: Bushido_boy Thread :

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[b]Economy:[/b] Industries: Electrical & electronic equip., autos, machinery, chemicals. Chief crops: Rice, sugar, beets, vegetables, fruits. Arable land: 13%. Livestock (1994): cattle: 5.0 mln.; pigs: 10.6 mil. Fish catch (1993): 8.7 mil metric tons. Electricity prod. (1993): 840 bil kWh. Labor force: 54% services & trade; 33% manuf. & mining; 7% agric.
Finance: Monetary unit: Yen (June 1996: 110 = $1 US). Gross domestic product (1994): $2.53 trl.* Per capita GDP: $20, 200. Imports (1994): $274.3 bln.; partners: SE Asia 25%, U.S. 23%, China 9%. Exports (1994): $395.5 bln.; partners: SE Asia 33%, U.S. 29%. Tourism (1993): $3.6 bil. National budget (1994): $671 bil. International reserves less gold (May 1996): $207 bil. Gold: 24.23 mil oz t. Consumer prices (change in 1995): -0.1%.

[b]Transport:[/b] Railroads: Length: 23, 690 mi. Motor vehicles: in use: 40.8 mil passenger cars, 22.5 mil comm. vehicles. Civil aviation: 69.3 bil passenger-mi.; 74 airports with scheduled flights. Chief ports: Yokohama, Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya, Chiba, Kawasaki, Hakodate.
Communications: Television sets: 1 per 1.2 persons. Radios: 1 per 1.1 persons. Telephones: 1 per 2.1 persons. Daily newspaper circ.: 576 per 1, 000 pop.

[b]Health:[/b] Life expectancy at birth (1996): 77 male; 83 female. Births (per 1, 000 pop.): 10. Deaths (per 1, 000 pop.): 8. Natural increase: 0.3%. Hospital beds: 1 per 74 persons. Physicians: 1 per 566 persons. Infant mortality (per 1, 000 live births 1996): 4.
Education: Literacy (1994): 100%. Free and compulsory: ages 6-15.
Major International Organizations: UN and all its specialized agencies, OECD.

[b]Embassy:[/b] 2520 Massachusetts Ave. NW 20008; 939-6700.

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[b]A[/b]ccording to Japanese legend, the empire was founded by Emperor Jimmu, 660 bc, but earliest records of a unified Japan date from 1, 000 years later. Chinese influence was strong in the formation of Japanese civilization. Buddhism was introduced before the 6th century ad.
A feudal system, with locally powerful noble families and their samurai warrior retainers, dominated from 1192. Central power was held by successive families of shoguns (military dictators), 1192-1867, until recovered by the Emperor Meiji, 1868. The Portuguese and Dutch had minor trade with Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries; U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry opened it to U.S. trade in a treaty ratified 1854. Japan fought China, 1894-95, gaining Taiwan. After war with Russia, 1904-5, Russia ceded S half of Sakhalin and gave concessions in China. Japan annexed Korea 1910. In World War I Japan ousted Germany from Shandong in China, took over German Pacific islands. Japan took Manchuria 1931, started war with China 1932. Japan launched war against the U.S. by attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. The U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima, Aug. 6, and Nagasaki, Aug. 9, 1945. Japan surrendered Aug. 14, 1945. Japan apologized Aug. 15, 1995, for its acts of "colonial rule and aggression" during World War II.

In a new constitution adopted May 3, 1947, Japan renounced the right to wage war; the emperor gave up claims to divinity; the Diet became the sole law-making authority.
The U.S. and 48 other non-communist nations signed a peace treaty and the U.S. a bilateral defense agreement with Japan, in San Francisco Sept. 8, 1951, restoring Japan's sovereignty as of April 28, 1952.

On June 26, 1968, the U.S. returned to Japanese control the Bonin Is., the Volcano Is. (including Iwo Jima), and Marcus Is. On May 15, 1972, Okinawa, the other Ryukyu Is., and the Daito Is. were returned by the U.S.; it was agreed the U.S. would continue to maintain military bases on Okinawa.

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Industrialization was begun in the late 19th century. After World War II, Japan emerged as one of the most powerful economies in the world, and as a leader in technology.
The U.S. and EU member nations have criticized Japan for its restrictive policy on imports, which has given Japan a substantial trade surplus.

