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1[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Japan-map_3844.gif]]
2[[caption-width-right:330:The Land of the Rising Sun, aka the [[{{Kaiju}} Kaijus']] favorite playground.]]
3
4->''"Japan is an island by the sea filled with volcanoes, and it's '''beautiful!'''~♪"''
5-->-- '''WebVideo/BillWurtz''', ''WebVideo/HistoryOfJapan''
6
7Japan ('''Japanese:''' ''日本''; ''Nippon'' or ''Nihon''[[note]]Yes, it's just Japan and just ''Nippon''. There is no "Kingdom" or "State" in its title. Officially, the monarch of Japan is called "Emperor" (''Tennō''), which would mean Japan is an empire, but that would bring to mind [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII terrible memories of the 1940s...]][[/note]]) is an island country located off UsefulNotes/{{Asia}}'s [[UsefulNotes/TheFarEast eastern coast]]. Its territory is comprised of four major islands (from north to south: Hokkaidō, Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū) and thousands of smaller ones.
8
9Known principally as the land of UsefulNotes/{{Shinto}}, {{Samurai}}, {{Ninja}}s (or ''Shinobi'' for those who value historical accuracy), KabukiTheatre, electronic and general consumer {{Mega Corp}}s and incredible innovation (although [[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-21992700 not as much]] today), one-third of the interactive entertainment industry, {{Manga}}, {{Anime}}, an interesting fusion of Orientalist and Western architecture, UsefulNotes/{{kawaisa}}, sushi, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick wartime atrocities, rather-frequent natural disasters, and two cities that bore witness to the true potential of nuclear warfare]]. With a population of 125 million, it is the sixth most populous country in Asia, and the eleventh most populous in the world.
10
11Japan is a free-market, developed, democratic country, with the world's 4th largest economy, and very high standards of living. While many countries in Asia (and especially East Asia) are today considered developed and high-economic, Japan has the quirk of having experienced mass industrialization and development predating them by decades. [[UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration Within the span of a mere 30 years]], Japan transformed from a poor, loosely-knit, largely-feudal, agriculture-concentric society into an industrial and military powerhouse, enabling it to pursue a campaign of exploration and colonialism abroad and participate in two world wars as key players. For a long time, it was the only Asian country that could "stand on equal footing" with Western Europe and the Anglophone countries in terms of economy and development; it is the only Asian representative of the G7, which grouped the world's seven largest economies when it was created in the 1970s. Up until the asset price bubble and resulting economic turmoil of the 1990s, Japan was even considered to have [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld the potential to upstage the United States as top superpower]], because it seemed to have ''everything'' penetrated, from consumer goods, automobiles, and an [[VideoGames entertainment]] [[{{Anime}} sec]][[{{Manga}} tor]] with a commercial and cultural exposure potency rivaling that of the USA.
12
13[[foldercontrol]]
14
15[[folder:Prehistory - Jōmon (12,000-300 BCE)]]
16Human habitation upon the archipelago that would become modern Japan dates back to 40,000 BCE. The earliest people of Japan, the so-called Jōmon people, consisted of multiple genetically heterogenous groups. The majority of them were short in stature and had a darker skin complexion than the modern Japanese people, and are genetically closest to the Himalayan Kusunda people. In the north, there was gene flow from Ancient North Eurasian people - a basal population to Europeans hence they had physical features resembling Caucasians, including increased body hair and stocky build, and a way of life that revolved around hunting and gathering.\
17
18Things changed starting in the early 1st millennium BCE, when sedentary settlements belonging to the Yayoi people began to appear in Western Japan and enveloped most of the country by the 3rd century BCE. They were immigrants from the Korean peninsula, which at that time was settled by Japonic-speaking peoples until they were displaced and assimilated by proto-Koreans in the late 1st millennium[[note]]Some believe that Japonic peoples still existed in Korea until as late as the 6th century CE, in the form of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaya_confederacy Gaya/Kara confederacy]][[/note]], bringing with them new farming techniques, tools, and metallurgy [[note]]Japan is interesting as there was no real separate Bronze and Iron age, with both metals being introduced to the archipelago roughly at the same time[[/note]].\
