Basic Facts – Japan

The Land of the Rising Sun

Basic Facts – Japan

• Japan is an archipelago off the east coast of mainland Asia. The four main islands are (from north to south) Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. The Ryukyu Islands south of the main four are also part of Japan with the main one of these islands being Okinawa.

Basic Facts – Japan

• Japan has one of the most homogeneous societies in the world.

Basic Facts – Japan

• Japan is very limited in natural resources. It calls its people its greatest resource.

Basic Facts – Japan

• Because of the lack of resources, Japan has developed a mercantile economy based on trade (Export-led). They buy raw materials from around the world and sell finished products around the world.

Basic Facts – Japan

• Japan is remote from the countries with the most economic ties to it. It is trying to develop trade with its Asian neighbors but mistrust from the memories of World War II domination still linger.

• Other Asian countries are allowing more Japanese investment today.

Basic Facts – Japan

• Japan modernized in a non-western way. Although the Japanese copied western economic, political, and military technologies, they kept many of the traditional Japanese beliefs and customs.

Basic Facts – Japan

• Japan has one of the largest physiological population densities in the world. Space is at a premium in Japan, so an appreciation of the miniature things and ways to conserve space has flourished.

Basic Facts – Japan

• Japan’s agriculture is the most modernized and productive in Asia, but it requires government subsidies to thrive.

Basic Facts – Japan

• Japan’s diet is fish and rice based. Aquaculture is growing rapidly in Japan.

Basic Facts – Japan

• Japan’s economy, though currently in a recession, is one of the strongest in the world.

GDP 2008International Monetary Fund

Basic Facts – Japan

• Since World War II, Japan’s constitution forbid Japan to engage in a foreign war. Its small military is for defense only. Japan depends on the United States for the bulk of its defense.

Basic Facts – Japan

• The imperial dynasty of Japan stretches back to before 600 B.C.

His Majesty The Emperor Akihito of Japan

Basic Facts – Japan

• The government of Japan is a Constitutional Parliamentary Monarchy. The government is fashioned after the British parliamentary system with the Diet being the legislative body.

Basic Facts – Japan

• The Tokyo-Yokohama megalopolis is the largest urban agglomeration in the world.