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Imperial Seal of Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia, located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asian mainland. It is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands—Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu—and thousands of smaller islands, covering around 380,000 square kilometres (150,000 sq mi). With a population of more than 125 million as of 2020, Japan is the 11th most populous country. Tokyo is its capital and largest city. Japan is divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions. About three-quarters of the country's terrain is mountainous and heavily forested, concentrating its agriculture and highly urbanized population along its eastern coastal plains. Greater Tokyo is the world's most populous metropolitan area, with more than 38 million inhabitants as of 2016. Part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, Japan's islands are prone to destructive earthquakes and tsunamis.

The first known habitation of the archipelago dates to the Upper Paleolithic, with the beginning Japanese Paleolithic dating to circa 36,000 BC. Between the fourth and sixth centuries, its kingdoms were united under an emperor in Nara, and later Heian-kyō. From the 12th century, actual power was held by military dictators (shōgun) and feudal lords (daimyō), and enforced by warrior nobility (samurai). After rule by the Kamakura and Ashikaga shogunates and a century of warring states, Japan was unified in 1600 by the Tokugawa shogunate, which implemented an isolationist foreign policy. In 1853, a United States fleet forced Japan to open trade to the West, which led to the end of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial power in 1868. In the Meiji period, the Empire of Japan pursued rapid industrialization and modernization, as well as militarism and overseas colonization. In 1937, Japan invaded China, and in 1941 attacked the United States and European colonial powers, entering 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 Allied occupation. After the war, the country underwent rapid economic growth, although its economy has stagnated since 1990.

Japan is a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature, the National Diet. A great power and the only Asian member of the G7, Japan has constitutionally renounced its right to declare war, but maintains one of the world's strongest militaries. A highly developed country with one of the world's largest economies, Japan is a global leader in science and technology and the automotive, robotics, and electronics industries. It has one of the world's longest life expectancies, though is undergoing population decline. Japan's culture is well known around the world, including its art, cuisine, film, music, and popular culture, which includes prominent comics, animation, and video game industries. (Full article...)

A propaganda poster calling on Australians to avenge the sinking of the AHS Centaur
A propaganda poster calling on Australians to avenge the sinking of the AHS Centaur
There was considerable Axis naval activity in Australian waters during World War II. A total of 54 German and Japanese warships and submarines entered Australian waters between 1940 and 1945 and attacked ships, ports and other targets. Among the best-known attacks are the sinking of HMAS Sydney by a German raider in November 1941, the bombing of Darwin by Japanese naval aircraft in February 1942, and the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour in May 1942. In addition, many Allied merchant ships were damaged or sunk off the Australian coast by submarines and mines. The level of Axis naval activity peaked in the first half of 1942 when Japanese submarines conducted anti-shipping patrols off Australia's coast and Japanese naval aviation attacked several towns in northern Australia. The Japanese submarine offensive against Australia was renewed in the first half of 1943 but was broken off as the Allies pushed the Japanese onto the defensive. Few Axis naval vessels operated in Australian waters in 1944 and 1945 and those that did had only a limited impact. Due to the episodic nature of the Axis attacks and the relatively small number of ships and submarines committed, Germany and Japan were not successful in disrupting Australian shipping. (Full article...)

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July 13:

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  • Bon Festival - Buddhist festival to honor the dead (East Japan)

In the news

8 July 2024 – Japan–Philippines relations
Japan and the Philippines sign a Reciprocal Access Agreement which allows the deployment of Japanese forces to the Philippines for military exercises. It will come into force after both countries' legislatures ratify it. (AP)
3 July 2024 –
The Supreme Court of Japan rules that the country's forced sterilization law, which was in effect from 1948 to 1996, was unconstitutional. (France 24)
2 July 2024 – Kobayashi red yeast rice scandal
Seventy-six more deaths and at least 500 hospitalizations in Japan are linked to use of red yeast rice supplements distributed by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, causing kidney disease and other severe conditions. (Asahi TV)
30 June 2024 – 2024 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League
France win their second Volleyball Nations League title after defeating Japan in four sets in the final at Atlas Arena in Łódź, Poland. (One Sports)
28 June 2024 –
Thousands of Japanese people protest at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo over multiple alleged sexual assault cases involving U.S. service members against Japanese people on Okinawa Island. (Al Jazeera)
20 June 2024 –
The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces sanctions on firms based in China, India, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, for their alleged support to Russia in the Russo–Ukrainian war. (Al Jazeera)

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Portrait of Bashō by Hokusai, late 18th century

Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉, 1644 – November 28, 1694); born Matsuo Kinsaku (松尾 金作), later known as Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa (松尾 忠右衛門 宗房) was the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku (then called hokku). He is also well known for his travel essays beginning with Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton (1684), written after his journey west to Kyoto and Nara. Matsuo Bashō's poetry is internationally renowned, and, in Japan, many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although Bashō is famous in the West for his hokku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. As he himself said, "Many of my followers can write hokku as well as I can. Where I show who I really am is in linking haikai verses."

Bashō was introduced to poetry at a young age, and after integrating himself into the intellectual scene of Edo (modern Tokyo) he quickly became well known throughout Japan. He made a living as a teacher; but then renounced the social, urban life of the literary circles and was inclined to wander throughout the country, heading west, east, and far into the northern wilderness to gain inspiration for his writing. His poems were influenced by his firsthand experience of the world around him, often encapsulating the feeling of a scene in a few simple elements. (Full article...)

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Flag of Gunma Prefecture
Gunma Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the northwest corner of the Kantō region on Honshū island. Its capital is Maebashi. The remains of a Paleolithic man were found at Iwajuku, Gunma Prefecture, in the early 20th century and there is a public museum there. Japan was without horses until around the early centuries AD, and present-day Gunma was a center of the horsebreeding and trading activities when continental peoples and Japanese began a strong trade in the animals. When Mt Haruna erupted in the late 6th century Japan was still in pre-history, but the Gunma Prefectural archaeology unit in 1994 was able to date the eruption through zoological anthropology at the corral sites that were buried in ash. In the past, Gunma was joined with Tochigi Prefecture and called Kenu Province. This was later divided into Kami-kenu (Upper Kenu, Gunma) and Shimo-kenu (Lower Kenu, Tochigi). The area is sometimes referred to as Jomo. For most of Japanese history, Gunma was known as the province of Kozuke. In the early period of contact between western nations and Japan, particularly the late Tokugawa, it was referred to by foreigners as the "Joushu States", inside (fudai, or loyalist) Tokugawa retainers and the Tokugawa family symbol is widely seen at public buildings, temples and shrines. The first modern silk factories were built with Italian and French assistance at Annaka in the 1870s. In the early Meiji period, a bloody political struggle between idealistic democratic westernizers and conservative Prussian-model nationalists took place in Gunma and neighboring Nagano.

Did you know... – show different entries

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  • ... that of Japanese band Supercell's eleven members, only one of them makes the music and the rest are illustrators and designers?

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