19
20The Jōmon heavily intermarried with the Yayoi but the process of assimilation was gradual; northern Honshū was still inhabited by a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emishi Jōmon-descended people]] until the early Heian period, and Hokkaidō was dominated by the tribal Ainu until after the Meiji Restoration, when Japan began actively colonizing the island to prevent the Russians from claiming it. As for their language, the (now moribund) Ainu language is an isolate, completely unrelated to Japanese or any other language in the world. Some linguists consider Ainu to be an extension of the languages spoken by Paleosiberian peoples in North Asia (e.g. Nivkh, Yukaghir, Chukchi) but they are an areal, and not genetic, grouping.\
21[[/folder]]
22
23[[folder:History - Yayoi, Kofun, and Asuka (300 BCE-710 CE)]]
24The very first historical inscription mentioning Japan is the so-called King of Na gold seal discovered in Kyūshū, which indicates that a state of Na in the land of Wa was subject to the [[UsefulNotes/DynastiesFromShangToQing Han dynasty]], a finding corroborated by a Han dynasty chronicle which mentioned a tribute from the "State of Na of Wa" (倭奴國) in 57 CE. "Wa" is the oldest name for Japan, predating "Nippon" by several centuries, and used to be written with a kanji that means something along the lines of "dwarf people" (倭) until Japan eventually took offense and replaced it with one meaning "harmony" (和). In the 3rd century, a much extensive historical record appeared in the ''Records of the Three Kingdoms''[[note]]Yes, ''[[UsefulNotes/ThreeKingdomsShuWeiWu that]]'' Three Kingdoms, the one that followed the fall of the Han dynasty[[/note]], a Chinese text which detailed correspondences between the state of Wei and Yamataikoku, a country in Wa ruled by a shaman queen named Himiko. The Wa people were described as a bunch of tribal communities who recognized Himiko as their spiritual leader, subsisted on fish, and built grave mounds in the shape of keyholes. These grave mounds, called ''kofun'', are the namesake of the period following the Yayoi, the Kofun, which is usually grouped together with the following Asuka period as the "Yamato period".\
25
26During the Yamato period, the titular state, located in present-day Nara Prefecture and which might or might not be related to the aforementioned Yamataikoku, rose as a regional player by unifying other states in the islands. In the process, its name became synonymous with Japan itself; "Yamato" today is a poetic word for Japan (as in terms like YamatoNadeshiko).\
27
28Relations with China and Korea reached new heights, with large numbers of Chinese and Korean clans settling in Japan. These clans introduced their culture to their archipelago and even spread their genetics into the Japanese population. Japan imported Chinese characters to write records (although all of them have been lost), a legal system based on Confucianism (''Ritsuryō''), and a series of reforms, including land redistribution, designed to further centralize the state and increase the power of the Yamato court (the ''Taika'' reforms). Buddhism was imported via Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, and after Baekje was destroyed in the 660s, a wave of refugees from the former kingdom escaped to Japan by virtue of strong family ties; [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Junda a prince of Baekje]] previously settled in Japan to found a clan, a member of whom married into the Japanese imperial family (which also had its earliest verified emperors in this period) in the following Nara period.\
29
30Two principal clans vied for power in the Yamato court in this time: the Buddhist-inclined Soga and the Shinto-inclined Mononobe. The former prevailed and, under the auspices of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Shōtoku Prince Shōtoku]], disseminated Buddhism, which was quietly merged with Shinto as the dominant faith of Japanese people. The Soga were in turn usurped by the Nakatomi clan, whose leading member Nakatomi no Kamatari enacted the ''Taika'' reforms. In recognition of his efforts to unify the country, the emperor bestowed him the new clan name "Fujiwara".\
31
32The Yayoi have long been considered the precursors of the modern Japanese people, and the "dual structure model" of Yayoi and Jōmon people mixing with each other - with Yayoi ancestry being dominant - has served as the primary ethnogenesis hypothesis for (Yamato) Japanese people. However, newer genetic research has challenged this long-held belief by demonstrating that there was another third wave of migration during the Kofun period and that modern Japanese people [[https://www.livescience.com/ancient-bones-reveal-japanese-ancestery.html draw more of their ancestry from the "Kofun people" than they do the Yayoi]].
