The islands of Japan are the projecting summits of a huge chain of mountains originally a part of the continent of Asia, from which they were detached in the Cenozoic era. The long and narrow main island, Honshu, measures less than 322 km (200 mi) at its greatest breadth; no part of Japan is more than 161 km (100 mi) from the sea. The coastline of Japan is exceedingly long in proportion to the area of the islands, and totals, with the many bays and indentations, about 24,950 km (15,500 mi). The greatest amount of indentation is on the Pacific coast, the result of the erosive action of the tides and severe coastal storms. The western coast of Kyushu, on the East China Sea, is the most irregular portion of the Japanese coast. Few navigable inlets are found on the eastern coast above Tokyo, but south of Tokyo Bay are many of the best bays and harbours in Japan. Between Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu is the Inland Sea, dotted with islands and connected with the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan by three narrow straits through which oceanic storms rarely pass. The western coast of the islands of Japan, on the almost tideless Sea of Japan, is relatively straight and measures less than 4,830 km (3,000 mi); the only conspicuous indentations in the coastline are Wakasa and Toyama bays in Honshu.

Topographically, Japan is a rugged land of high mountains and deep valleys, with many small plains. Because of the alternating sequence of mountain and valley, and the rocky soil, only an estimated 11 per cent of Japan is arable land.

Earthquakes are frequent in Japan. A survey showed that seismic disturbances, mostly of minor nature, occurred more than three times a day. Geological research has shown that, possibly under the continuous impact of these disturbances, the western coast of the Japanese islands is settling, while the Pacific coast is rising. The eastern coast is subject to earthquakes affecting large areas and usually accompanied by great tidal waves; these shocks seem to begin at the bottom of the ocean near the north-eastern coast of Honshu, where a gigantic crater is thought to exist more than 8 km (5 mi) below the surface. The most disastrous earthquake in Japanese history occurred in 1923. It was centred in Sagami Bay and damaged Tokyo and Yokohama; about 150,000 persons were killed by the earthquake and its aftermath. The most damaging postwar earthquake was the Great Harshin Earthquake of 1995, which struck the port city of Kobe and killed some 5,000 people; its magnitude was roughly 7 on the Richter scale.

The most important natural resources of Japan are primarily agricultural. Although arable land is limited, Japan has some of the highest crop yields per land area sown in the world, and the country produces about 71 per cent of its food. Japan's large hydroelectric power potential has been extensively developed, but mineral resources are limited. The country is obliged to import most of its mineral requirements.

The great variety and luxuriance of Japanese plant life is mainly caused by the heat and moisture of Japanese summers. More than 17,000 species of flowering and nonflowering plants are found, and many are widely cultivated. The white and red plum and the cherry bloom early and are particularly admired. The Japanese hills are colourful with azaleas in April, and the tree peony, one of the most popular cultivated flowers, blossoms at the beginning of May. The lotus blooms in August, and in November the blooming of the chrysanthemum, the national flower of Japan, occasions one of the most celebrated of the numerous Japanese flower festivals. Other flowers include the pimpernel, bluebell, gladiolus, and many varieties of lily. Few wild flowers are found, because the small area of arable land permits little space for uncultivated vegetation in the plains.

The predominant variety of Japanese tree is the conifer; a common species is the sugi, or Japanese cedar, which sometimes attains a height of 46 m (150 ft). Other evergreens include the larch, spruce, and many varieties of fir. In Kyushu, Shikoku, and southern Honshu subtropical trees, such as the bamboo, camphor tree, and banyan are found, and the tea plant and wax tree are cultivated. In central and northern Honshu the trees are those of the Temperate Zone, such as the beech, willow, chestnut, and many conifers. Lacquer and mulberry trees are cultivated extensively, and the cypress, yew, box, holly and myrtle are plentiful. In Hokkaido the vegetation is subarctic and similar to that of southern Siberia. Spruce, larch, and northern fir are the most common trees; some forests contain alders, poplars, and beeches. The most common Japanese fruits are peaches, pears, and oranges.

The Japanese practise a unique kind of landscape gardening. Japanese gardens attempt to reproduce in miniature a stylization of natural landscapes. The Japanese also cultivate dwarf trees, such as the cherry and plum, which, through skilful pruning, are kept as low as 30 cm (12 in). The potted flora that are dwarfed by special methods of culture are called bonsai.

As compared with its luxuriant flora, Japan suffers a dearth of animal life. Yet Japanese fauna includes at least 140 species of mammals, 450 species of birds, and a wide variety of reptiles, batrachians, and fish. The only primate mammal is the red-faced monkey, the Japanese macaque, found throughout Honshu. The carnivores include the red bear, black bear, and brown bear. Foxes are found throughout Japan, as are badgers. Other fur-bearing animals include the wild boar, marten, Japanese mink, otter, weasel, and several varieties of seal. Hares and rabbits are numerous, as are rodents, which include squirrels, flying squirrels, rats, and mice, although the common house mouse is not found. Many varieties of bat exist; insectivores include the Japanese mole and shrew mouse. Of the two species of deer, the more common is the small Japanese deer, which has a spotted white coat in summer and a brown coat in winter.

The sparrow, house swallow, and thrush are the commonest Japanese birds. Water birds constitute almost 25 per cent of the known species and include the crane, heron, swan, duck, cormorant, stork, and albatross. Songbirds are numerous, the bullfinch and two varieties of nightingale being the best known. Among other common birds are the robin, cuckoo, woodpecker, pheasant, and pigeon.

The coastal waters of Japan teem with fish, which are caught in enormous quantities for use as fresh food or for canning and also for fertilizer. Various seaweeds are also eaten.

Japan has a population (1993 official estimate) of 124,711,551. The overall population density is about 330 people per sq km (855 per sq mi).

Japan is divided into 47 prefectures. The prefectures include Okinawa, which was occupied by the United States after World War II and returned to Japan in 1972.

