environmental performance benchmark, which measures a nation's commitment to environmental sustainability. Japan is the world's 5th largest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2) with 1,123,000,000 tons in 2019. As host country and a signatory to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Japan has a treaty obligation to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and take other measures to curb climate change. In 2020, the government of Japan announced a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.Environmental issues include urban air pollution, waste management, water eutrophication, nature conservation, climate change, chemicals management, and international cooperation for conservation. No.
Economy
Japan is the world's third-largest economy, after China and the United States, in terms of nominal GDP, and the world's fourth-largest economy, after China, the United States, and India, in terms of parity of purchasing power. As of 2019, Japan's public debt was estimated to be around 230 percent of its annual gross domestic product, the largest of any rated country. In 2019, Japan's labor force consisted of about 67 million workers. Japan has a low unemployment rate of about 2.4 percent. About 16 percent of the population was below the poverty line in 2017.
Japan's exports amounted to 18.5 percent of GDP in 2018. In 2019, Japan's top export markets were the United States (19.8 percent) and China (19.1 percent) Its main exports are transportation equipment, motor vehicles, iron and steel products, semiconductors, and automobile components. Japan's top import markets in 2019 were China (23.5 percent), the United States (11 percent), percent) and Australia (6.3 percent). Japan's main imports are machinery and equipment, fossil fuels, foodstuffs, chemicals, and raw materials for its industries.
Japan is ranked 29th out of 190 countries in the 2019 Ease of Doing Business Index. The Japanese brand of capitalism has many distinctive features: keiretsu companies are influential, and employment of Lifetime and seniority-based career advancement are relatively common in the Japanese work environment. Japanese companies are known for management methods such as "The Toyota Way", and shareholder activism is rare. Japan also has a large cooperative sector, with three of the world's ten largest cooperatives, including the world's largest consumer cooperative and the world's largest agricultural cooperative.
Japan ranks high in competitiveness and economic freedom. It ranks sixth in the global competitiveness report for 2015-2016.
Japan once again posted the highest growth in dividends paid to shareholders globally in 2019 (+6.3% to $85.7bn). Dividends increased 173% in Japan between 2009 and 2019.
According to the OECD, 22% of Japanese employees work more than 50 hours a week. Japanese employees usually take little vacation (eighteen days of annual vacation).
During the Heisei era (1989-2019), the working conditions of employees have deteriorated. The bursting of the speculative bubble in the early 1990s led to increased job insecurity. Workers experienced reduced pay and premiums for overtime. The proportion of irregular jobs (fixed-term and poorly paid) has risen from 20% to 40% in the last 30 years. This trend helps explain the rise in income inequality in Japan. The hourly wage of an irregular worker is only 60% of that of a regular worker. The sharp increase in the number of precarious workers tends to lower wages. Hourly earnings in the private sector fell 9% between 1997 and 2017. The level of pensions is also falling. From 2004 to 2016, the amount of the retirement benefit per couple was reduced by 5% in absolute terms.
Agriculture and fishing
The Japanese agricultural sector accounts for about 1.2 percent of the country's GDP. Only 11.5 percent of Japan's land is suitable for cultivation. Due to this lack of arable land, it is used a terracing system for farming in small areas. This results in one of the highest levels of crop yield per unit area, with an agricultural self-sufficiency rate of around 50 percent. However, the small sector Japan's agricultural sector is also heavily subsidized and protected. There has been growing concern about agriculture as farmers are aging and having difficulty finding successors.
Japan ranked seventh in the world in tonnage of fish caught, catching 3,167,610 metric tons of fish in 2016, down from an annual average of 4,000,000 tons over the previous decade. Japan maintains one of the world's largest fishing fleets and accounts for nearly 15 percent of the world's catch, prompting criticism that Japanese fishing is causing the depletion of fish stocks such as tuna. Japan has also sparked controversy by supporting the commercial whaling.
Industry
Japan has vast industrial capacity and is home to some of the "largest and most technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, machine tools, steel and non-ferrous metals, ships, chemicals, textiles, and processed foods." Japan's industrial sector accounts for approximately 27.5 percent of its GDP. Some of the major Japanese industrial companies include Canon Inc., Toshiba, and Nippon Steel. The country's manufacturing output is the third highest in the world.