33[[/folder]]
34
35[[folder:History - Nara and Heian (710-1185)]]
36Until the late 8th century, Japan moved its capital in the Kinai region[[note]]Nara, Kyōto, Ōsaka, and the surrounding areas[[/note]] every time an emperor died, because of the taboo of lands inhabited by dead emperors. This changed with reforms during the Asuka period, but in the 8th century, the capital still moved more than five times, although a good chunk of the century was spent in and around the vicinity of Nara (known then as "Heijō-kyō"), to where the Empress Genmei moved in 710.\
37
38While previous history was provided by foreign sources, during the Nara period, Japan started to actively engage in records writing. The first indigenous written works appeared in this time: the ''Kojiki'', an account of Japanese mythology and its association with the imperial family, and ''Nihon Shoki'', which had much the same content but followed it up with history of the imperial court until the contemporary era. Both were written in Classical Chinese, but another work, ''Man'yōshū'', a poem collection, was the first work mostly written in Japanese, using a phonetic system called Man'yōgana, wherein Chinese characters were used to phonetically write Japanese syllables.[[note]]Parts of ''Kojiki'' were also written using this system.[[/note]] Cultural exchanges with China continued, with Japan modeling Heijō-kyō after the Tang capital of Chang'an.\
39
40In 794, the court moved to Heian-kyō, present-day Kyōto. The emperor would not move again until a whopping 1,074 years later, when Emperor Meiji moved to Edo. The period that followed, Heian, is considered the "golden age" of Japan, as traditional arts and culture flourished in the court, which put an emphasis on high culture. Buddhism further developed along the teachings of the monk Kūkai, who founded Shingon Buddhism. With the end of the Tang and the ensuing era of civil war in China, exchanges with China ground to a halt, allowing indigenous Japanese culture to show its teeth. The kana writing systems appeared during this period from the aforementioned Man'yōgana, albeit through different channels; hiragana developed out of a cursive script that was used by Japanese women, who were forbidden to use kanji, while katakana was created in Buddhist monasteries to abbreviate written works. Famous writers and poets such as Creator/MurasakiShikibu, Creator/SeiShonagon, and Ariwara no Narihira lived in this time, and works such as ''Literature/TheTaleOfGenji'', ''Literature/ThePillowBook'', ''The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter'', and ''Iroha'' (a poem used as the main alphabetical rendering of the kana system until the Meiji Restoration) also appeared. Finally, the period produced Japan's national anthem, "Kimigayo", one of the poems in the ''Kokin Wakashū'' anthology.\
41
42However, the Heian period also saw the first cracks of the centralized Japanese state that would grow into a full-blown civil war. Since the court spent so much time being cloistered in the palaces, they left the care of the country to regional clans to police the country. The Fujiwara, who had been the most important clan in Japan since their ascendancy in the 7th century, became even powerful in the court, gaining the ire of the other three high clans of Japan: the Minamoto (also known as UsefulNotes/{{Genji}}), the Taira (also known as Heishi), and the Tachibana. In 1156, the first two briefly allied to support a potential emperor in a succession crisis against the Fujiwara -- who were defeated and subsequently lost much of their power -- before turning on each other. With the breakdown of centralized rule, many feudal lords (''daimyō'') hired the ''samurai'', originally civil servants turned paramilitary units to help them consolidate their lands (which they previously gained in the ''shōen'' system, under which the lords were allowed to claim the lands as their private properties in exchange for loyalty towards the emperor) against rival clans.\
43
44Eventually, the Taira clan seized power after a war with the Minamoto, who barely survived. After 20 years, the Minamoto returned and declared rebellion against the Taira, triggering the Genpei War. When the war ended, the Taira were destroyed, the Minamoto assumed control, the emperor lost his powers and became mostly symbolic, the samurai were formally recognized, the country turned into a military dictatorship (''bakufu'', or in Western translations, "shogunate"), and, though the emperor stayed in Kyōto, the administrative capital moved to the eastern Kantō region. In 1185, the age of feudalism began.
45[[/folder]]
46
47[[folder:History - Kamakura (1185-1333)]]
48Has [[UsefulNotes/KamakuraShogunate its own page]]. After winning a war and rising up to the ranks, [[HappyEndingOverride the Minamoto were quickly relegated to the background]], with actual governmental power exercised by the Hōjō (an offshoot of the Taira) until [[CycleOfRevenge they were defeated by another branch of the Minamoto]], the Ashikaga clan, in 1333. Major events during this period include the Mongol invasions of Japan, which were famously thwarted, each time coincidentally, by typhoons dubbed as the ''kamikaze'' ("divine wind"). New Buddhist schools were founded, including Pure Land and Nichiren.