The educational system of Japan is highly developed. The literacy rate, consequently, is virtually 100 per cent for the entire nation. English, as a chief language for foreign contacts, is a required course of study in secondary schools.

The early history of Japanese education was profoundly affected by the Chinese. From the Chinese, the Japanese acquired new crafts and, most important, a system of writing. The acquisition of writing cannot be precisely dated, but by about AD 400 Korean scribes were using Chinese ideographs for official records at the Japanese imperial courts. Education in ancient Japan, however, was more aristocratic than in the Chinese system, with noble families maintaining their own private schooling facilities. During the medieval military-feudal period, Buddhist temples assumed much responsibility for education. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, which dominated the country from 1600, educational facilities spread to create one of the most literate of all premodern societies.

The defeat of Japan in World War II resulted in educational changes, many of which were recommended in 1946 by a US educational mission; some of these changes were discontinued when Japan regained sovereign status as a nation in 1952. The teaching of nationalistic ideology was banned, greater emphasis was placed on social studies, and classroom procedures were redesigned to encourage self-expression.

Education in Japan is centralized under the ministry of education. Its school system operates under the Fundamental Law of Education of 1947 and subsequent legislation and enables all students to compete for admission to institutions of higher education. One of the continuing problems facing Japanese educators is the teaching of the complex Japanese language, which combines several scripts.

Education is free and compulsory for nine years—that is, six of elementary school and three of junior high school. Beyond the junior high school level, education is optional, and a small tuition fee is charged, even in public senior high schools and public institutions of higher learning. In the late 1980s Japan had about 24,850 primary schools annually attended by some 9.6 million students and about 16,780 secondary schools with about 11.3 million students. Elementary school teachers numbered about 445,000, and there were some 570,000 secondary school teachers. Technical, commercial, and vocational schools are also maintained, as are schools for the physically disabled. Private tutorial colleges are a widespread and popular adjunct to the fiercely competitive educational system.

Japan has about 60 national (formerly called imperial) universities and many private universities. Among the biggest national universities are Chiba University (1949); Hiroshima University (1949); Hokkaido University (1876) at Sapporo; Kobe University (1949); Kyoto University (1897); Kyushu University (1911) at Fukuoka; Nagoya University (1939); Okayama University (1949); Osaka University (1931); Tohoku University (1907) at Sendai; the University of Tokyo (1877); and the University of Tsukuba (1973). Major private institutions include Hosei University (1880), Nihon University (1889), and Waseda University (1882), in Tokyo; Doshisha University (1875) in Kyoto; Fukuoka University (1934); and Kansai University (1886) in Osaka. In the late 1980s, institutions of higher education in Japan had a combined yearly enrolment of nearly 2.6 million students.

Tokyo outranks all other Japanese cities in the number of its important libraries. Among the most important are the National Diet Library, an international book exchange and information centre of Japan. It has seven departments, and its combined collection exceeds 9.4 million volumes. The Cabinet Library in Tokyo contains about 549,000 volumes. Among the important university collections in Tokyo are those at the University of Tokyo Library with more than 6 million volumes, Meiji University Library with about 1.1 million volumes, and Nihon University Library with some 4.2 million volumes. Major collections are also housed in the libraries of the provinces. The Osaka Prefectural Nakanoshima Library contains more than 838,000 volumes, and Kobe City Library has more than 240,000 volumes. Important university libraries are located throughout the country.

In recent decades the Japanese economy has expanded rapidly. The industrial base of Japan has shifted from light industries to heavy industries, chemicals, and electronics, which together constitute at least two-thirds of the total value of yearly exports. In 1992, the annual gross national product of Japan was $3.38 trillion (World Bank figure: 1989-1991 prices), one of the largest in the world, yielding a per capita income of $26,290. The estimated national budget for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1994, included revenues of 72,354,800 million yen (US$730,143,380,000) and equivalent expenditures.

Before and during World War II much of the Japanese economy was controlled by about a dozen wealthy families, collectively called the zaibatsu ("wealth cliques"). The greatest of these families were the Mitsui, Iwasaki (operating under the company name Mitsubishi), Sumitomo, and Yasuda; they controlled most of the coal, iron, pulp, and aluminium industries. In 1945 and 1946 family ownership of these immense trusts was dissolved by the Allied occupation authorities. The business organizations remained intact, however, and have since acquired even greater economic power by expanding into shipping, banking, and other industries.

The farm population has declined in recent years. The importance of agriculture, however, has not decreased. More than 40 per cent of the cultivated land is devoted to rice production, which in the mid-1990s represented about one-third of the total crop income. Rice remains the staple of the Japanese diet; alterations in the national diet, however, and development of better yielding strains of rice have brought about significant overproduction. Wheat and barley are other important grain crops.

In the early 1990s annual production in metric tons included rice, 10.6 million; potatoes, 3.8 million; sugar beet, 3.7 million; sugar cane, 2.2 million; radishes, 2.5 million; mandarin oranges, 1.6 million; cabbage, 1.6 million; sweet potatoes, 1.3 million; Chinese cabbage, 1.3 million; onions, 1.3 million; and cucumbers, 980,000. Other crops include melons, tomatoes, apples, wheat, soya beans, tea, tobacco, and other fruits and vegetables.

Because arable land is scarce and consequently valuable, relatively little acreage is used for livestock. Nevertheless, Japan in the early 1990s had 11 million pigs, 5 million cattle, and 336 million poultry birds. The arable land is divided into small farms and almost 70 per cent of this land consists of farms of 1 hectare (2.5 acres) or less. Most farmers also work part-time in industry. The land is tilled intensively; almost all farms have electricity and most use modern machinery. Japanese farmers frequently raise two or more crops yearly. Much of the land suffers from soil exhaustion. Heavy use of chemical fertilizers, improved strains, and advanced techniques, however, have made Japanese farms among the most productive in the world.

About two-thirds of the total land area of Japan is woodland, some two-fifths of which contains softwoods. Approximately two-thirds of the forest area is privately owned. Although Japan ranks high in world production of timber, the steadily increasing domestic demand for timber compels the country to import much of its needs. The annual timber harvest in the early 1990s was about 37.6 million cu m (1.3 billion cu ft).

