Japan
Japan, a country of islands, extends along the eastern or Pacific
coast of Asia. The four main islands, running from north to south,
are Hokkaido, Honshu (or the mainland), Shikoku, and Kyushu. Okinawa
Island is about 380 miles southwest of Kyushu. About 3,000 smaller
islands are included in the archipelago. In total land area, Japan
is slightly smaller than California. About 73% of the country is
mountainous, with a chain running through each of the main islands.
Japan's highest mountain is the world famous Mt. Fuji (12,385 feet).
Since so little flat area exists, many hills and mountainsides are
cultivated all the way to the summits. As Japan is situated in a
volcanic zone along the Pacific depth, frequent low intensity earth
tremors and occasional volcanic activity are felt throughout the
islands. Destructive earthquakes occur several times a century. Hot
springs are numerous and have been developed as resorts.
Temperature extremes are less pronounced than in the United States,
but the climate varies considerably. Sapporo, on the northernmost
main island, has warm summers and long, cold winters with heavy
snowfall. Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe, in central and
western parts of the largest island of Honshu, experience relatively
mild winters with little or no snowfall and hot, humid summers.
Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu, has a climate similar to that of
Charleston, South Carolina, with mild winters and wet summers.
Okinawa is subtropical.
Japan's population, currently some 127 million, has experienced a
phenomenal growth rate during the past 100 years as a result of
scientific, industrial, and sociological changes, but this has
recently slowed because of falling birth rates. In 2005, Japan's
population declined for the first time, two years earlier than
predicted. High sanitary and health standards produce a life
expectancy exceeding that of the United States.
Japan is an urban society with only about 4% of the labor force
engaged in agriculture. Many farmers supplement their income with
part-time jobs in nearby towns and cities. About 80 million of the
urban population is heavily concentrated on the Pacific shore of
Honshu and in northern Kyushu. Major population centers include:
Metropolitan Tokyo with approximately 12.7 million; Yokohama with
3.6 million; Osaka with 2.6 million; Nagoya with 2.2 million;
Sapporo with 1.8 million; Kyoto and Kobe with 1.5 million each;
Kawasaki and Fukuoka with 1.4 million each, and Saitama with 1.2
million. Japan faces the same problems that confront urban
industrialized societies throughout the world: overcrowded cities,
congested roads, air pollution, and rising juvenile delinquency.
Shintoism and Buddhism are Japan's two principal religions.
Shintoism is founded on myths and legends emanating from the early
animistic worship of natural phenomena. Since it was unconcerned
with problems of afterlife which dominate Buddhist thought, and
since Buddhism easily accommodated itself to local faiths, the two
religions comfortably coexisted, and Shinto shrines and Buddhist
temples often became administratively linked. Today many Japanese
are adherents of both faiths. From the 16th to the 19th century
Shintoism flourished.
Adopted by the leaders of the Meiji restoration, Shintoism received
state support and was cultivated as a spur to patriotic and
nationalistic feelings. Following World War II, state support was
discontinued, and the emperor disavowed divinity. Today Shintoism
plays a more peripheral role in the life of the Japanese people. The
numerous shrines are visited regularly by a few believers and, if
they are historically famous or known for natural beauty, by many
sightseers. Many marriages are held in the shrines, and children are
brought there after birth and on certain anniversary dates; special
shrine days are celebrated for certain occasions, and numerous
festivals are held throughout the year. Many homes have "god
shelves" where offerings can be made to Shinto deities.
Buddhism first came to Japan in the 6th century and for the next 10
centuries exerted profound influence on its intellectual, artistic,
social, and political life. Most funerals are conducted by Buddhist
priests, and many Japanese visit family graves and Buddhist temples
to pay respects to ancestors.
Confucianism arrived with the first great wave of Chinese influence
into Japan between the 6th and 9th centuries. Overshadowed by
Buddhism, it survived as an organized philosophy into the late 19th
century and remains today as an important influence on Japanese
thought and values.
Christianity, first introduced into Japan in 1549, was virtually
stamped out by the government a century later; it was reintroduced
in the late 1800s and has spread slowly. Today Christianity has an
estimated 3 million adherents throughout Japan.
Beyond the three traditional religions, many Japanese today are
turning to a great variety of popular religious movements normally
lumped together under the name "new religions." These religions draw
on the concept of Shinto, Buddhism, and folk superstition and have
developed in part to meet the social needs of elements of the
population. The officially recognized new religions number in the
hundreds, and total membership is reportedly in the tens of
millions. |
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Japanese legend maintains that Japan was founded in 600 BC by the
Emperor Jimmu, a direct descendant of the sun goddess and ancestor
of the present ruling imperial family. About AD 405, the Japanese
court officially adopted the Chinese writing system. Together with
the introduction of Buddhism in the sixth century, these two events
revolutionized Japanese culture and marked the beginning of a long
period of Chinese cultural influence. From the establishment of the
first fixed capital at Nara in 710 until 1867, the emperors of the
Yamato dynasty were the nominal rulers, but actual power was usually
held by powerful court nobles, regents, or "shoguns" (military
governors).