49[[/folder]]
50
51[[folder:History - Muromachi and Azuchi-Momoyama (1336-1600)]]
52Emperor Go Daigo conspired with the Ashikaga clan to overthrow the Hōjō in 1333. After this, the emperor briefly reasserted control for three years in a period known as the Kenmu Restoration, the first time any emperor exercised control since the end of the Heian period, but the Ashikaga quickly turned their backs and, under Takauji, overthrew the emperor and exiled him, beginning another shogunate under their name and starting the Muromachi period. The administrative capital was moved back to Kyōto. The former emperor did not go down without a fight, creating a separate court in the south which existed until 1392, challenging the legitimacy of the new shogunate.\
53
54However, even after unification, it became apparent that the Ashikaga were not as strong as the Kamakura bakufu. After the death of the third shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the daimyō regained power and could back candidates of the shoguns. This culminated in the 1460s, when a succession crisis over the shogunate escalated into a war that completely obliterated Kyōto, leaving the winner, the Hosokawa clan, to install their preferred candidate as the rest of Japan descended into total chaos, with the country being split into dozens of competing lands ruled by daimyō. This period, from the start of the war in 1467 until 1600, is better known by another name: the "Warring States" (''Sengoku'', after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warring_States_period an unrelated period]] in Chinese history). For more information about it, see [[UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod this page]]. The civil war era saw the first contact between Japan and Europeans, as the Portuguese and the Dutch established trading posts in the country, and some cultural and technological exchanges were conducted (notably firearms).\
55
56The last years of the Warring States period, from 1568 to 1600, were known as the Azuchi-Momoyama period. During this time, the shogunate was hijacked by a certain warlord named UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga, who campaigned for a unification of Japan and almost succeeded until he committed ''seppuku'' during a coup. Before his death, Nobunaga first attempted to install a shogun of his choice before scrapping the shogunate completely in 1573. Afterwards, his retainer, UsefulNotes/ToyotomiHideyoshi, ascended as leader and resumed the works of his master, finally uniting Japan in 1590. After a failed invasion of Korea, Hideyoshi died of illness, triggering a succession crisis between his son and UsefulNotes/TokugawaIeyasu, who had played the long game to become ruler. The Battle of Sekigahara confirmed Tokugawa's power, resulting in the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, the last feudal period of Japan.\
57[[/folder]]
58
59[[folder:History - Edo (1600-1868)]]
60The last of the pre-modern Japanese period also happened to be its most restrictive one. After the defeat of the Toyotomi, Tokugawa Ieyasu ruled, under the policy of ''sakoku'', that Japan would no longer be affected by foreign influences and closed all entrances to the country. Except for the Dutch, who had a small trading post in Dejima, foreigners were forbidden from trading with Japan. Christianity (which had gained small but burgeoning followers in Japan) was outlawed under the threat of death. Tired of wars, Tokugawa also restricted the movement of people into the established lands of the daimyō. Finally, he moved the administrative capital of Japan again to a small hamlet in the eastern Kantō region known as "Edo".\
61
62[[WellIntentionedExtremist Tokugawa was kind of right in the minds]]. Without war or foreign interference, Japan experienced an economic growth not seen since the breakdown of social order two centuries earlier, as well as a stable population growth. Culture and arts flourished in the cities, including {{Geisha}} and Kabuki. During this period, Japan annexed the Ryūkyū Islands (present-day Okinawa and some parts of Kagoshima Prefectures) to the southwest of Kyūshū, which up to 1609 was ruled by an independent kingdom. The kingdom however continued to exist until 1879, when it was absorbed by Imperial Japan. Culturally, the Ryūkyū people are more influenced by China (practically next door) compared to Japan, though their languages are part of the Japonic family, albeit mutually unintelligible with Japanese or even with each other. A notable cultural import from the Ryūkyū Islands is UsefulNotes/{{Karate}}, often mistaken to be Japan's quintessential martial art (UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} is more apt to the title).\
63
64However, the period was also notorious for its Confucian-inspired rigid social order. Power was inherited rather than gained, and everyone were basically stuck in their assigned status from their birth until death. There's also the neverending rivalries between feudal lords, some of whom were on the losing side of the Battle of Sekigahara and as a result were demoted to the lowest of the low, causing deep-held resentment. And though economic growth was gained, Japan remained an agricultural country all the way to 1800s, with no industrialization of any kind. As a result, when Commodore Perry arrived offshore Edo in ''steam-powered ships'' to force Japan to end sakoku, people were understandably scared.\
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66The last years of the Tokugawa shogunate were a chaotic one. With the country opened, foreign countries were free to trade in Japan. The Shimazu and Mōri clans, who ruled the southern domains of Satsuma and Chōshū, respectively, were on the aforementioned losing side and were furious by the Tokugawa's handling of the opening, surmising that it would subject Japan to unequal treaties as what were happening in other Asian countries at the time. These domains courted the young Emperor Meiji to regain control of the country and reassert Japan's position. In 1867, Tokugawa Yoshinobu abdicated his position, ending the shogunate. Supporters of the Tokugawa refused to accept the new government and fled north to Hokkaidō, where they established a short-lived republic. In response, with the support of Britain and the US, the imperial government launched a war against them and secured the country. Emperor Meiji permanently moved from Kyōto to Edo, now renamed Tōkyō ("Eastern Capital"). Japan entered a new era of modernization, and NothingIsTheSameAnymore.
67[[/folder]]
68
69[[folder:History - Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa (1868-1945)]]
70See UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan, which covers the period between the UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Notable events include the UsefulNotes/FirstSinoJapaneseWar, the UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar, and the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar. Short version: Japan industrialized, modernized, became DrunkWithPower and launched foreign invasions one by one in search of raw materials, sided with the Axis and waged a global war over Asia and the Pacific, got [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki two of its cities nuked]], and unconditionally surrendered to the Allied Powers.
