With a population of over 123 million as of 2025, it is the world’s 11th most populous country. The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands alongside 14,121 smaller islands. (The population of Tokyo Metropolitan Area as of June 1, 2021 is 13,999,568, approximately 10% of Japan’s total population.) Japan is the most successful Asian Rugby Union country and hosted the 2019 IRB Rugby World Cup. The country gained the hosting rights for the official Women’s Volleyball World Championship on five occasions, more than any other country.
About Japan
The prime minister as the head of government has the power to appoint and dismiss Ministers of State, and is appointed by the emperor after being designated from among the members of the Diet. During the Meiji period (1868–1912), the Empire of Japan emerged as the most developed state in Asia and as an industrialized world power that pursued military conflict to expand its sphere of influence. The succeeding Ashikaga shogunate failed to control the feudal warlords (daimy?) and a civil war began in 1467, opening the century-long Sengoku period (“Warring States”). Super GT is the most popular national racing series in Japan, while Super Formula is the top-level domestic open-wheel series. Karate, which originated in the Ryukyu Kingdom, is popular across the world and has been included in the Olympic Games.
Minority ethnic groups in the country include the indigenous Ainu and Ryukyuan people. Japan is an ethnically and culturally homogeneous society, with the Japanese people forming 97.4% of the country’s population. Japan has a population of over 123 million, of whom nearly 120 million are Japanese nationals (2024 estimates). Since privatization in 1987, dozens of Japanese railway companies compete in regional and local passenger transportation markets; major companies include seven JR enterprises, Kintetsu, Seibu Railway and Keio Corporation. The Japanese agricultural sector accounts for about 1.2% of the country’s total GDP as of 2018update. Japan is widely considered to be a great power due to its economic power and political, cultural, and military influence.
- Immigration and birth incentives are sometimes suggested as a solution to provide younger workers to support the nation’s aging population.
- Japan’s constitution prohibits racial and religious discrimination, and the country is a signatory to numerous international human rights treaties.
- Clay vessels from the period are among the oldest surviving examples of pottery.
- These reforms culminated with the promulgation of the Taih? Code, which consolidated existing statutes and established the structure of the central and subordinate local governments.
- It was not until after World War II that Japanese architects made an impression on the international scene, firstly with the work of architects like Kenz? Tange and then with movements like Metabolism.
- Ishir? Honda’s Godzilla became an international icon of Japan and spawned an entire subgenre of kaiju films, as well as the longest-running film franchise in history.
Payment for personal medical services is offered through a universal health insurance system that provides relative equality of access, with fees set by a government committee. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) coordinated by the OECD ranks the knowledge and skills of Japanese 15-year-olds as the third best in the world. Other minority religions include Hinduism, Judaism, and Bahá?í Faith, as well as the animist beliefs of the Ainu. In 2018, there were an estimated 105 mosques and 200,000 Muslims in Japan, 43,000 of which were Japanese nationals. Immigration and birth incentives are sometimes suggested as a solution to provide younger workers to support the nation’s aging population. The changes in demographic structure have created several social issues, particularly a decline in the workforce population and an increase in the cost of social security benefits.
Japan
Around 14,500 BC (the start of the J?mon period), a Mesolithic to Neolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer culture characterized by pit dwelling and rudimentary agriculture emerged. The old Malay name for Japan, Japang or Japun, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect and encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia, who brought the word to Europe in the early 16th century. In the 13th century, Marco Polo recorded the Early Mandarin Chinese pronunciation of the characters ??? as Cipangu. The characters ?? mean ‘sun origin’, which is the source of the popular Western epithet “Land of the Rising Sun”. Nihon is typically used in everyday speech and reflects shifts in Japanese phonology during the Edo period.
- Japan maintains one of the world’s largest fishing fleets and accounts for nearly 15% of the global catch, prompting critiques that Japan’s fishing is leading to depletion in fish stocks such as tuna.
- Japan has the world’s fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP, after that of the United States, China, Germany and India; and the fifth-largest by PPP-adjusted GDP.