The Recruit scandal, the nation's worst political scandal since World War II, which involved illegal political donations and stock trading, led to the resignation of Premier Noboru Takeshita in May 1989. A series of scandals rocked Japan's financial sector in 1991.

Following new political scandals, the Liberal Democratic Party was denied a majority in general elections July 18, 1993. The LDP had held power since it was founded in 1955. Morihiro Hosokawa, a reformer, was chosen prime minister Aug. 6; he initiated reforms but resigned Apr. 8, 1994, because of controversy over his financial connections. His replacement, Tsutomu Hata, resigned June 25, to be replaced by Japan's first Socialist premier since 1947-48, Tomiichi Murayama.
An earthquake in the Kobe area, Jan. 17, 1995, claimed more than 6, 300 lives, injured nearly 35, 000, and caused over $90 billion in property damage. On Mar. 20, a nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway (blamed on a religious cult) killed 12 and injured thousands. Public anger at the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawa schoolgirl by 3 U.S. servicemen, Sept. 4, led the U.S. to begin reducing its military presence there.

Murayama resigned as prime minister, Jan. 5, 1996, and was replaced by Ryutaro Hashimoto of the LDP. He signed a joint security declaration with U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton in Tokyo, Apr. 17. In a nonbinding referendum Sept. 8, Okinawan voters called for further US troop reductions.

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[b]Source[/b]

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[b]Excerpted from Infopedia: The Complete Reference Collection
Copyright © 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.[/b]

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[b]Japan - Nippon
[i]InfoPedia Sources - Encyclopedia[/i][/b]

The leading industrial state of Eastern Asia and of the non-Western world, Japan rivals the most advanced economic powers of the West. It rose rapidly from a crushing military defeat in World War II to achieve the fastest-growing economy of any major country in the postwar period. Today only the United States outproduces it, although the industrialization of China poses a strong challenge.
The Meiji Restoration of 1868 launched Japan onto the road of modernization. The Japanese skillfully developed the technological base for modern industry and built their country into a leading world power. Set back temporarily by wartime destruction and the consequences of military defeat, Japan has again become a world power. This time, however, its reputation is based not on armed might but on the productivity of its peacetime industry.
The Japanese people enjoy an unprecedented supply of goods. Their swelling cities, paced by the giant metropolis of Tokyo, are as modern as urban centers anywhere in the world. Japanese people face the problems that most inhabitants of great cities everywhere face--overcrowded housing, inadequate waste-disposal facilities, air and water pollution, and traffic congestion.
In few other places in the world do the values and traditions of the past continue to flourish so strongly alongside the ideas and practices of the present. The persisting contrast between the new and the old, the modern and the traditional, is one of the most characteristic features of present-day Japan.

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Urbanization, industrialization, and modern transportation and communication rapidly changed the Japanese way of life, the effect of these developments being keenly felt not only in the cities, but also in the countryside. However, beneath Japan's "new look" lie the deep-seated customs and institutions of traditional Japanese culture--in religion, in politics, and especially in family life. The people of Japan largely continue to respect and honor their past. Their society as a whole continues to adhere to the concepts of personal loyalty and obligation that have been a tradition through the ages.
Japan ranks high in population density and eighth in population among the world's countries. Its capital, Tokyo, is one of the world's largest cities (see Tokyo, Japan). Japan's spectacular economic growth--the greatest of any country between 1955 and 1990--has brought the country to the forefront of the world economy. The phrase economic miracle has been used to describe the spectacular recovery from the ravages of World War II. By the early 1990s, however, that growth had slowed and was being challenged by other countries in the Far East.

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[b]Source[/b]

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[b]Excerpted from Infopedia: The Complete Reference Collection
Copyright © 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.[/b]

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[b]Japan - Nippon
[i]InfoPedia Sources - Encyclopedia: LAND[/i][/b]

