Theme Week Japan

Monday, 18 February 2019 - 12:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, Theme Weeks
Reading Time:  5 minutes

Tokyo - Ginza shopping area © Jordy Meow/cc-by-3.0

Tokyo – Ginza shopping area © Jordy Meow/cc-by-3.0

Japan (Nippon or Nihon, literally “State of Japan”) is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south. The kanji that make up Japan’s name mean “sun origin”, and it is often called the “Land of the Rising Sun”.

Japan is a stratovolcanic archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku, which make up about ninety-seven percent of Japan’s land area and often are referred to as home islands. The country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions, with Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one. The population of 127 million is the world’s tenth largest. Japanese make up 98.5% of Japan’s total population. About 13.8 million people live in Tokyo, the capital of Japan. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world with over 38 million people.

Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited 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 regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, particularly from Western Europe, has characterized Japan’s history.

Byodo-in Buddist Temple in Uji © Martin Falbisoner/cc-by-sa-4.0 Cherry blossom at Himeji Castle Miya.m/cc-by-sa-3.0 Downtown Kyoto © unsplash.com - Alex Wolfe Mount Fuji © flickr.com - reggiepen/cc-by-2.0 Hiroshima Peace Memorial © HKT3012/cc-by-sa-4.0 Itsukushima Shinto Shrine near Hiroshima © Jordy Meow/cc-by-sa-3.0 Nagasaki © Steffen Sohl/cc-by-sa-3.0 Nagoya Central Park © panoramio.com - kanesue/cc-by-3.0 Tokyo - Ginza shopping area © Jordy Meow/cc-by-3.0
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Itsukushima Shinto Shrine near Hiroshima © Jordy Meow/cc-by-sa-3.0
From the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shōguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a long period of isolation in the early 17th century, which was ended in 1853 when a United States fleet pressured Japan to open to the West. After nearly two decades of internal conflict and insurrection, the Imperial Court regained its political power in 1868 through the help of several clans from Chōshū and Satsuma – and the Empire of Japan was established. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victories 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 and the Japanese surrender. Since adopting its revised constitution on May 3, 1947, during the occupation by the SCAP, the sovereign state of Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with an Emperor and an elected legislature called the National Diet.

The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most highly educated countries in the world, with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. Although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the world’s eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. It ranked as the world’s fourth most-powerful military in 2015. Japan is a highly developed country with a very high standard of living and Human Development Index. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, but is experiencing issues due to an aging population and low birthrate. Japan is renowned for its historical and extensive cinema, influential music industry, anime, video gaming, rich cuisine and its major contributions to science and modern-day technology.

Here you can find the complete Overview of all Theme Weeks.

Read more on Government of Japan, europa.eu – Japan-EU Free Trade Agreement, Japan Tourism, U.S. Department of State – Japan, Tourism in Japan, Japanese cuisine, Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Wikitravel Japan, Wikivoyage Japan and Wikipedia Japan. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.






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