Japan is the world's third-largest automobile producer and is home to Toyota, the world's largest automobile company. Despite facing competition from South Korea and China, the industry is expected to of Japanese shipbuilding to stay strong through increased focus on specialized, high-tech designs.
Services and tourism
Japan's service sector accounts for about 70 percent of its total economic output. Banking, retail, transportation, and telecommunications are major industries, and companies such as Toyota, Mitsubishi UFJ, NTT, AEON, Softbank, Hitachi and Itochu are among the largest in the world.
Japan attracted 31.19 million international tourists in 2019. For inbound tourism, Japan ranked 11th in the world in 2019. The 2017 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index ranked Japan fourth place out of 141 countries overall, which was the highest in Asia.
Science and technology
Japan is a leading nation in scientific research, particularly in the natural sciences and engineering. The country ranks twelfth among the most innovative countries in the Bloomberg Innovation Index. Relative to gross domestic product, Japan's research and development budget is the second highest in the world, with 867,000 researchers working on it. as of 2017 they share a research and development budget of 19 trillion yen. The country has won twenty-two Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry or medicine and three Fields Medals.
Japan leads the world in robotics production and use, supplying 55 percent of the 2017 global total. Japan has the second-highest number of science and technology researchers per capita in the world with 14 per 1,000 employees.
The Japanese consumer electronics industry, once considered the strongest in the world, is in a state of decline as competition emerges from countries such as South Korea, the United States and China. However, video games in Japan are still a major industry. The Japanese have made video game consoles that have been popular since the 1980s, and Japan dominated the industry until Microsoft's Xbox began to challenge Sony and Nintendo in the 2000s. In 2014, the Japan's consumer video game market grossed $9.6 billion, with $5.8 billion coming from mobile games.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is the national space agency of Japan; conducts space, planetary, and aviation research, and directs rocket and satellite development. It is a participant in the International Space Station: the Japanese Experiment Module (Kibō) was added to the station during the assembly flights of the STS Shuttle in 2008. The space probe Akatsuki was launched in 2010 and reached orbit around Venus in 2015. Japan's plans in space exploration include building a lunar base and astronaut landing by 2030. In 2007, he launched the lunar rover SELENE (selenology and engineering explorer) from the Tanegashima Space Center. The largest lunar mission since the Apollo program, its purpose was to collect data on the origin and evolution of the moon. The rover entered lunar orbit on October 4, 2007, and deliberately crashed into the Moon on June 11, 2009.
Infrastructure
Transportation
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Japan has invested heavily in transportation infrastructure. The country has approximately 1,200,000 kilometers of highways made up of 1,000,000 kilometers of highways in cities, towns, and villages, 130,000 kilometers of prefectural highways, 54,736 kilometers of highways national general roads and 7,641 kilometers of national highways.
Japan has 27,311 kilometers of rails. Since privatization in 1987, dozens of Japanese railway companies compete in regional and local passenger transport markets; major companies include seven companies Japan Railways, Kintetsu, Seibu Railway and Keio Corporation. The high-speed Shinkansen (bullet trains) connecting major cities are known for their safety and punctuality.
There are 175 airports in Japan. The largest domestic airport, Tokyo Haneda International Airport, is the second busiest airport in Asia. The Keihin and Hanshin superports are among the largest in the world, with 7.98 and 5.22 million TEU respectively.
Energy
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As of 2017, 39% of energy in Japan is produced from oil, 25% from coal, 23% from natural gas, 3.5% from hydropower, and 1.5% from power nuclear. Nuclear power was cut by 11% in 2010. In May 2012, all of the country's nuclear power plants were taken offline due to ongoing public opposition following the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, although officials at the The government continued to attempt to sway public opinion in favor of returning at least some to service. The Sendai Nuclear Power Plant was restarted in 2015, and several other nuclear power plants have been restarted since then. Japan lacks significant national reserves and therefore has a strong dependence on imported energy. The country has therefore sought to diversify its sources and maintain high levels of energy efficiency.
Water supply and sanitation
Responsibility for the water and sanitation sector is shared between the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, in charge of supplying water for domestic use; the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, in charge of the development of water resources and sanitation; the Ministry of the Environment, in charge of environmental water quality and environmental preservation; and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, in charge of benchmarking the performance of public services. Access to an improved water source is universal in Japan. Approximately 98% of the population receives piped water from public services.