Japan comprises an island chain along mainland Asia's east coast. The four main islands--Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu--stretch some 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) from northeast to southwest. Including the more than 3,900 smaller islands, Japan is about 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) long. Its maximum width is about 200 miles (320 kilometers).
Japan has no land border with any other country. Across the Sea of Japan to the west are North and South Korea; across the Sea of Japan to the northwest and the Sea of Okhotsk to the north is Russia; across the East China Sea to the west is China; southwest of Japan's Ryukyu Islands are Taiwan and the Philippines. The open waters of the vast Pacific Ocean wash Japan's eastern and southeastern shores. Across the Pacific, more than 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) away, is the United States mainland.
Japan is 145,842 square miles (377,729 square kilometers) in area. Its largest island by far is Honshu, with about three fifths of the total area. On Honshu are most of Japan's principal cities and about four fifths of the country's more than 123 million inhabitants.
The islands of Japan are the exposed tops of massive undersea ridges that rise from the floor of the Pacific Ocean on the eastern edge of the Asian continental shelf. The islands lie between the Japan Deep--a north-south trench that plummets to a depth of 28,000 feet (8,500 meters) in the Pacific--and the Sea of Japan, which reaches depths of 10,000 to 12,000 feet (3,000 to 3,700 meters). The Japan Deep is east of the islands; the Sea of Japan, west of the islands.

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The islands of Japan are geologically young and unstable. They have been subjected to considerable folding, faulting, and volcanic activity. As a result, the land surface of the Japanese islands is rugged and is dominated by mountains and hills that cover more than 80 percent of the land surface and divide the islands into hundreds of subunits. This creates a landscape of great variety and beauty and gives Japanese life a small-scale compactness. The largest and highest mountain mass, part of which is known as the Japanese Alps, is in central Honshu. From it mountain chains extend northward to Hokkaido and southwest to Shikoku and Kyushu. These mountain chains are gouged by many short river valleys and interrupted by many small lowland plains.
Only one quarter of Japan's land surface has a slope of less than 15 degrees. Most Japanese plains have been formed by river deposits and lie along the seacoast. The largest lowland, the Kanto Plain of east-central Honshu, has an area of 6,000 square miles (15,500 square kilometers). In it sits the city of Tokyo. Among the nation's smaller, yet intensely utilized, plains are the Nobi Plain, the site of Nagoya, and the Kansai Plain, in the vicinity of Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe.
The numerous rivers of Japan are short and have small drainage basins. Only two of them are more than 200 miles (310 kilometers) long--the Shinano and the Tone, both on Honshu. Of the two, the Shinano is the longest (228 miles; 367 kilometers), and the Tone drains the largest area (7,100 square miles; 18,400 square kilometers).

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Japan's rivers generally have steep gradients and carry heavy loads of sediment from the mountains to the lowlands. On the lowlands they are usually shallow and braided and flow through gravel-filled beds. Often they have built-up natural levees and are elevated above the river plains. Their flow rates vary greatly with the seasonal rains.
Although of little use for navigation, the rivers of Japan are used intensively for irrigation, urban water supply, and the generation of electricity. Floods are common, especially during the typhoon season, and are highly destructive in the heavily populated river valleys and plains. Japan has few lakes. The largest is Lake Biwa, in west-central Honshu.
Japan's coastline is unusually long in relation to the nation's total land area. The Pacific coast has many deep indentations, among them Tokyo, Suruga, and Ise bays on Honshu and the Inland Sea between Honshu and Shikoku. The indentations are separated by rugged peninsulas and headlands. Among them are the Boso and Izu peninsulas. The west coast of Kyushu is also deeply indented, and there are many small offshore islands. The Sea of Japan coast of Honshu, however, is much straighter and has long stretches of sand dunes and beach ridges.
Japan's numerous volcanoes and frequent earthquakes are evidence of the instability of the rocks underlying the country. It has about 200 volcanoes and volcanic groups, of which about 60 have been active in recorded history. Some of the volcanoes are cone-shaped and rise to the highest elevations in Japan, while others are calderas, or craters where cones once stood.
Mount Fuji (12,389 feet; 3,776 meters), the famous volcanic cone, is the highest peak in Japan. It has been dormant since 1707. Mount Asama in central Honshu and Mount Sakurajima in southern Kyushu are well-known active volcanoes. Among the most notable calderas are Mount Aso in Kyushu and Mount Akan in Hokkaido. There are hot springs in the volcanic zones. (See also Fuji, Mount.)
Undersea earthquakes in the North Pacific basin stir up unusually large tsunamis, or "tidal waves," that are very destructive when they reach the Japanese coast. Severe earthquakes that do damage over small areas occur about every five or six years in Japan. One of the worst was the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which, combined with the ensuing fire, wiped out much of Tokyo and Yokohama. More than 140,000 lives were lost.