Fish is a food staple for the Japanese and is second in importance only to rice. Consequently, fishing is one of the most important industries, both for the domestic and export markets. The Japanese fishing fleet is one of the world's largest. The industry may be divided into three principal categories: offshore, coastal, and deep-sea fishing. Offshore fishing from medium-sized boats accounts for a substantial amount of the total catch, but only about one-quarter of the total value of production. Deep-sea fishing by large vessels that operate in international fishing grounds brings in a catch about equal to that of offshore fishing, while coastal fishing, either by small boats, set nets, or breeding techniques, represents almost half of the industry's total production. In the early 1990s the annual catch totalled some 10 million metric tons and included sardines, bonito, crab, pike, prawn, salmon, pollack, mackerel, squid, clams, saury, sea bream, scallops, tuna, and yellowtail. In addition, Japan is among the world's few remaining whaling countries, and large amounts of seaweed and other marine plants are harvested.

The mineral resources of Japan are varied but limited in quantity. Limestone is the principal mineral. Other mined minerals include coal, copper, lead, zinc, and quartzite, but quantities of these are insufficient to meet domestic demand.

Japanese industry suffered extensive damage in World War II. Subsequently, the country undertook a reconstruction that resulted in a complete modernization of its manufacturing facilities. Primary emphasis was placed on the chemical and petrochemical industries and the heavy-machinery industry. By the mid-1950s industrial production had surpassed prewar levels; manufacturing growth averaged 9.4 per cent annually during the period from 1965 to 1980 and 6.7 per cent a year during the period from 1980 to 1988. In the mid-1990s Japan was the leading shipbuilding country in the world and among the leading world producers of electrical and electronic products, steel, and motor vehicles. Crude steel production in the early 1990s was some 109.7 million tons; and pig iron output was about 80 million tons. Japanese industry also produced 9.8 million passenger cars, 7.6 million lorries and buses, 47.7 million watches, 28.2 million video cassette recorders, 14.3 million colour television sets, 18 million 35mm cameras, 6.1 million microwave ovens, 5.2 million refrigerators, 4.3 million facsimile machines, 2.6 million computers, 2.3 million copying machines, and numerous other electric and electronic items for home and workplace. Aided by the stong yen, Japanese companies were increasingly investing in industrial plants outside Japan.

In the mid-1990s Japan was also among the leading world producers of basic chemical raw materials. Japan was one of the leading textile manufacturers in the world and among the three largest world producers of synthetic fibre. Silk and cotton production during this period, however, declined in importance to the economy.

Japan is among the world's leading countries in the annual production of electricity. About 61 per cent of the electricity is generated in thermal plants using coal or petroleum products; hydroelectric facilities account for 12 per cent, and nuclear power plants 27 per cent. In the early 1990s Japan had an installed electricity-generating capacity of 200 million kilowatts, and the yearly output of electricity was some 888 billion kilowatt-hours.

Lacking adequate domestic energy resources, Japan depends on fuel imports to meet its energy needs. Because of improvements in energy efficiency and conservation, Japan's annual growth in energy consumption decreased from 6.1 per cent during the period from 1965 to 1980 to 1.9 per cent during the period from 1980 to 1988, while the share of annual merchandise imports represented by imported fuels dropped from 19 per cent to 14 per cent.

The Bank of Japan, established in 1882, is the central bank, acts as general fiscal agent for the government, and is the sole issuer of currency. More than 85 commercial banks constitute the heart of the financial system. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is one of the world's leading securities markets. The monetary unit of Japan is the yen of 100 sen (99.1 yen equal $1: 1995).

Foreign trade is essential to the Japanese economy. The domestic market is unable to fully absorb the manufactured goods that are produced by Japanese industry. Furthermore, because Japan must import much of the raw material on which its industries depend, the country also must export a substantial proportion of its annual national product to effect a favourable balance of trade. Japan has used the huge trade surpluses accumulated during the 1970s and 1980s to invest heavily overseas, thus becoming the world's leading creditor nation.

In the early 1990s, Asian countries accounted for nearly 42 per cent of Japan's imports and purchased about 33 per cent of its exports. Japan's leading Asian trade partners were South Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. During the same period, countries of the European Union—notably Germany, France, and Great Britain—provided 13 per cent of Japan's imports and purchased 17 per cent of its exports. The United States absorbs about 28 per cent of Japan's exports and supplies about 22 per cent of its imports. Other principal trade partners include Australia, Canada, and the USSR.

The major railways were nationalized in 1907; they were reorganized and transferred to the private sector in 1987. Railway track in the early 1990s totalled about 27,450 km (17,060 mi), of which about 55 per cent was electrified. Construction of a new high-speed rail network spanning about 7,000 km (4,350 mi) and linking principal cities, the famous Shinkansen or "bullet trains", began in the early 1970s.

Japan has about 1,120,460 km (696,250 mi) of roads, of which 67 per cent are paved. Motor vehicles in the early 1990s included about 40 million passenger cars and 21.1 million commercial vehicles.

Japan ranks among world leaders in the size of its merchant fleet, with more than 7,400 vessels, aggregating a total of about 24 million deadweight tons. Japan Air Lines, established in 1951, provides service from Tokyo to Europe, the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Middle East, and South-East Asia. All Nippon Airways, primarily a domestic service, has expanded its international operations in recent years.

In the early 1990s Japan had more than 56 million telephones. About 97 million radios and 100 million television sets were in use. Some 124 daily newspapers are published; their combined circulation exceeds 72 million. Japanese dailies have one of the highest combined circulation levels in the world. The newspapers with the largest daily circulation are Tokyo's Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun.