- It spent 1.4% of its total GDP on its defence budget and maintained the tenth-largest military budget in the world in 2024.
- Japan is a unitary state and constitutional monarchy in which the power of the emperor (Tenn?) is limited to a ceremonial role.
- Adopting Western political, judicial, and military institutions, the Cabinet organized the Privy Council, introduced the Meiji Constitution (November 29, 1890), and assembled the Imperial Diet.
- Japan is a leading robotics producer, supplying 38% of the world’s 2024 total, down from 55% in 2017.
Climate
More recent major quakes are the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake and the 2011 T?hoku earthquake, which triggered a large tsunami. Destructive earthquakes, often resulting in tsunami, occur several times each century; the 1923 Tokyo earthquake killed over 140,000 people. As of 2014update, approximately 0.5% of Japan’s total area is reclaimed land (umetatechi). Honshu has the highest population density at 450 persons/km2 (1200/sq mi) as of 2010update, while Hokkaido has the lowest density of 64.5 persons/km2 as of 2016update. The Ryukyu Islands, which include Okinawa, are a chain to the south of Kyushu. In 2011, Japan suffered one of the largest earthquakes in its recorded history—the T?hoku earthquake—triggering the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
Modern era
Western classical music, introduced in the late 19th century, forms an integral part of Japanese culture. Confucian ideals remain evident in the Japanese concept of society and the self, and in the organization of the government and the structure of society. Natsume S?seki and Mori ?gai were significant novelists in the early 20th century, followed by Ry?nosuke Akutagawa, Jun’ichir? Tanizaki, Kaf? Nagai and, more recently, Haruki Murakami and Kenji Nakagami. During the Edo period, the ch?nin (“townspeople”) overtook the samurai aristocracy as producers and consumers of literature. In the early Heian period, the system of phonograms known as kana (hiragana and katakana) was developed.
Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji and the lyrics of Japan’s national anthem “Kimigayo” were written during this time. This marked the beginning of the Heian period (794–1185), during which a distinctly indigenous Japanese culture emerged. A smallpox epidemic in 735–737 is believed to have killed as much as one-third of Japan’s population. The period is characterized by the appearance of a nascent literary culture with the completion of the Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720), as well as the development of Buddhist-inspired artwork and architecture.
Since the 19th century, Japan has incorporated much of Western modern architecture into construction and design. Japan has one of the world’s highest suicide rates, which is considered a major social issue. Since 1981, the principal cause of death in Japan https://www.richyfox.co.uk/ is cancer, which accounted for 27% of the total deaths in 2018—followed by cardiovascular diseases, which led to 15% of the deaths. Since 1973, all elderly persons have been covered by government-sponsored insurance.
Climate
Beginning in 2000, Japan implemented the Happy Monday System, which moved a number of national holidays to Monday in order to obtain a long weekend. Japanese animated films and television series, known as anime, were largely influenced by Japanese manga and have become highly popular globally. Many Japanese media franchises have gained considerable global popularity and are among the world’s highest-grossing media franchises. Popular music in post-war Japan has been heavily influenced by American and European trends, which has led to the evolution of J-pop.
Because of its far-flung outlying islands, Japan’s exclusive economic zone is the eighth-largest in the world, covering 4,470,000 km2 (1,730,000 sq mi). The country’s five main islands, from north to south, are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa. The Allies convened the International Military Tribunal for the Far East to prosecute Japanese leaders except the Emperor for Japanese war crimes. In 1931, Japan invaded China and occupied Manchuria, which led to the establishment of puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932; following international condemnation of the occupation, it resigned from the League of Nations in 1933.
However, it lacks any laws against discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity and does not have a national human rights institution. The Special Assault Team comprises national-level counter-terrorism tactical units that cooperate with territorial-level Anti-Firearms Squads and Counter-NBC Terrorism Squads. In December 2022, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida instructed the government to increase spending by 65% until 2027. The deployment of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan marked the first overseas use of Japan’s military since World War II. The military is governed by the Ministry of Defense, and primarily consists of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. Japan is the third highest-ranked Asian country in the 2024 Global Peace Index.