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[b]Source[/b]

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[b]Excerpted from Infopedia: The Complete Reference Collection
Copyright © 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.[/b]

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[b]Japan - Nippon
[i]InfoPedia Sources - Encyclopedia: CLIMATE[/i][/b]

For a small country, Japan has a great variety of climatic conditions. This is because its islands have a long latitudinal spread and are in the zone where the conflicting air masses of the Asian continent and of the Pacific Ocean meet and interact. The continental air masses make for more extreme temperatures, both in winter and in summer, and result in large annual temperature ranges. But their effect is moderated by the strong marine influence, which also produces high humidity and abundant rainfall. Japan's rugged topography also causes many local variations in weather and climate.
During the winter, Japan is primarily under the influence of cold air masses moving out of Siberia, deep in the Asian interior. Biting northwest winds pass over the Sea of Japan and cross the islands of Japan. Moisture picked up over the Sea of Japan is deposited on Japan's west coast in the form of heavy snows that are among the deepest in the world.
During the summer, Japan is under the influence of air moving in from the Pacific Ocean. Southeast winds prevail, making the summer months hot and humid. The cycle of the seasons brings frequent, often sharp, changes in the weather, especially during the spring and autumn months.
Japan's climate, especially along the coasts, is also affected by two ocean currents--the warm Kuroshio, or Japan Current, from the south, and the cold Oyashio, or Okhotsk Current, from the north. The two currents meet off northeastern Honshu. The Kuroshio, on the lee--or sheltered--side of Japan in winter, has little warming effect on land temperatures. The Tsushima Current, a branch of the Kuroshio, passes into the Sea of Japan by way of Korea Strait and slightly warms offshore waters. The Oyashio reduces summer temperatures and creates dense fog banks off the coasts of northeastern Honshu and Hokkaido.

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Virtually all of Japan except parts of eastern Hokkaido averages more than 40 inches (100 centimeters) of precipitation annually. Several coastal mountain areas in Honshu get more than 120 inches (300 centimeters). The area around the Inland Sea, eastern Honshu north of Tokyo Bay, and western Hokkaido average 40 to 60 inches (100 to 150 centimeters). The Sea of Japan coast gets more precipitation in winter, largely in the form of snow, than it does in summer. The reverse is true for the Pacific coast, where summer precipitation exceeds that of winter. In northern Hokkaido, snow falls an average of 130 days per year; along the Sea of Japan, 80 days; on the Pacific coast south and west of Tokyo Bay, only ten days.
Japan has rainy seasons in June and September, though there is some precipitation throughout the year. The main, June rainy season is called the baiu, or tsuyu, and has many days of continuous rain. The September rainy season is called the shurin. It is associated with occasional typhoons, tropical storms like the hurricanes of southeastern North America. These move to the north and northeast in a clockwise arc from their spawning grounds east of the Philippines. When they strike Japan, they cause destructive floods and landslides, but they also restore water levels, which drop during the dry days of late summer.
Typhoons bring roughly one third of the rain that falls annually on the Pacific coast of Asia. In 1959, one of the worst typhoons of modern times tore through the city of Nagoya and across central Honshu. Approaching typhoons are carefully watched by the Japan Meteorological Agency, and special radio and television bulletins are issued on their progress.

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Seasonal temperatures in Japan increase from north to south. Average January temperatures are 15o to 20o F (-9o to -7o C) in Hokkaido; 35o to 40o F (2o to 4o C) in central Honshu; and 45o F (7o C) in southern Kyushu. There is little difference in winter temperatures between the west and east coasts, though the skies are more overcast on the west coast and clearer and sunnier on the east coast. Summers are sultry throughout Japan. July temperatures average 77o to 80o F (25o to 27o C) in Kyushu, Shikoku, and southern and central Honshu; 72o to 75o F (22o to 24o C) in northern Honshu; and a cooler 65o to 70o F (18o to 21o C) in Hokkaido.
The clear, hot weather of summer arrives in mid-July, following the baiu rains. It is ended by the shurin rains. The length of the frost-free, or growing, season ranges from 250 days or more along the Pacific coast south from Tokyo Bay to only 120 days in central Hokkaido. Early autumn frosts in northern Japan and late spring frosts in central and southern Japan pose a seasonal threat to farming.

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[b] Source[/b]

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[b]Excerpted from Infopedia: The Complete Reference Collection
Copyright © 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 The Learning Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.[/b]