An enormous increase in the number and membership of trade unions took place in Japan after World War II. In 1946 more than 12,000 trade unions had a combined membership of about 3.7 million. By the late 1970s the number of unions had increased to more than 70,000. The combined membership in the early 1990s stood at 12.5 million, or about 29 per cent of the total employed population. In 1987 the nation's leading private trade union federations agreed to merge into a single body, the National Federation of Private Sector Trade Unions, known as Rengo.

During the early 1990s, more than 4 million foreigners visited Japan each year, while an estimated 12 million Japanese travelled overseas. Japan's annual income from tourism totalled $3.4 billion, while expenditure by Japanese travellers exceeded $22.5 billion.

Japan is governed according to the provisions of a constitution that came into force in 1947. Under the terms of this document, which was formulated under the guidance of the Allied occupation authorities after World War II, the emperor is the symbol of the nation.

In the late 1980s about 18 per cent of the annual national budget was allocated for social security purposes. A medical insurance system has been in effect in Japan since 1927. Self-employed people and employees in the private and public sectors are included under the medical plan.

Social welfare services have greatly expanded since World War II; legislation enacted or amended in the postwar years includes the Livelihood Security Law for Needy Persons, the Law for the Welfare of Disabled Persons, the National Health Insurance Law, the Welfare Pension Insurance Law, Old Age Welfare Law, and the Maternal and Child Welfare Law. The entire population is covered by various insurance systems. Most working people retire at the age of 55 and receive retirement pensions amounting to about 40 per cent of their salary. Health conditions are generally excellent. In the early 1990s life expectancy at birth was 76 years for men and 82 years for women; the infant mortality rate was a very low 4.7 per 1,000 live births. Japan had about 211,800 doctors, 365,300 nurses, 74,000 dentists, 24,100 midwives, and 1,685,600 hospital beds.

Before the Japanese defeat in World War II, legislative power resided in a House of Peers (composed of hereditary peers, distinguished commoners nominated by the emperor, and a limited number of elective seats) and a House of Representatives elected by male citizens over 25 years of age. Cabinet ministers were responsible to and appointed by the emperor.

Since 1947 the Japanese diet has been the supreme organ of government power. Members of the diet designate a prime minister. The diet is a bicameral body consisting of the House of Representatives (lower house) and the House of Councillors (upper house). Lower-house members, totalling 500, are elected for a term not to exceed four years (electoral reform legislation passed in January 1994 reduced the original tally of 511 members). Upper-house members, totalling 252, are elected for six-year terms; elections for one-half the membership are held every three years. The lower house is the more powerful of the two houses of the diet; decisions made by the upper house may be vetoed by the lower house, which also retains control over legislation dealing with treaties and fiscal matters. The first-past-the-post voting system in place since World War II was replaced in January 1994 by a partial proportional representation system. In both houses of the diet, some of the seats are now filled directly through district elections, and other seats are allocated to the various political parties based on national election results. In the lower house, 300 seats are filled directly and 200 are allocated (prior to 1994 all seats were filled directly from multi-member constituencies); in the upper house, 152 are filled directly and 100 are allocated. All Japanese citizens at least 20 years of age can vote.

According to legislative representation, the major political parties in Japan as the 1990s began were the Liberal Democratic party, the Japan Socialist party (since 1991 the Japan Social Democratic party), the Clean Government party (Komeito), the Democratic Socialist party, and the Japan Communist party. However, in elections held in June 1993, the Liberal Democratic party lost its parliamentary majority and the Socialists also suffered crushing defeat. Three newly formed reformist parties attracted many voters tired of the scandal-ridden Liberal Democratic party: the Japan New party (fronted by Hosokawa Morihiro), the Japan Renewal party (steered by Ozawa Ichiro), and the Harbinger party. After the Japan Social Democratic party withdrew from a broadly pro-reform coalition in 1994, the reformists amalgamated into a new bloc, the New Frontier party.

Including Okinawa, which was returned to Japan by the United States in 1972, the country is divided into 47 prefectures or their equivalent; each is administered by an elected governor and assembly. Each municipality in the prefectures has a legislature composed of popularly elected representatives. The municipalities have fairly broad powers; they control public education and may levy taxes.

The Japanese judicial system is entirely separate from and independent of the executive authority. Except for reasons of health, judges may be removed only by public impeachment. The highest court in the nation is the Supreme Court, established by the constitution and consisting of a chief justice appointed by the emperor upon the recommendation of the cabinet and 14 associate justices appointed by the cabinet. Four types of lower courts are prescribed by the constitution: high courts, district courts, family courts, and summary courts. The supreme court is the tribunal of final appeal in all civil and criminal cases and has authority to decide on the constitutionality of any act of the legislature or executive. High courts hear appeals in civil and criminal cases from lower courts. District courts have both appellate and original jurisdiction. Family and summary courts are exclusively courts of first instance. All police forces in Japan are under the control of the central government.

The National Police Reserve, created under the direction of the Allied occupation authorities in 1950, formed the nucleus of the defence forces subsequently organized when the Japanese regained national sovereignty. In the early 1990s the Japanese Self-Defence Forces consisted of about 237,700 people. These comprised an army (149,900 service personnel), a navy (43,100), and an air force (44,700). The country also has a coast guard.

The earliest surviving records of Japanese history, aside from Chinese accounts, are contained in two semi-mythical chronicles, the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) and the Nihon shoki or Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan), the former compiled in AD 712 and the latter in AD 720. These chronicles purport to concern events from about the 7th century BC to the 7th century AD. The chronicles and other collections of legends were the basis of the traditional accounts of the history of Japan. The Nihon shoki gives 660 BC as the year in which Jimmu, descendant of the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu and the first emperor of Japan, ascended the throne, thereby founding the Japanese Empire.

Early settlers of the Japanese archipelago probably moved into it from the East Asian Siberian mainland during the Palaeolithic period around 30,000 BC, but linguistic evidence suggests that some colonization also took place from the Polynesian island chains. The Ainu may also have moved into the archipelago at an early stage, but proto-Japanese of Mongoloid stock evidently predominated from earliest times, despite now disproved theories that the Ainu may have been the original inhabitants.