Media
According to a 2015 NHK survey of television viewing in Japan, 79% of Japanese people watch television (TV) daily. Japanese drama is watched both in Japan and internationally; Popular shows fall into the variety show, comedy, and news show genres. Japanese newspapers are among the most widely circulated in the world.
Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world. Ishiro Honda's film Godzilla became an international icon of Japan and gave rise to a film subgenre called kaijū, as well as the longest-running film franchise in history. Japanese animated films and television series, known as Anime, were heavily influenced by Japanese manga and they have been very popular in the West. Japan is a world-renowned animation powerhouse.
Demographics
Japan has a population of 128 million, of whom 126 million are Japanese citizens (2010). As of 2010, 92% of the total Japanese population lived in cities. The capital, Tokyo, has a population 14.20 million (2010). It is part of the Tokyo metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world with 38,521,400 inhabitants (2010).
Japan's population is 98% ethnic Japanese, with small populations of foreign workers. Primary minority groups include the indigenous Ainu and Ryukyu, as well as social minority groups such as the Burakumin, Zainichi Koreans, Chinese, Filipinos, Brazilians, and Peruvians of mostly Japanese descent who are among the small minority groups in Japan.
Life expectancy at birth in Japan is 84 years, the highest of any country in the world according to the WHO, or the second highest if China's special administrative regions are considered as individual cases. The Japanese population is aging rapidly as a result of a post-World War II baby boom followed by a decline in birth rates. As of 2010, more than 20% of the population is over age 65, and is projected to increase to one in three by 2030. Changes in the demographic structure have created a number of social problems, notably a shrinking workforce in the population and an increased cost of social security benefits. An increasing number of Japanese youth do not marry or have children. Japan's population is expected to decline to around 100 million by 2050. Immigration incentives and incentives are sometimes suggested. birth as a solution for to provide younger workers to support the nation's aging population. On March 1, 2010, Japan's revised immigration law was enacted, protecting the rights of foreign workers to help reduce the shortage of workforce in certain sectors.
Religion
Japan's constitution guarantees full religious freedom. Highest estimates suggest that 84-96 percent of the Japanese population subscribe to Shinto as their native religion. However, these estimates are based on people affiliated with a temple, instead of the number of true believers. Many Japanese practice both Shinto and Buddhism; they may identify with both religions or describe themselves as non-religious or spiritual. The level of participation in religious ceremonies as a cultural tradition remains high, especially during festivals and occasions such as the first visit to a shrine at the start of the new year. Taoism and Confucianism from China have also influenced Japanese beliefs and customs.
Christianity was first introduced to Japan by Jesuit missions beginning in 1549. Today, between 1 percent and 1.5 percent of the population are Christians. Over the past century, some Western customs originally related to Christianity (including Western-style weddings, Valentine's Day, and Christmas) have become popular as secular customs among many Japanese.
About 80 to 90 percent of those who practice Islam in Japan are foreign-born immigrants and their children. As of 2018, there are an estimated 105 mosques and 200,000 Muslims in Japan, 43,000 of whom are ethnically Japanese. Other minority religions include Hinduism, Judaism, and Baha'ism, as well as the animistic beliefs of the Ainu.
Languages
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Over 99 percent of the population speaks Japanese as their first language. Japanese writing uses kanji (Chinese characters) and two sets of kana (syllabaries based on cursive and radical kanji), as well as the Latin alphabet and Arabic numerals. Teaching English was made compulsory in Japanese elementary schools in 2020.
In addition to Japanese, the Ryukyuan languages (Amami, Kunigami, Okinawan, Miyako, Yaeyama, Yonaguni), also part of the Japonic language family, are spoken on the Ryukyu Islands. Few children learn these languages, but local governments have tried to increase knowledge of traditional languages. The Ainu language, which is a language isolate, is threatened, with only a few native speakers remaining.
Education
Elementary schools, secondary schools, and universities were introduced in 1872 as a result of the Meiji Restoration. Since the Fundamental Law of Education of 1947, compulsory education in Japan comprises elementary and secondary school, which together last thirteen years. Almost all children continue their education at a senior high school for three years. The two largest universities in Japan are the University of Tokyo and the University of Kyoto. As of April 2016, several schools began the academic year with primary and secondary school integrated into a nine-year compulsory schooling programme; MEXT plans for this approach to be adopted throughout the country.