71[[/folder]]
72
73[[folder:History - Shōwa, Heisei, and Reiwa (1945-present)]]
74After Japan surrendered in WWII, the Allied Powers occupied Japan for seven years, the only time in history that Japan was ruled by a foreign power. The [[UsefulNotes/HarryTruman Truman]] administration didn't allow the Soviet Union to partition any territory in Japan proper, although it did allow it to take UsefulNotes/NorthKorea (which Japan had been administering since 1910) as well as southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands (the former of which was gained by Japan after winning the Russo-Japanese War). All political prisoners were released, and tribunals for war criminals were held. The Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, Douglas [=MacArthur=], who presided over the occupation, gave political immunity to the Emperor, whom many in the Allies had wanted to be punished, by deflecting the blame towards ultranationalists and rogue generals for starting the war. He also protected some bonafide war criminals from prosecution, including a couple of members of the imperial family and the people who oversaw Unit 731, a biological and chemical research development department which notoriously performed human experimentations.\
75
76Under a new constitution, the Allies had planned to demilitarize Japan completely and prevent it from being able to wage war by stripping it of its industry. However, the UsefulNotes/ColdWar stymied that plan; after mainland China fell to the communists, Japan suddenly became an important bulwark in Asia against communism in China and the Soviet Union, both of which are only a short distance away. Although the constitution prohibited Japan from creating a standing army, it was allowed to [[LoopholeAbuse exploit a loophole]] by creating the so-called "[[UsefulNotes/KaijuDefenseForce Japan Self-Defense Forces]]", originally a police force that later morphed into an army. It was from Japan that the US launched its Eighth Army in defense of UsefulNotes/SouthKorea during the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar. The country subsequently received generous funding from the US, in a similar way to Western Europe's Marshall Plan, enabling it to recover quickly from the war devastation and basically returning it to pre-war levels at the end of the 1950s. The Japanese postwar economic miracle reached its peak in the 1960s, when the country shockingly became the world's second biggest economy in a very short time. This continued in the next few decades, but began winding down come the 1990s, when an asset price bubble[[note]]A state when the stock market and real estate prices are grossly inflated in regards to intrinsic value.[[/note]] popped, causing an economic stagnation that lasted for an entire decade. Its influence is still felt in many places today.\
77
78In the face of a huge rival in China, Japan's influence is not really as strong as it was in the 20th century, but it's still a force to be reckoned with, being the world's sixth largest exporter and having the fourth biggest economy and fifth largest military strength and ninth by expenditure. An issue plaguing Japan today is its aging problem: with people aged 65 and above forming a quarter of the population, Japan has the oldest population in the world. Thanks to better education about health, the relaxation of abortion laws, and changing social norms, many people are marrying later, if at all. This is the same case with many developed countries, including those in Europe, but Japan is a special case because unlike Europe or North America, Japan (and East Asia in general) is infamously xenophobic when it comes to the treatment of foreigners, who are always treated as the "other", causing it to adopt a very low quota for immigrants each year, preventing the population from growing even more. Another issue is the rising ultranationalism among the population since the 1970s, especially in regards to China and Korea. The latter two feel that Japan doesn't do enough to fess up to its crimes during WWII, which, to their credit, isn't unfounded. Unlike Germany, Japan has no equivalent policy of denazification and never truly educates its population about its role in WWII. It doesn't help that the government (led mainly by the [[UsefulNotes/PoliticalIdeologies conservative and right-wing]] Liberal Democratic Party since the 1950s) tends to avoid the issue when asked and sometimes deliberately aggravates it (e.g. the repeated visitations of the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines several A-Class war criminals, by politicians).\
79[[/folder]]
80
81[[folder:The Chrysanthemum Throne]]
82Japan is famously a monarchy, with an imperial family that has been around for more than [[LongRunner 1000 years]], making it the oldest ruling dynasty in the world. Traditional order of succession found in court chronicles claims that the first emperor, Jimmu, was the great-great-great-grandson of [[ThePowerOfTheSun sun goddess]] Amaterasu, the chief god of the Japanese pantheon, making the imperial family descendants of the goddess and playing into the belief that the Japanese nation is the "Child of the Sun", as indicated in the name ''Nippon'' (the kanji for 日本 means "origin of the sun").[[note]]Actually, the fact that ''Nippon'' means "origin of the sun" and the Japanese worship a sun goddess is a happy coincidence; "Nippon" was originally selected in a Sino-Japanese court correspondence to indicate Japan's position relative to China, i.e. east.[[/note]]. However, Jimmu's existence is seen by modern historians today as a legend, since his claimed years of reign (6th century BCE) clashes with the widely accepted findings that Japan was a primarily hunter-gatherer society until the 3rd century BCE. They could only verify links of the family up to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Kinmei Kinmei]] c. 6th century CE during the Asuka period. Nevertheless, as the purported descendants of the goddess, the family have a special role in Shintoism, and the emperor used to claim himself and be worshiped by the people as [[GodEmperor god incarnate]]. This changed when [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Japan's attempt at global conquest ended in failure in 1945]], leading to the emperor at the time, Hirohito, to publicly renounce his divine status.\