The Palaeolithic cultures of prehistoric Japan gave way around 10,000 BC to a Neolithic culture, the Jomon, who produced some of the earliest pottery designs known. Their often highly decorated pots, usually hand-turned and fired at low temperatures, have been unearthed throughout Japan, as have traces of sometimes fairly large and sophisticated pit dwellings or huts. Their economy was apparently based on hunting, fishing, and gathering, with perhaps some primitive agriculture. Jomon society appears to have been fairly egalitarian, with few marked status divisions.

The Jomon gave way to a new culture that arose on Kyushu then slowly spread eastwards, gradually supplanting its predecessors. The Yayoi culture was more advanced, introducing wet-rice agriculture, weaving, simple utilitarian pots fired at high temperatures, and iron implements. Most Yayoi innovations, especially iron and bronze, were probably introduced from China via Korea. More diverse and sophisticated burial customs indicate that Yayoi society was more complex and stratified than Jomon, a common concomitant of agricultural organization. The advent of Yayoi seems to have changed the culture of the early Japanese but made little difference to their racial stock, and was probably more a process of cultural diffusion than ethnic conquest.

The Kofun period is named after the large kofun (Jap., tumuli) which marked the graves of the Japanese emperors and nobility, demonstrating that the principal feature of the period was the unification of Japan under the imperial house. According to the chronicles, Emperor Jimmu, having established his rule in Kyushu, led his forces northwards and extended his domains to Yamato, a province in central Honshu, which gave its name to the imperial house and eventually to all ancient Japan; but historical and archaeological evidence contradict the traditional dates given for his exploits.

The ruling Yamato chieftain consolidated his power by making a primitive form of Shinto the general religion and, thus, a political instrument. During the late Yayoi and early Kofun periods the Yamato chieftains exerted indirect control over various autonomous tribal units known as uji. Each uji had its own clan gods and its own domain. The most important of the uji were the Muraji, longtime vassals of the Yamato court, and the Omi, who had declared their fealty during the Yamato rise to power: government officials were drawn from both groups. The large graves of clan notables were often decorated with pottery figures of soldiers, people, and objects, called haniwa. The rule of the imperial clan, regarded as the head clan, was more nominal than actual, although its principal deity, the sun goddess, was worshipped nationally.

During the early period of the Yamato court, Korea made significant cultural contributions to Japan. Korean culture, greatly influenced by neighbouring China, had already advanced to a comparatively high level, and until the middle of the 6th century intercourse between Japan and Korea, including Korean immigration to Japan and Japanese import of iron from Korea, considerably stimulated the developing civilization of the islands. The kingdom of Paekche, in south-western Korea,which was an ally of the Yamato court, greatly assisted in the importation of Chinese writing, literature, and philosophy. At the beginning of the 5th century the Chinese script came into use at the Yamato court. Around 430 the imperial court appointed its first historiographers, and more dependable records were kept.

By the 6th century AD the Yamato court was apparently losing power, unable to assert its will over the uji and faced with weakening ties to the Korean mainland, owing to the absorption of Korea's small states by the kingdom of Silla. The reigning emperor was actually murdered by the powerful Soga clan in 587. However, the Yamato court oversaw one more immensely significant event: the importation of Buddhism. This is usually dated to 552, when the king of Paekche sent Buddhist priests to Japan, together with religious images, Buddhist scriptures, calendars, and methods of keeping time. The imported culture soon became strongly rooted in the archipelago, and while contacts between the two countries weakened, it made little difference; by the early 7th century Buddhism had become the official religion of Japan.

The Nara period produced landmarks in the native traditions: the completion of the two national histories, Kojiki and Nihon shoki, and the compilation of the first great poetry anthology, the Man'yoshu (Anthology of a Myriad Leaves); as well as proliferating Buddhist art. A devout Buddhist, Shomu worked to bring state and clergy together, creating problems for his successors. The ritsu-ryo system of the Taika Reforms worked well, but the secular power of the great temples grew increasingly burdensome for the imperial house. Finally in Emperor Kammu (reigned 781-806) broke away from the influence of the temples in Nara by moving the imperial capital first to Nagaoka-kyo, then ten years later to Heian-kyo (later Kyoto), which was to remain the titular capital until 1868.

The period of Fujiwara supremacy was marked by a great flowering of Japanese culture and by the growth of a civilization greatly influenced but no longer dominated by the Chinese one, which had been its fountainhead. The Kokinshu (Anthology of Ancient and Modern Poems), first of the great imperial poetry anthologies, was compiled in 905. The dictatorship of Michinaga is regarded as the classical age of Japanese literature: he was a close friend of the court ladies Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon, two of the age's great writers. The great Tendai and Shingon sects of Buddhism gained immense wealth and power, and became rich sources of artistic patronage. The character of the government also changed under the Fujiwara ascendancy. The centralized administration became a cloak for Fujiwara rule, and the country in time was divided up into large, hereditary estates, owned by the nobles as tax-free emoluments for their official positions, or attached to the great Buddhist temples. Most peasants were only too willing to attach their lands to such estates in order to escape the heavy burden of taxes on the public lands that had been meted out to them. Thus, great private estates spread throughout the country.

From 1333 to 1336 Go-Daigo tried to restore the imperial administration. His reactionary ideas doomed him to failure, and Ashikaga Takauji revolted, driving Daigo from Kyoto, and set up his own candidate for emperor. Go-Daigo and his supporters fled to Yoshino, a region south of Nara in Honshu, and established a rival court. In 1338 Takauji became shogun, and set up his own bakufu in Kyoto. The Muromachi district of Kyoto, which became the Ashikaga shogunal seat, gave its name to the period of Ashikaga government. Civil war between Daigo and his successors and the emperors controlled by the Ashikaga dragged on for 56 years. At length, in 1392, an Ashikaga envoy persuaded the true emperor at Yoshino to abdicate and relinquish the sacred imperial regalia. With their nominees acknowledged as rightful emperors, the Ashikaga shoguns were, in theory, legitimate rulers of all Japan.