Contact With the West
The first recorded contact with the West occurred about 1542, when a
Portuguese ship, blown off its course to China, landed in Japan.
During the next century, traders from Portugal, the Netherlands,
England, and Spain arrived, as did Jesuit, Dominican, and Franciscan
missionaries. During the early part of the 17th century, Japan's
shogunate suspected that the traders and missionaries were actually
forerunners of a military conquest by European powers. This caused
the shogunate to place foreigners under progressively tighter
restrictions. Ultimately, Japan forced all foreigners to leave and
barred all relations with the outside world except for severely
restricted commercial contacts with Dutch and Chinese merchants at
Nagasaki. This isolation lasted for 200 years, until Commodore
Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy negotiated the opening of Japan to
the West with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854.
Within several years, renewed contact with the West profoundly
altered Japanese society. The shogunate resigned, and the emperor
was restored to power. The "Meiji restoration" of 1868 initiated
many reforms. The feudal system was abolished, and numerous Western
institutions were adopted, including a Western legal and educational
system and constitutional government along parliamentary lines.
In 1898, the last of the "unequal treaties" with Western powers was
removed, signaling Japan's new status among the nations of the
world. In a few decades, by creating modern social, educational,
economic, military, and industrial systems, the Emperor Meiji's
"controlled revolution" had transformed a feudal and isolated state
into a world power.
Wars With China and Russia
Japanese leaders of the late 19th century regarded the Korean
Peninsula as a potential threat to Japan. It was over Korea that
Japan became involved in war with the Chinese Empire in 1894-95 and
with Russia in 1904-05. The war with China established Japan's
domination of Korea, while also giving it the Pescadores Islands and
Formosa (now Taiwan). After Japan defeated Russia in 1905, the
resulting Treaty of Portsmouth awarded Japan certain rights in
Manchuria and in southern Sakhalin, which Russia had received in
1875 in exchange for the Kurile Islands. Both wars gave Japan a free
hand in Korea, which it formally annexed in 1910.
World War I to 1952
World War I permitted Japan, which fought on the side of the
victorious Allies, to expand its influence in Asia and its
territorial holdings in the Pacific. The postwar era brought Japan
unprecedented prosperity. Japan went to the peace conference at
Versailles in 1919 as one of the great military and industrial
powers of the world and received official recognition as one of the
"Big Five" of the new international order. It joined the League of
Nations and received a mandate over Pacific islands north of the
Equator formerly held by Germany.
During the 1920s, Japan progressed toward a democratic system of
government. However, parliamentary government was not rooted deeply
enough to withstand the economic and political pressures of the
1930s, during which military leaders became increasingly
influential.
Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and set up the puppet state of
Manchukuo. In 1933, Japan resigned from the League of Nations. The
Japanese invasion of China in 1937 followed Japan's signing of the
"anti-Comintern pact" with Nazi Germany the previous year and was
part of a chain of developments culminating in the Japanese attack
on the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.
After years of war, resulting in the loss of 3 million Japanese
lives and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan
signed an instrument of surrender on the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo
Harbor on September 2, 1945. As a result of World War II, Japan lost
all of its overseas possessions and retained only the home islands.
Manchukuo was dissolved, and Manchuria was returned to China; Japan
renounced all claims to Formosa; Korea was occupied and divided by
the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.; southern Sakhalin and the Kuriles were
occupied by the U.S.S.R.; and the U.S. became the sole administering
authority of the Ryukyu, Bonin, and Volcano Islands. The 1972
reversion of Okinawa completed the U.S. return of control of these
islands to Japan.
After the war, Japan was placed under international control of the
Allies through the Supreme Commander, Gen. Douglas MacArthur. U.S.
objectives were to ensure that Japan would become a peaceful nation
and to establish democratic self-government supported by the freely
expressed will of the people. Political, economic, and social
reforms were introduced, such as a freely elected Japanese Diet
(legislature) and universal adult suffrage. The country's
constitution took effect on May 3, 1947. The United States and 45
other Allied nations signed the Treaty of Peace with Japan in
September 1951. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in March 1952,
and under the terms of the treaty, Japan regained full sovereignty
on April 28, 1952. |
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