The general knowledge and skills of Japanese 15-year-olds according to the OECD-coordinated PISA Report are ranked as the third best in the world. Japan is one of the best-performing OECD countries in reading, mathematics and science, with an average student score of 529 and has one of the most educated workforces among OECD countries. As of 2017, Japan's public spending on education amounted to just 3, 3 percent of its GDP, below the OECD average of 4.9 percent. In 2017, the country ranked third in terms of the percentage of people aged 25-64 who have obtained tertiary education with 51 percent. In addition, 60.4 percent of Japanese ages 20 to 29 have some form of tertiary education degree and 30.4 percent of Japanese ages 20 to 59 hold bachelor's degrees, the second most in the OECD after South Korea.
Health
Health care is provided by national and local governments. Payment for personal medical services is offered through a universal health insurance system that provides relative equality of access, with rates set by a government committee. People without insurance through employers can participate in a national health insurance program administered by local governments. Since 1973, all seniors have been covered by government-sponsored insurance.
Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Another major public health problem is smoking among Japanese men. Japan has the lowest rate of heart disease in the OECD and the lowest level of dementia in the developed world.
Culture
Contemporary Japanese culture combines influences from Asia, Europe, and North America. Traditional Japanese arts include crafts such as ceramics, textiles, lacquerware, swords, and dolls; performances of bunraku, kabuki, noh, dance and rakugo; and other practices, the tea ceremony, ikebana, martial arts, calligraphy, origami, onsen, geisha and traditional games. Japan has a developed system for the protection and promotion of tangible and intangible cultural property and national treasures. Twenty-two sites have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, eighteen of these are of cultural significance.
Art and architecture
The history of Japanese painting exhibits synthesis and competition between native Japanese aesthetics and imported ideas. Interaction between Japanese and European art has been significant: for example, ukiyo-e prints >, which began to be exported in the 19th century in the movement known as Japonism, had a significant influence on the development of art modern in the West, especially Post-Impressionism. Japanese manga developed in the 20th century and has become popular in everyone.
Japanese architecture is a combination of local and other influences. It has traditionally been characterized by wooden structures, slightly raised from the ground, with tiled or thatched roofs. Ise Shrines are known as the prototype of Japanese architecture. of tatamis mats and sliding doors that break the distinction between the rooms and the interior and exterior space. However, since the XIX, Japan has incorporated much of Western modern architecture into construction and design. In contrast, it was not until after World War II that Japanese architects left a mark on the international image, first with the work of architects such as Kenzō Tange and later with movements such as Metabolism.
Literature and philosophy
Early works of Japanese literature include the chronicles of Kojiki and Nihonshoki and the poetry anthology Man'yōshū, all 8th century and written in Chinese characters. In the early Heian period, the system of phonograms known as kana (hiragana and katakana). The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is considered the oldest extant Japanese narrative An account of court life is given in Sei Shōnagon's The Pillow Book, while Murasaki Shikibu's Genji Monogatari is often described as the first novel of the world.
During the Edo period, the chōnin ("people of the town") surpassed the samurai aristocracy as both producers and consumers of literature. The popularity of Saikaku's works, for example, reveals this shift in readership and authorship, while Bashō revived the Kokinshū poetic tradition with his haikai (haiku) and wrote the poetic travelogue Oku no Hosomichi. The Meiji era saw the decline of traditional literary forms as Japanese literature integrated Western influences. Natsume Sōseki and Mori Ōgai were important novelists in the early XX century, followed by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Kafū Nagai and, more recently, Haruki Murakami and Kenji Nakagami. Japan has two Nobel Prize-winning authors: Yasunari Kawabata (1968) and Kenzaburō Ōe (1994).
Japanese philosophy has historically been a fusion of foreign philosophies, particularly Chinese and Western, and Japanese elements. In its literary forms, Japanese philosophy began about fourteen centuries ago. Confucian ideals are still evident today in the Japanese concept of society and nature, and in the organization of government and the structure of society. Buddhism has had a profound impact on Japanese psychology, metaphysics, and aesthetics.