Ieyasu had himself appointed shogun in 1603, reducing Hideyoshi's heir to a lowly provincial post, and made his bakufu at Edo (later Tokyo) his capital. In a short time the city became the greatest in Japan, developing culturally and economically as well as politically. Ieyasu retired as titular shogun in 1605 to concentrate on consolidating his dynasty's rule. In 1614 he launched a campaign against the Toyotomi family at Osaka Castle; by the following year the castle was his and the remaining opposition to the Tokugawa shogunate destroyed. In 1615 Ieyasu also issued new legal codes which brought the feudal organization that had been planned by Hideyoshi to fulfilment, bringing Japan over 250 years of peace.

Under Ieyasu's codes, the so-called bakuhan system, the daimyo fiefs (han) and administrators, as well as the emperor and his court, were put under the strict control of the bakufu. Each daimyo was left as supreme ruler within his fief, but swore fealty to the Tokugawa, left his family as hostages in Edo, and personally attended the shogun there every alternate year. Confiscations of land after the Battle Sekigahara had left the Tokugawa as the richest daimyo family, with roughly a quarter of the country's land owned by them or their immediate vassals. Daimyo were graded according to their relationship to the Tokugawa or their actions at Sekigahara, and the most suspect of them, such as the great western fiefs of Satsuma and Choshu, were watched over by strategically placed loyalist fiefs. Shogunal power was enhanced by the right to confirm each succeeding daimyo in his fief, or dismiss him. Social classes were rigidly stratified into four principal groups: warriors, farmers, artisans, and merchants. The samurai were taken off the land and sequestered in castle towns, while the peasantry were organized in mutual-responsibility groups and forced to provide rice stipends for their masters. The form of feudalism established by Ieyasu and the succeeding Tokugawa shoguns endured until the end of the feudal period in the mid-19th century.

During the 18th century, however, new social and economic conditions in the islands began to indicate the inevitable collapse of rigid feudalism. The population grew rapidly, straining limited agricultural resources. Internal communications, trade, and the money economy grew and developed under the impetus of the regular traffic of rich daimyo to and from Edo. A large, wealthy merchant class developed immense social and indirect political power, though they were near the bottom of the formal Tokugawa hierarchy. During the 18th century Edo, with around a million inhabitants, was the largest city on earth, hub of one of the most advanced and prosperous economies in the preindustrial world. At that time, too, peasant disturbances became more frequent under the pressure of food shortages.

Under the direction of the Meiji leaders, the Japanese remained untouched by the European imperialism that, at the time, was engulfing other Asian countries. By concerted imitation of Western civilization in all its aspects, they set out to make Japan itself a world power, under the slogan fukoku kyohei ("enrich the country, strengthen the army"). French officers were engaged to remodel the army; British seamen reorganized the navy; and Dutch engineers supervised new construction in the islands. Japanese were sent abroad to analyse foreign governments and to select their best features for duplication in Japan. A new penal code was modelled on that of France. A ministry of education was established in 1871 to develop a system of universal education based on that of the United States, though it was to promote a nationalist proimperial state ideology developed from Shinto. Rapid industrialization was instituted under government supervision. Universal military service was decreed in 1872, and four years later the samurai class of professional warriors was abolished by decree, though not without a tragic confrontation between conscripts and samurai at Satsuma in 1877, ending in Saigo Takamori's death as a rebel.

The decisive Japanese triumph indicated to the world that a new, strong power was rising in the East. As a preliminary to negotiating full equality with the great powers, Japan, in 1890, had completely revised its criminal, civil, and commercial law codes on Western models. Thus, the empire was in a position to demand the revocation of extraterritoriality clauses from its treaties. By 1899 all the great powers had signed treaties abandoning extraterritoriality in Japan. In 1894 the United States and Great Britain were the first nations given the freedom of the entire empire for trade.

Japanese-American relations had for some years been strained by difficulties over Japanese emigration to the United States. Thousands of Japanese had settled in America, and residents demanded the exclusion of the Japanese by legislation similar to the Chinese Exclusion Acts of 1882, 1892, and 1902. This agitation was led by American labour unions, resenting the fact that Japanese labourers were willing to work for lower wages and longer hours than those called for by American labour policies. Formal protests against the treatment of Japanese were delivered by the Japanese ambassador in Washington in 1906, and, after a series of negotiations, Japan and the United States concluded a so-called "gentleman's agreement" in 1908. By this extra-legal agreement, confirmed in 1911, Japan consented to withhold passports from labourers, and the US Department of State promised to disapprove anti-Japanese legislation. The problem, however, was never fully resolved, and it contributed to anti-American feeling in Japan, which increased in the following three decades.

The independent action of the army indicated the power of the military leaders in Japanese politics. In 1936, after a factional coup which left much of Tokyo in military hands for a few days, the empire signed an anti-Communist agreement with Germany and, one year later, a similar pact with Italy. The establishment of almost complete military rule, with the cooperation of the zaibatsu, or industrial family trusts, made aggression and expansion the avowed policy of the empire.

On July 7, 1937, a Chinese patrol clashed with Japanese troops on the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. Using the incident as a pretext to begin hostilities, the Japanese army in Manchuria moved troops into the area, precipitating another Sino-Japanese war, although it was never formally declared. A Japanese force quickly overran northern China. By the end of 1937 the Japanese navy had completed a blockade of almost the entire Chinese coast. The army advanced into eastern and southern China throughout 1937 and 1938, capturing, successively, Shanghai, Suzhou (Soochow), Nanjing (Nanking), Tsingtao (Quingdao), Canton (Guangzhou), and Hankou (Hankow), and forcing the Chinese army into the west. A Japanese force occupied the island of Hainan. Protests by foreign governments concerning property owned by their nationals and mistreatment by Japanese troops of foreigners resident in China were, in effect, ignored by the empire. By the end of 1938 the war had reached a virtual stalemate. The Japanese army was checked by the mountains of central China, behind which the Chinese waged guerrilla warfare against the invaders.

