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=__Japan__=



=Introduction= Japan is one of the world's most ethnically and culturally homogeneous nations, but down the ages its culture and society have been greatly influenced by foreign ideas and institutions, art and literature. In 1603, after decades of civil warfare, the Tokugawa shogunate (a military-led, dynastic government) ushered in a long period of relative political stability and isolation from foreign influence. For more than two centuries this policy enabled Japan to enjoy a flowering of its indigenous culture. Japan opened its ports after signing the Treaty of Kanagawa with the US in 1854 and began to intensively modernize and industrialize. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Japan became a regional power that was able to defeat the forces of both China and Russia. It occupied Korea, Formosa (Taiwan), and southern Sakhalin Island. In 1931-32 Japan occupied Manchuria, and in 1937 it launched a full-scale invasion of China. Japan attacked US forces in 1941 - triggering America's entry into World War II - and soon occupied much of East and Southeast Asia. After its defeat in World War II, Japan recovered to become an economic power and an ally of the US. While the emperor retains his throne as a symbol of national unity, elected politicians hold actual decision-making power. Following three decades of unprecedented growth, Japan's economy experienced a major slowdown starting in the 1990s, but the country remains a major economic power. In March 2011, Japan's strongest-ever earthquake, and an accompanying tsunami, devastated the northeast part of Honshu island, killing thousands and damaging several nuclear power plants. The catastrophe hobbled the country's economy and its energy infrastructure, and tested its ability to deal with humanitarian disasters.

=Geography=

Location:
Eastern Asia, island chain between the North Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan, east of the Korean Peninsula.

Area:
377,915 sq km (64)

Climate:
varies from tropical in south to cool temperate in north

Elevation Extremes:

 * Highest point:** Fujiyama 3,776 m
 * Lowest point: **Hachiro-gata -4 m

=People and Society=

Ethnic groups:
Japanese 98.5%, Koreans 0.5%, Chinese 0.4%, other 0.6%
 * note:** up to 230,000 Brazilians of Japanese origin migrated to Japan in the 1990s to work in industries; some have returned to Brazil

Languages:
The Japanese language is written with a combination of three scripts: Chinese characters called //kanji// (漢字 ), and two syllabic scripts made of modified Chinese characters, //hiragana// (ひらがな or 平仮名 ) and //katakana// (カタカナ or 片仮名 ). The Latin script, //romaji// (ローマ字 ), is also often used in modern Japanese, especially for company names and logos, advertising, romanization of Japanese characters, and when entering Japanese text into a computer. Arabic numerals are generally used for numbers, but traditional Sino-Japanese numerals are also commonplace.
 * Japanese** (日本語) is a language spoken by over 127million people in Japan and in Japanese immigrant communities.

Religions:
//Shintoism 83.9%, Buddhism 71.4%, Christianity 2%, other 7.8%// Japan grants full religious freedom, allowing minority religions such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism to be practiced. Figures that state 84% to 96% of Japanese adhere to Shinto and Buddhism are not based on self-identification but come primarily from birth records, following a longstanding practice of officially associating a family line with a local Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine

Population:
127,368,088 (July 2012 est.)
 * Country comparison to the world:** 10th

Major Cities - Population:
TOKYO (capital) 36.507 million; Osaka-Kobe 11.325 million; Nagoya 3.257 million; Fukuoka-Kitakyushu 2.809 million; Sapporo 2.673 million (2009) =Economy:= In the years following World War II, government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, mastery of high technology, and a comparatively small defense allocation (1% of GDP) helped Japan develop a technologically advanced economy. A tiny agricultural sector is highly subsidized and protected, with crop yields among the highest in the world. Usually self sufficient in rice, Japan imports about 60% of its food on a caloric basis. Japan maintains one of the world's largest fishing fleets and accounts for nearly 15% of the global catch. For three decades, overall real economic growth had been spectacular - a 10% average in the 1960s, a 5% average in the 1970s, and a 4% average in the 1980s. Growth slowed markedly in the 1990s, averaging just 1.7%, largely because of the after effects of inefficient investment and an asset price bubble in the late 1980s that required a protracted period of time for firms to reduce excess debt, capital, and labor. Japan in 2011 stood as the third-largest economy in the world after China, which surpassed Japan in 2001.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
$4.389 trillion (2011 est.)
 * Country comparison to the world:** 3rd

GDP- per capita (PPP):
$34,300 (2011 est.) **Country comparison to the world:** 37th

=Culture:=

Cusine
Japanese cuisine is based on combining staple foods, typically Japanese rice or noodles, with a soup and //okazu//— dishes made from fish, vegetable, tofu and the like — to add flavor to the staple food. Japanese cuisine is known for its emphasis on seasonality of food, quality of ingredients and presentation. Japanese cuisine offers a vast array of regional specialties that use traditional recipes and local ingredients.

Sports
Traditionally, sumo is considered Japan's national sport. Japanese martial arts such as judo, karate and kendo are also widely practiced and enjoyed by spectators in the country. After the Meiji Restoration, many Western sports were introduced in Japan and began to spread through the education system. Japan hosted the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 1964. Japan has hosted the Winter Olympics twice: Nagano in 1998 and Sapporo in 1972. The Japanese professional baseball league was established in 1936. Today baseball is the most popular spectator sport in the country. Since the establishment of the Japan Professional Football League in 1992, association football has also gained a wide following. Japan was a venue of the Intercontinental Cup from 1981 to 2004

Music
Japanese music is eclectic and diverse. Many instruments, such as the koto, were introduced in the 9th and 10th centuries. The accompanied recitative of the Noh drama dates from the 14th century and the popular folk music, with the guitar-like shamisen, from the sixteenth. Western classical music, introduced in the late 19th century, now forms an integral part of Japanese culture. The imperial court ensemble Gagaku has influenced the work of some modern Western composers. Notable classical composers from Japan include Toru Takemitsu and Rentarō Taki. Popular music in post-war Japan has been heavily influenced by American and European trends, which has led to the evolution of J-pop, or Japanese popular music. Karaoke is the most widely practiced cultural activity in Japan. =Living in Japan= Japan is one of the more expensive countries of the world to live in, and Tokyo prices are reputedly the highest in the country. According to the findings of fiscal 2005 survey on the living conditions of privately financed international students the living expenses of international students residing in Japan averaged 136,000 ($1,639) yen per month. The monthly expenditure of postgraduate and undergraduate students residing in the halls of residence of a national university averaged 93,000 yen ($1,120) (100,000 yen and 83,000 yen, respectively), though your overheads will increase if you elect to live in private accommodation since rents are expensive in Japan.

Works Cited:
[] [|https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html#top] []