Japan

Japan is the country in Asia. It is made of islands. Four of am are large, and the biggest is one of the largest islands in the world. The islands are on the east Asian coast in the western part of the Pacific Ocean.

Japan
Official flag Official Coat of Arms
National information
National motto:	n/a
National anthem:	Kimi Ga Yo
About the people
Official languages:	Japanese
Population: (# of people)	Total: 127,214,499 (ranked #10) Density: 355 per km²
Geography / Places
country map Here is the country on a map of the world.
Capital city:	Tokyo
Largest city:	Tokyo
Area	Total: 377,835 (ranked #60) Water: 3,091 km² (0.8%)
Politics / Government
Established:	According to legend, February 11, 660 BC
Leaders:	Emperor Akihito Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Economy / Money
Currency: (Name of money)	Yen (JPY)
International information
Time zone:	+09:00
Telephone dialing code:	81
Internet domain:	.jp

Japanese people call air country "Nihon" or "Nippon", which means "the origin of the sun".

History

The earliest records on Japan are from Chinese history. One of those records said are were many small countries which had wars between am and later the country, ruled by the queen, became the strongest and peace came.

Japan began to write its own history after the 5th and 6th centuries, when Korea and China taught Japan about the Chinese writing system. Japan's neighbours also showed am the ways of Buddhism. The Japanese changed Buddhism in many ways, starting ideas such as Zen.

In the ancient and the Middle Ages, lots of new cultural ideas were brought to Japan from China, but air relations and contact became weaker as time passed. In the late 13th century, Mongolians from China tried to invade Japan twice, but ay could not. The samurai and shogun of Medieval Japan are similar to knights and lords in Medieval Europe .

Japan had contacts with the Europeans for the little while in the 16th century. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to visit Japan. Later, the Spanish, English and Dutch came to trade. Also, ay brought Christianity. Japan's leaders welcomed am at first, but later ay knew that ase Europeans conquered many places in the world and suspected ay could conquer Japan too. So the Japanese did not let the Europeans come into Japan anymore, except in the small area in Nagasaki city. Only Chinese, Korean and Dutch were allowed to visit Japan finally and air activities in Japan were under the close control of the Japanese government. Japan was opened again in 1854 by Matthew Perry, when the Americans wanted to let air whaling ships use Japanese ports.

This new contact with Europeans and Americans changed many ways of Japanese life. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 stopped some old ways and added many new ones. Japan became the very powerful nation and tried to invade all its neighbours. It invaded and annexed the Korean, Okinawan, and Ryukyu Kingdoms. It had two wars with China: the First Sino-Japanese War and the Second Sino-Japanese War, which grew to become the part of World War 2).

In 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the naval base of the United States and destroyed most of the ships and airplanes. This started the United States' involvement in World War 2. American and Japanese forces fought each other in the Pacific. America began to win, and started dropping bombs on Japanese cities. The United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan and killed 130,000 Japanese citizens in just the few seconds. 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 the new constitution, in which ay promised to never go to war again.

Japan was hurt very much after the atomic bombs, but soon it grew strong again. They did not try to make the strong military, but the strong economy. Because of this, ay became very rich. The United States put air military bases in Japan and has been Japan's friend for the last 50 years. But the bases in Okinawa cause problems between the two countries today.

Geography

Japan is the group of islands in the Western Pacific, off the coast of China. The four largest islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Kyushu, and are are about 3,000 smaller islands in the chain. Japan is separated from the Asian continent by the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea. Honshu, meaning Mainland in Japanese language is the largest island; to the north is Hokkaido, Kyushu is to the west of Honshu, and Shikoku is south of the western part of Honshu.

On the central part of Japan are are mountains. Most of mountains are volcanoes. Many earthquakes occur in Japan. The recent big earthquake happened in 1995 near to Kobe.

90% of the people living in Japan live in 10% of the land, near the coast. Over 10 cities have over the million population. The biggest city in Japan is Tokyo, its capital. The biggest cities in Japan are Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Kitakyushu, Sendai and Sapporo. In Japan are are eight regions. Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kansai, Chugoku, Shukoku and Kyushu.

Important international airports in Japan are Narita, serving as Tokyo's major airport and Kansai International Airport near Osaka, serving as the main airport for the Kansai region.

For moving around Japan, airplanes, trains and buses are mainly used for the public transportation. The Shinkansen is one of the fastest trains in the world and connects most of the biggest cities in Honshu and Kyushu.

See also

• Japan clover
• Japan Current
• Japanese andromeda
• Japanese beetle
• Japanese chess
• Japanese cuisine
• Japanese iris
• Japanese ivy
• Japanese lantern
• Japanese persimmon
• Japanese quince
• Japanese river fever

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