The beginning of World War II in Europe, in September 1939, gave Japan new opportunity for aggression in South-East Asia. These aggressive acts were prefaced by a series of diplomatic arrangements. In September 1940 the empire concluded a tripartite alliance with Germany and Italy, the so-called Rome-Berlin Axis, pledging mutual and total aid for a period of ten years. Japan considered, however, that a 1939 neutrality pact between Germany and the USSR had released the empire from any obligation incurred by the 1936 anti-Communist alliance. In September 1941, therefore, Japan signed a neutrality pact with the USSR, thus protecting the northern border of Manchuria. A year before, with the consent of the German-sponsored Vichy government of France, Japanese forces occupied French Indo-China. At the same time Japan tried to obtain economic and political footholds in the Netherlands East Indies.

For about a year following the successful surprise attacks, Japan maintained the offensive in South-East Asia and the islands of the South Pacific. The empire designated eastern Asia and its environs as the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" and made effective propaganda of the slogan "Asia for the Asians". Moreover, nationalistic elements in some of the countries of South and South-East Asia gave tacit and, in some cases, active support to the Japanese, because they saw an apparent way to free themselves from Western imperialism. In December 1941, Japan invaded Thailand, forcing the government to conclude a treaty of alliance.

On August 11, 1945, after the Japanese offered to surrender, Douglas MacArthur was appointed Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) occupying Japan. Representatives of China, the USSR, and Great Britain were named to an Allied Council for Japan, sitting in Tokyo, to assist MacArthur. Broad questions of occupation policy became the province of the Far Eastern Commission, sitting in Washington, D.C., representing the United States, Great Britain, the USSR, Australia, Canada, China, France, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the Philippines. A number of Japanese wartime leaders were tried for war crimes by an 11-nation tribunal that convened in Tokyo on May 3, 1946, and closed on November 12, 1948.

The American occupation of the Japanese islands was in no way resisted. The objectives of the occupation policy were declared to be, basically, the democratization of the Japanese government and the reestablishment of a peacetime industrial economy sufficient for the Japanese population. MacArthur was directed to exercise his authority through the emperor and existing government machinery as far as possible. Among other Allied objectives was the dissolution of the great industrial and banking trusts, the assets of which were seized in 1946 and later liquidated through SCAP. A programme of land reform, designed to give tenant farmers an opportunity to purchase the land they worked, was in operation by 1947, and an education programme along democratic lines was organized. Women were given the franchise in the first postwar general election in April 1946, and 38 women were elected to the Japanese diet. Subsequently the diet agreed to an American-inspired redraft of a new constitution, which became effective in May 1947.

The rehabilitation of the Japanese economy was more difficult than the reorganization of the government. The scarcity of food had to be offset by imports from the Allied powers, and from the United States in particular. Severe bombing during the war had almost nullified Japanese industrial capacity. By the beginning of 1949 aid to Japan was costing the United States more than $1 million a day.

Beginning in May 1949 work stoppages took place in various Japanese industries, notably coal mining. The government accused the Communist party, which had polled 3 million votes in a recent national election, of instigating the strikes for political purposes, and MacArthur concurred in this view. Subsequently the government launched a large-scale investigation of Communist activities. MacArthur's labour policies were sharply criticized in June 1949 by the Soviet member of the Allied Control Council. In his reply, MacArthur accused the USSR of fomenting disorder in Japan through the Communist party and of "callous indifference" in repatriating Japanese prisoners of war. For the next year communism and repatriation were dominant issues in national politics. The Soviet Union announced in April 1950 that, excluding approximately 10,000 war criminals, all prisoners (94,973) had been returned to Japan; according to Japanese records more than 300,000 prisoners were still in the custody of the USSR.

The peace conference opened in San Francisco in early September. Of the nations invited, India, Burma, and Yugoslavia refused to attend. During the conference discussion was limited to the previously prepared treaty text, a procedure that nullified Soviet attempts to reopen negotiations on its various provisions. The treaty was signed by 49 countries, including Japan; the USSR, Czechoslovakia, and Poland refused to do so.

By the terms of the treaty Japan renounced all claims to Korea, Taiwan, the Kurils, Sakhalin, and former mandated islands, and relinquished any special rights and interests in China and Korea; the right of Japan to defend itself and enter into collective security arrangements was recognized; and Japan accepted in principle the validity of reparations claims, to be paid in goods and services in view of the country's insufficient financial resources.

At the same time, the United States and Japan signed a bilateral agreement providing for the maintenance of US military bases and armed forces in and around Japan to protect the disarmed country from aggression or from large-scale internal disturbances.

Meanwhile, MacArthur had been relieved of his post as SCAP in April 1951. Lieutenant General Matthew Bunker Ridgway, then commander of the UN forces in Korea, succeeded him. The United States terminated economic aid to Japan at the end of June, but the detrimental effect of this action on the Japanese economy was largely offset by American military procurement orders for the Korean War, then raging. The country's economic problems stemmed mainly from the wartime loss of overseas markets, especially the Chinese mainland. Recognizing the importance of the Chinese market, the United States in October granted Japan the right to carry on limited trade with mainland China.

On April 28, 1952, the Japanese peace treaty became effective, and full sovereignty was restored to Japan. By the terms of the Japanese-American treaty of 1951, US troops remained in Japan as security forces. The Japanese government concluded treaties of peace or renewed diplomatic relations during 1952 with Taiwan, Burma, India, and Yugoslavia.

The question of rearmament was widely debated throughout 1952. The government was reluctant to commit itself in favour of rebuilding the country's defences, mainly because of economic difficulties and legal obstacles (in the Japanese constitution of 1947 war is renounced "forever").

In March 1953, Premier Yoshida, after losing a vote of confidence on proposals for increased centralization of the school system and the police force, scheduled new elections. The electorate went to the polls in April and again returned the Liberals to power. Yoshida was then renamed premier.

