Japan

Overview: Japan is an old and vibrant culture made of large metropolitans coexisting with a lush green countryside. Japan is an archipelago consisting of 6,852 islands with the four largest islands comprising 97% of land area. The four largests islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku. The first mentions of Japan in recorded history were made by Chinese historians in 10 A.D. Japan is the world's third largest economy behind the United States and China. Japan's culture is famous for anime, raw fish consumption known as sushi and sashimi, udon noodles, Japanese techno-pop music, economic automobiles, tight pressed metropolitans, and a clean - orderly mannerism.

History: Japan was first mentioned in the first century A.D. by Chinese historians and explorers in the Book of Han and is the first time it was discovered by the rest of the known world. Humans first colonized the islands in the paleolithic era in 30,000 B.C. Japan has long periods of isolation and has been ruled by warring classes of regional warlords called shogun and by centralized emperors. The feudal era was symbolized by the emergence of the warrior class known as samurai between 1185 to 1800. During this time zen buddhism was introduced by China and became a major force for the shogun and samurai they commanded. Ninjas, a secretive type of assassins, were perhaps the world's second black ops troops (following China's masked night warriors) and became a mortal enemy of the samurai. The Kamakura shogun repelled two Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281 by Kublai Khan due mainly to massive storms each time which the Japanese interpreted as Divine Wind, or kamikaze, and became an intrical part in their imperial ambitions in the 1930s and 1940s when they conquered most of eastern Asian and administered mass genocides, rapes and human testing atrocities in China.

Language: Japanese is the predominant language in Japan with over 99% of the population learning it as the first language. It is an agglutinative language with strict hiearchy reflecting the structure of Japanese society. The writing system uses kani which are Chinese characters and two sets of kana which are simplified Chinese characters, along with the Latin alphabet and Arabic numerals.

Geography: Japan consists of 6,582 islands extending from southwest to northeast east along the Pacific coast of Asia. Approximately 75% of the country is forested and/or mountainese which is unsuitable for agriculture, industrial or residential use. The country is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire which causes a high frequency of earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcano eruptions. The tallest mountain is the famous Mount Fiji and that is itself a volcano.

Art and Crafts: Traditional Japanese crafts are origami, dolls, ikebana, lacquerware, ukiyo-e and pottery. Performing arts are bunraku, dance, kabuki, noh and rakugo. The most popular traditions include the tea ceremon, budo, garden grooming, and sword collecting. Japan is the birthplace and largest producer of Manga, also known as anime or Japanese animation. Manga was born from the fusion of traditional woodblock printing and western newpaper comics and television cartoons. Karaoke is the most popular cultural activity with participants singing along to famous songs in a private club room. The Karaoke industry is a $10 billion industry including the real estate, admissions fees, drinks, food, and souvenirs.

Cusine: Japanese cuisine is associated with traditional style Japanese food. A standard Japanese meal consists of rice or noodles, with a soup and several okazu main dish made from fish, meat, vegetable or tofu. Tempura is made of vegetables, meats or fish lightly battered with panko mix and fried. Yakitori is the barbequing of meats on a stick. Sushi is the serving of raw seafood over vinegar rice, sashimi is the raw seafood without the rice. Seafood is the number meat due to the geography and culture of Japan. However, Kobe beef has become popular around the world. A popular meat dish is shredded beef, fried pork or fried chicken mixed with egg or curry sauce over rice. Japanese cuisine is heavily influenced by China and to a second degree Europe.

Demographics: Japan has approximately 130 million people and predominantly homogeneous from a cultural and linguistic perspective made up of the Yamato people. Japan has the highest life expectancy rate in the world at 82 years. However, the Japanese population is aging quickly. The prolonged recession of the 1990s and the skyrocketing cost of living has decreased the birthrate. Plus many younger Japanese are choosing not to marry or have families. Due to these trends the population is expected to decrease to 100 million in 2050 and to 64 million by 2100 if trends are not reversed. This trend has created a macroeconomic concern on the public pension plan and elderly care. Another alarming trend is the high suicide rate, the highest in any industrialized country. Another cultural controversy is that you can not become a Japanese citizen unless one of your parents is a Japanese descendant.

Sports: Sumo wrestling is the national past time and is a $2 billion industry in Japan. However American Baseball has risen to supplant sumo wrestling as the most played and watched sport with a $2.5 billion annual take. Martial arts is also extremely popular with karate and judo. Due to its many snow capped mountain ranges, skiing and other snow sports are popular as well.

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