83
84The current emperor is Hirohito's grandson, Naruhito, who succeeded his father, Akihito, after the latter [[AbdicateTheThrone abdicated]] in 2019 so he could focus on his ailing health. Every emperor carries a specific era name, a relic from when an emperor's reign was classified into periods based on a particular event (e.g. floods, high agricultural productivity, etc.). Before the Meiji Restoration, three era names were accorded per emperor, but today, each only has one. The date of an emperor's ascension marks year one of the new calendar, so for example the year "Heisei 13" means the year 2001 in the Gregorian calendar, since it is 13 years after the ascension of Akihito in 1989. The name is official; all formal Japanese documents must carry an era name and year. Naruhito's era name, as revealed in a highly publicized event on 1 April 2019, is "Reiwa". The emperors traditionally sat in a throne called the "Chrysanthemum Throne" (''kōi''), now kept as a relic in Kyōto, the former imperial capital. Still in use to enthrone new emperors, the throne has been used metonymically to refer to the Japanese imperial family itself (much like how "The Crown" is used to refer to the British monarchy).\
85
86Constitutional monarchy (in the sense that monarchs don't rule) has always been a fact of life in Japan for hundreds of years: traditionally, emperors do not rule. This is not always the case; emperors did in fact rule until near the end of the Heian period circa 12th century (it was considered the time when imperial power was at its peak), when court politics, several backstabbings, and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genpei_War a nasty war]] relegated the power over the government to hereditary military dictators called the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogun shogun]]''. After this, the monarchy became completely symbolic and at times even [[ImpoverishedPatrician dirt-poor]], since it didn't actually rule anything. Things briefly changed after the Meiji Restoration, which abolished the shogunate and the feudal system and gave some actual decision-making powers to the emperors, only to be stripped from them again after WWII, as Japan transitioned into a modern constitutional monarchy. Despite this, emperors are seen as a symbol of Japan's unity. Unlike in, say China, where imperial families regularly came and went as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_of_Heaven the popular mandate]] fluctuated, the fact that Japan has been ruled by the same family for over a thousand years is a sign that, in spite of constant conflicts and wars, Japan never truly disintegrated as a country. Warlords, samurai, and feudal lords fought each other all the time, but they always paid respects to the imperial family. This is also the reason why the Allies opted not to abolish the monarchy after Japan lost WWII, because it is a cornerstone of Japan, so if it's gone then so is Japan's stability.
87[[/folder]]
88
89Not to be confused with the band Music/{{Japan}}, [[NonIndicativeName who were from England]].
90
91[[index]]
92!Settings and UsefulNotes related to Japan
93
94[[foldercontrol]]
95
96[[folder:Religion]]
97* Myth/AinuMythology
98* UsefulNotes/{{Atheism}}
99* UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}}
100* UsefulNotes/JapaneseChristian
101* Myth/JapaneseMythology
102* UsefulNotes/{{Onmyodo}}
103* UsefulNotes/{{Shinto}}
104[[/folder]]
105
106[[folder:Military]]
107* EveryJapaneseSwordIsAKatana: Information about Japanese weapons.
108* UsefulNotes/KaijuDefenseForce: Japan Self-Defense Force
109* UsefulNotes/KatanasOfTheRisingSun: (Imperial Japanese Armed Forces)
110[[/folder]]
111
112[[folder:Politics]]
113* UsefulNotes/JapanesePoliticalSystem
114* UsefulNotes/JapaneseEducationSystem
115** UsefulNotes/{{Japanese Universities}}
116* UsefulNotes/{{JAXA}} (Japan's space program)
117[[/folder]]
118
119[[folder:Geography]]
120* UsefulNotes/TheFortySevenPrefectures
121** UsefulNotes/{{Kyoto}}
122** UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo}}
123*** UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo Subways}}
124*** UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo Train Lines}}
125[[/folder]]
126
127[[folder:History]]
128* UsefulNotes/FirstSinoJapaneseWar
129* UsefulNotes/{{Genji}}
130** UsefulNotes/KamakuraShogunate
131* UsefulNotes/CagayanBattles
132* UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan
133* UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration
134* UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar
135* UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar
136* UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod
137[[/folder]]
138
139[[folder:Culture and Customs]]
140* UsefulNotes/{{Hachiko}}
141* UsefulNotes/HairColorInJapaneseMedia
142* UsefulNotes/InsideShoes
143* UsefulNotes/JapaneseArchitecture
144* UsefulNotes/JapaneseHolidays
145** UsefulNotes/ChristmasInJapan
146** UsefulNotes/{{Tanabata}}
147* UsefulNotes/{{Kawaisa}}
148* UsefulNotes/{{Kendo}}
149* UsefulNotes/{{Kimono}}
150* UsefulNotes/KoreansInJapan
151* UsefulNotes/LolitaFashion
152* MonoNoAware
153* UsefulNotes/RadioTaiso
154* UsefulNotes/SubculturesInJapan
155* Main/SumoWrestling
156* UsefulNotes/TeaAndTeaCulture
157* WeddingsInJapan
158[[/folder]]
159
160[[folder:Language]]
161* UsefulNotes/JapaneseLanguage
162[[/folder]]
163
164!!Works and Tropes from Japan
165+ JapaneseMedia
166+ JapaneseMediaTropes
167[[/index]]
168
169!!Japan in non-Japanese popular culture
170
171Most works in JapaneseMedia are set in Japan (and [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse a lot in Tokyo]] at that), obviously enough. The below list concerns non-Japanese media about the country.