During 1953 the US government, seeking further to safeguard the country against possible Communist aggression, actively encouraged Japan to rearm. In August the two countries signed a military-aid treaty that contained provision for the manufacture of Japanese arms according to American specifications. In a joint statement in September, Premier Yoshida and Shigemitsu Mamoru, Progressive party leader, officially recommended that Japan rearm for self-defence. Negotiations with the US government led to the signing of a mutual-defence pact by the two nations in March 1954.

Premier Yoshida's policy of close collaboration with the United States was subjected to strong criticism by dissidents within the Liberal party during the second half of 1954. In late November the insurgent Liberals formed the Japan Democratic party. Premier Yoshida, who was removed as head of the Liberal party a few days later, resigned the premiership in early December after failing to muster a majority in the diet. Subsequently, by virtue of Socialist party support, the Democratic party leader Hatoyama Ichiro was elected premier. He promised, in exchange for Socialist support, to dissolve the diet in January 1955 and hold national elections.

The Democratic party failed to win a majority in the diet in the election held in February 1955, but with Liberal support Hatoyama was returned to the premiership. The Democratic party and the Liberal party merged in November of that year, giving the government an absolute majority in the diet and inaugurating the power monopoly of the Liberal Democratic party.

In October 1956 the Soviet Union and Japan agreed to end the technical state of war that had existed between the two countries since August 1945. The agreement provided for the reestablishment of normal diplomatic relations, for the repatriation of Japanese prisoners of war still remaining in the USSR, for the effectuation of fishing treaties negotiated earlier in the year, for Soviet support of Japanese entry into the UN, and for the return to Japan of certain small islands off its northern coasts on the conclusion of a formal Soviet-Japanese peace treaty. On December 18 the UN General Assembly voted unanimously to admit Japan to the United Nations. Two days later Ishibashi Tanzan, the minister of international trade and industry, succeeded Hatoyama as premier. While maintaining close relations with the United States, Ishibashi sought to expand trade with the USSR and China as a means of reducing unemployment.

In October 1958 the Socialist party ordered a strike of its members in both chambers of the diet to protest a government bill providing for increased power for the police. By the beginning of November, about 4 million workers were also on a protest strike; subsequently, Premier Kishi agreed to withdraw the bill. Elections in June 1959 for half the seats in the House of Councillors proved a victory for the Liberal Democratic party. Shortly afterwards, the government was completely reorganized.

In 1963 the governing Liberal Democrats sought to amend a constitutional provision banning maintenance of military forces and other war potential in Japan. The amendment, necessary to legalize further increases in the Japanese armed forces, needed approval of a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives. Lacking such a majority, Premier Ikeda dissolved the diet and scheduled elections for November 21. His party's majority was reduced by 13 seats.

In March 1965 the South Korean foreign minister became the first Korean government official to meet with the Japanese government since World War II. During his visit the Japanese and South Korean governments reached far-ranging agreement on mutual relations. In the late 1960s Japan experienced widespread and sometimes violent demonstrations by radical students protesting Japanese support of US foreign policy. Japanese-United States relations were strained in 1971 by the failure of the United States to consult with Japan on China policy and the devaluation of the dollar, but the breach was partly healed by the return of Okinawa to Japan in 1972.

Japan in the 1960s surpassed every nation of western Europe in terms of gross national product and ranked next to the United States as a world industrial power. The Japan World Exposition, staged at Osaka in 1970, demonstrated the nation's restored position in world affairs. By 1971 Japan was the third largest exporter in the world, next to the United States and West Germany (now part of the united Federal Republic of Germany), and the fifth largest importer.

Japan in the early 1980s faced urban overcrowding, environmental pollution, and unproductive agriculture, but had the highest rate of economic growth and the lowest inflation rate among leading industrial nations. Economic growth began to slow in the mid-1980s, in part because the yen's strength against the US dollar had a dampening effect on exports.

Dogged by allegations that he accepted an illegal loan in 1982 and beset by the strains of keeping the backward-looking Social Democrats in the coalition, Hosokawa stepped down in early April 1994. Later that month, the seven-party coalition chose Hata to be premier. Soon afterwards, the Social Democrats withdrew from the coalition, fearing efforts by coalition partners to marginalize them, leaving Hata without a majority in the lower house of the diet. He subsequently resigned in late June. Social Democratic party leader Murayama Tomiichi was elected premier a few days later in a coalition agreement with the old Socialist party's former enemies the Liberal Democrats, becoming the first left-wing figure to lead Japan since 1948. Reformist opposition parties regrouped as the New Frontier party, under Kaifu Toshiki's leadership and Ozawa Ichiro's stewardship.

On January 17, 1995, the city of Kobe was devastated by an earthquake which killed some 5,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless. On March 20 Tokyo's subway system was hit by chemical weapons including the nerve gas sarin in a terrorist attack which killed 12 and affected thousands. Investigations of the fringe religious cult Aum Shinri Kyo unearthed chemical and firearms factories, as well as evidence of kidnapping and other irregularities. The Murayama coalition government suffered an embarrassing setback in local elections in April, when a general swing against mainstream candidates included the elevation of a television personality and a former comedian to the key governorships of Tokyo and Osaka; while the NFP gained important provincial governorships. Rampant currency speculation drove up the value of the yen to record levels, threatening economic recovery and unleashing severe price deflation.

In August 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, Murayama made a statement expressing a "heartfelt apology" for Japanese wartime aggression. In September the second fiscal stimulus package of the year was introduced to boost the economy. The rape of a Japanese schoolgirl in Okinawa by three American servicemen in October 1995 caused a wave of anti-American demonstrations on the island. In December 1995 Ozawa Ichiro became leader of the opposition NFP. Murayama announced his resignation in January 1996, and was replaced as prime minister in the coalition government by Hashimoto Ryutaro, leader of the LDP. In March 1996 a government plan to rescue insolvent housing loan companies using public money was finally passed after a long opposition blockade.

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