Japan Wikipedia
After being defeated in the Pacific War and suffering the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered in 1945 and came under Allied occupation until 1952. The Meiji period saw Japan pursue rapid industrialization, modernization, militarism, and overseas colonization. Between the 4th and 6th centuries, its kingdoms were united under an emperor in Nara and later in Heian-kyō. With a population of almost 123 million as of 2026, it is the world’s 11th most populous country.
Japan ranked seventh in the world in tonnage of fish caught and captured 3,167,610 metric tons of fish in 2016, down from an annual average of 4,000,000 tons over the previous decade. As the central coordinating body for the Prefectural Police Departments, the National Police Agency is administered by the National Public Safety Commission. The deployment of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan marked the first overseas use of Japan’s military since World War II. The country’s military, the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), is restricted by Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which renounces Japan’s right to declare war or use military force in international disputes. Japan is widely considered to be a great power due to its economic power and political, cultural, and military influence. The broadly conservative Liberal Democratic Party has been the dominant party in the country since the 1950s, often called the 1955 System.
For example, adult echinoderms are radially symmetric (unlike their larvae), while some parasitic worms have extremely simplified body structures. Many bilaterian phyla have primary larvae which swim with cilia and have an apical organ containing sensory cells. They also have a gut that extends through the basically cylindrical body from mouth to anus. Many bilaterians have a combination of circular muscles that constrict the body, making it longer, and an opposing set of longitudinal muscles, that shorten the body; these enable soft-bodied animals with a hydrostatic skeleton to move by peristalsis.
Red-Billed Quelea Bird
Once considered the strongest in the world, the Japanese consumer electronics industry is in a state of decline as regional competition arises in neighboring East Asian countries such as South Korea and China. The country’s manufacturing output is the third highest in the world as of 2023update. 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. The Japanese agricultural sector accounts for about 1.2% of the country’s total GDP as of 2018update.
- Sponges lack the complex organisation found in most other animal phyla; their cells are differentiated, but in most cases not organised into distinct tissues, unlike all other animals.
- The biological definition includes all members of the kingdom Animalia.
- Many bilaterians have a combination of circular muscles that constrict the body, making it longer, and an opposing set of longitudinal muscles, that shorten the body; these enable soft-bodied animals with a hydrostatic skeleton to move by peristalsis.
- The Reform began with land reform, based on Confucian ideas and philosophies from China.
- 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.
- Minority ethnic groups in the country include the indigenous Ainu and Ryukyuan people.
Modern era
The culture of Japan is well known around the world, particularly its popular culture as expressed in animation, art, comics, cuisine, fashion, films, music, television, theater, and video games. Widely considered a great power and the only Asian member of the G7, it maintains one of the world’s strongest militaries but has constitutionally renounced its right to declare war. Since the collapse of the Japanese asset price bubble in the early 1990s, it has experienced a prolonged period of economic stagnation referred to as the Lost Decades. It underwent rapid economic growth in the following decades and became one of the first major non-NATO allies of the U.S.
The country hosted the official 2006 Basketball World Championship and co-hosted the 2023 Basketball World Championship. Super GT is the most popular national racing series in Japan, while Super Formula is the top-level domestic open-wheel series. Green tea is produced in Japan and prepared in forms such as matcha, used in the Japanese tea ceremony.
Red-Billed Quelea Bird
The earliest works of Japanese literature include the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki chronicles and the Man’yōshū poetry anthology, all from the 8th century and written in Chinese characters. Japan has the lowest rate of heart disease in the OECD, and the lowest level of dementia among developed countries. Since 1981, the principal cause of death in Japan is cancer, which accounted for 27% of the total deaths in 2018—followed by cardiovascular diseases, which led to 15% of the deaths.
- The country has produced twenty-two Nobel laureates in either physics, chemistry or medicine, and three Fields medalists.
- It has the 17th highest natural disaster risk as measured in the 2016 World Risk Index.
- The Japanese agricultural sector accounts for about 1.2% of the country’s total GDP as of 2018update.
- The chordates are dominated by the vertebrates (animals with backbones), which consist of fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
- Most animals rely on biomass and bioenergy produced by plants and phytoplanktons (collectively called producers) through photosynthesis.
Japan is an ethnically and culturally homogeneous society, with the Japanese people forming 97.4% of the country’s population. On April 1, 2019, Japan enacted its revised immigration law, protecting the rights of foreign workers to help reduce labor shortages in certain sectors. The country has therefore aimed to diversify its sources and maintain high levels of basswin energy efficiency. The high-speed Shinkansen (bullet trains) that connect major cities are known for their safety and punctuality. The explorer entered a lunar orbit on October 4, 2007, and was deliberately crashed into the Moon on June 11, 2009. Japan’s plans in space exploration include building a Moon base and landing astronauts by 2030.
For sexual reproduction, most sponges are hermaphrodites, they produce both egg and sperm cells. In addition to sponges, Placozoa has no symmetry and was often considered a « missing link » between protists and multicellular animals. Extant phyla in these rocks include molluscs, brachiopods, onychophorans, tardigrades, arthropods, echinoderms and hemichordates, along with numerous now-extinct forms such as the predatory Anomalocaris.
Since 1973, all elderly persons have been covered by government-sponsored insurance. People without insurance through employers can participate in a national health insurance program administered by local governments. 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. Other minority religions include Hinduism, Judaism, and Baháʼí Faith, as well as the animist beliefs of the Ainu. Throughout the latest century, Western customs originally related to Christianity, including Western style weddings, Valentine’s Day and Christmas, have become popular as secular customs among many Japanese.