172----
173[[folder:Comic Book]]
174* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII American comics ridiculed UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan, of course, as the ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' cover in PropagandaMachine can attest. The [[AsianBuckTeeth racial stereotyping]] hasn't aged well, to say the least.
175[[/folder]]
176
177[[folder:Film]]
178* ''Film/JamesBond'':
179** ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'' sends Bond on a mission against [[NebulousEvilOrganization SPECTRE]] in Japan (and was filmed there).
180** In ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'', Bond very briefly goes to Japan to rough up an informer to find out about the location of his ArchEnemy, Blofeld.
181** In ''Film/NoTimeToDie'', BigBad Safin (Creator/RamiMalek) has a visible fondness for Japan, wearing a Noh theatre mask when killing the mother of Madeleine Swann, having a Japanese garden in his IslandBase and dressing in a kimono in the climax. The base happens to be part of the Kuril Islands, which are disputed between Japan and UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}.
182* In ''Film/KillBill Volume 1'', the Bride travels to Japan to act revenge on O-Ren Ishii.
183* ''Film/TheLastSamurai'', starring Creator/TomCruise and Creator/KenWatanabe, is a rather loose depiction of the Satsuma Rebellion at the start of the UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration.
184* ''Film/{{Lost in Translation|2003}}'' by Creator/SofiaCoppola takes place entirely in Tokyo, where an American movie star (Creator/BillMurray) does some {{Japandering}} (inspired by a stint of [[Creator/FrancisFordCoppola Coppola's father]]) to make a living and meets and befriends a lone married American girl (Creator/ScarlettJohansson).
185* ''Film/RedSun'' blends the {{Jidaigeki}} and SpaghettiWestern genres by sending a Japanese warrior (Creator/ToshiroMifune) to TheWildWest.
186* ''Film/{{Sayonara}}'' takes place in Japan and was filmed on-location (although in Kyoto, when it's set in Kobe). The director was inspired to make it after visiting the country and seeing various forms of performing arts (two major characters are theatre performers).
187* ''Film/{{Silence}}'' by Creator/MartinScorsese, about the persecution of UsefulNotes/{{Japanese Christian}}s and Jesuit missionaries in the Edo period.
188* ''Film/{{Wasabi}}'' sees a French CowboyCop (Creator/JeanReno) go to Japan and deal with what his OldFlame [[AsianBabymama left behind]] (a BrattyTeenageDaughter, among others). In doing so, he clashes with a {{Yakuza}} gang.
189* Most of the action in ''Film/TheWolverine'' is set in Japan, as a reference to Logan's backstory there (as told in his [[TheEighties 80s]] comics phase). It starts with the [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki atomic bombing of Nagasaki]].
190[[/folder]]
191
192[[folder:Live-Action Television]]
193* The 1980 miniseries adaptation of ''[[Literature/AsianSaga Shōgun]]'' starring Creator/RichardChamberlain and Creator/ToshiroMifune is set at the start of the Edo period.
194* Ditto the [[Series/Shogun2024 2024 version]] of ''Shōgun'' starring Creator/HiroyukiSanada, Music/CosmoJarvis and Creator/TadanobuAsano.
195[[/folder]]
196
197[[folder:Music]]
198* Some Western bands have recorded music videos in Japan, like Music/ThePolice's "So Lonely" and Music/TheKillers' "Read My Mind".
199* Music/DeepPurple recorded their best known LiveAlbum in Osaka: ''Music/MadeInJapan''. Many other hard rock/metal bands afterwards have had live albums recorded in concerts in Japan, such as Music/{{Scorpions|Band}} (''Tokyo Tapes'') and Music/JudasPriest (''Unleashed in the East'').
200* All but one of Music/MrBig's {{live album}}s were recorded in Japan. (They were hugely popular over there but in their native America they're remembered as a OneHitWonder for "To Be With You".)
201* Music/SarahVaughan also recorded a LiveAlbum in Japan, though in her case in Tokyo: ''Music/LiveInJapan''.
202* Richard A. Whiting's song "The Japanese Sandman" is about a sandman who exchanges yesterdays for tomorrows.