Performing Arts
Japanese music is eclectic and diverse. Many instruments, such as the koto, were introduced in the IX and X. Popular folk music, featuring the shamisen as a guitar, dates to the 16th century. Western classical music, introduced in the late 19th century century, is an integral part of Japanese culture. The kumi -daiko (joint percussion) developed in postwar Japan and became very popular in North America. Popular music in postwar Japan has been heavily influenced by American and European trends, which has led to the evolution of J-pop and the rise of the idol phenomenon. Karaoke is a significant cultural activity.
The four traditional theaters of Japan are noh, kyōgen, kabuki, and bunraku. Noh is one of the oldest continuous theater traditions in the world.
Customs and holidays
Ishin-denshin (以心伝心, 'Ishin-denshin' ?) is a Japanese idiom denoting a form of interpersonal communication through of tacit mutual understanding. The isagiyosa (潔さ, 'isagiyosa'?) is a virtue of the ability to accept death with serenity. Cherry blossoms are symbolic of isagiyosa in the sense of embracing the transience of the world. The hansei (反省, 'hansei'?) is a central idea in Japanese culture, which means acknowledging one's own mistake as a basis for improvement. The kotodama (言霊, 'kotodama'?) refers to the Japanese belief that mystical powers reside in words and names.
Japan officially has 16 government-recognized national holidays. Public holidays in Japan are regulated by the Public Holidays Law (国民の祝日に関する法律, Kokumin no Shukujitsu ni Kansuru Hōritsu?) from 1948. Starting in 2000, Japan implemented the Happy Monday System, which moved several national holidays to Monday to get an extra weekend. long. National holidays in Japan are January 1 New Year's Day, Coming-of-Age Day on the second Monday of January, National Foundation Day on February 11, Emperor's Day on February 23, February, Vernal Equinox Day on March 20 or 21, Showa Day on April 29, Constitution Memorial Day on May 3, Greenery Day on May 4, Children's Day on May 5 May, the Day of the sea on the third Monday of July, the Mountain Day on August 11, Respect for the Elderly Day on the third Monday in September, Autumn Equinox Day on September 23 or 24, Health and Sports Day on the second Monday in October, Culture Day on November 3 and Labor Thanksgiving on November 23.
Gastronomy
Japanese cuisine offers a wide variety of regional specialties using traditional recipes and local ingredients. Seafood and Japanese rice or noodles are traditional staples. Japanese curry, since it was introduced to Japan from India In Britain, it is so widely consumed that it can be considered a national dish, along with ramen and sushi. Traditional Japanese sweets are known as wagashi, and ingredients such as anko and mochi are used to make them. Trendier tastes include green tea ice cream.
Popular Japanese drinks include sake, which is a brewed rice drink that typically contains 14 to 17 percent alcohol and is made by multiple fermentation of rice. Beer has been brewed in Japan since the late 17th century century. Green tea is produced in Japan and prepared in various forms, including such as matcha, which is used in the Japanese tea ceremony.
Sports
Traditionally, sumo is considered the national sport of Japan. Japanese martial arts such as judo and kendo are taught as part of the compulsory high school curriculum. Baseball is the most popular spectator sport Japan's top professional league, the Japan Professional Baseball League, was established in 1936. Since the establishment of the Japan Professional Football League in 1992, soccer has also gained a large following. the 2002 FIFA World Cup with South Korea. Japan has one of the most successful soccer teams in Asia, winning the Asian Cup four times, and the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2011. Golf is also popular in Japan.
Japan has a significant involvement in motorsports. Japanese car manufacturers have found success in multiple different categories, with titles and wins in series such as Formula 1, MotoGP, IndyCar, the World Rally Championship, the FIA World Endurance Championship, the World Touring Car Championship, the British Touring Car Championship and the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Three Japanese drivers have achieved podium finishes in Formula 1, and drivers from Japan also have victories at the Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans 24 Hours, in addition to success in national championships. Super GT is the most popular national series in Japan, while Super Formula is the top-tier national open-wheel series. The country also hosts major races such as the Japanese Grand Prix.
Japan hosted the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 1964 and the Winter Olympics in Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998. In addition, the country hosted the 2006 World Basketball Championship and will co-host the World Championship Olympic Games in 2023. Tokyo hosted the 2020 Summer Olympics, making Tokyo the first Asian city to host the Olympic Games twice. The country was awarded the hosting rights to the Women's Volleyball World Championship in five times, more than any other nation. Japan is the most successful Asian Rugby Union country and hosted the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
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