203[[/folder]]
204
205[[folder:Theatre]]
206* ''Theatre/MadameButterfly'' by Music/GiacomoPuccini is an opera about a Japanese geisha and her love for an American lieutenant.
207* Creator/GilbertAndSullivan's operetta ''Theatre/TheMikado'' is set in feudal Japan.
208[[/folder]]
209
210[[folder:Video Game]]
211* ''VideoGame/BattleRealms'' is set in what is essentially a fantasy version of feudal Japan.
212* ''VideoGame/GhostOfTsushima'' is set on the titular island in 1274 under the UsefulNotes/KamakuraShogunate, during the first UsefulNotes/{{Mongol|ia}} invasion.
213* The ''Franchise/{{Hitman}}'' games have sent [[ProfessionalKiller 47]] on missions in Japan a couple of times, namely in ''VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin'', ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'' and ''VideoGame/Hitman2''.
214* ''VideoGame/SplinterCellChaosTheory'' brings Third Echelon agent Sam Fisher to Japan for several levels, including a private retreat in Hokkaido, a bathhouse in Tokyo and a fictional Ministry of Defense location, Kokubo Sosho, with an elaborate base under the Tokyo Bay. A fictional new Japanese counter-intelligence agency, Admiral Toshiro Otomo's ISDF, cooperates with Third Echelon. [[spoiler:And turns out to be the real enemy.]]
215* The ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' entries ''VideoGame/ShogunTotalWar'' and ''VideoGame/TotalWarShogun2''.
216[[/folder]]
217
218[[folder:Web Video]]
219* ''WebVideo/HistoryOfJapan'' (which can be viewed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh5LY4Mz15o here]]) is a 2016 video that presents the entire history of Japan in exactly nine minutes. Due to the way it's presented, it's become famous as a FountainOfMemes on Tumblr and other sites.
220[[/folder]]
221
222[[folder:Western Animation]]
223* A lot of US [[WarTimeCartoon war time cartoons]] of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII ridiculed the Japanese, including ''WesternAnimation/TheDucktators'', ''WesternAnimation/TokioJokio'' and ''WesternAnimation/BugsBunnyNipsTheNips''. Much like the comics, the [[AsianBuckTeeth racial stereotyping]] hasn't aged well.
224* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E23ThirtyMinutesOverTokyo "30 Minutes Over Tokyo"]] the family travels to Japan where they reference nearly every Japanese stereotype and/or reference point possible.
225* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': The episode "Chinpokomon" has the makers of ''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeries Pokémon]]" use the show to brainwash the youth so they can take over the world.
226[[/folder]]
227----
228[[AC:The Japanese flag]]
229[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flag_of_japan.png]]
230->Also known as the ''Hinomaru'' ("[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Disc of the Sun]]"), the red disc on a white field has long been a symbol of the nation since the feudal era, playing on the AlternateCharacterReading of Japan's name (日本), which can mean "sun-origin" or "sunrise".
231----
232[[AC:Imperial Seal of Japan]]
233[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/imperial_seal_of_japan.png]]
234->The imperial seal is one of the national seals (mon) used by the country.[[note]]The government uses the Paulownia Seal, that depicited a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Paulownia]] with 5-7-1 (which is a haiku) flowers [[/note]] It can be used by the royal family. The seal is a yellow or orange chrysanthemum flower with sixteen petals.
235----
236[[AC:The Japanese national anthem]]
237->君が代は
238->千代に八千代に
239->細石の
240->巌となりて
241->苔の生すまで
242[[note]]
243->Kimigayo wa
244->Chiyo ni yachiyo ni
245->Sazare-ishi no
246->Iwao to narite
247->Koke no musu made
248[[/note]]
249
250--
251
252->May your reign
253->Continue for a thousand, eight thousand generations,
254->Until the tiny pebbles
255->Grow into massive boulders
256->Lush with moss
257----
258[[AC:Government]]
259* Unitary dominant-party parliamentary constitutional monarchy
260** Emperor: Naruhito
261** Prime Minister: Fumio Kishida
262----
263[[AC:Miscellaneous]]
264* '''Capital and largest city:''' Tokyo (東京 ''Tōkyō'')
265* '''Population:''' 125,410,000 (11th)
266* '''Area:''' 377,975 sq km (145,937 sq mi) (62nd)
267* '''Currency''': Japanese yen (¥) (JPY)
268* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' JP
269* '''Country calling code:''' 81
270* '''Highest point:''' Mount Fuji (3776 m/12,388 ft) (44th)
271* '''Lowest point:''' Hachirōgata (−4 m/−13 ft) (30th)
272----
273->'''[[JustForFun/StatlerAndWaldorf Statler]]:''' Where ''is'' the Land of the Rising Sun?\
274'''Waldorf:''' I don't know, I never get up that early.\
275'''Both:''' Do-ho-ho-ho-ho!

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