Empire of Japan (Springtime of Nations)

Empire of Japan 大日本帝國 Dai Nippon Teikoku
←   ← 1868–1946 →
Flag Coat of arms
Motto 五箇条の御誓文 Gokajō no Goseimon "The Oath in Five Articles"
Anthem (1869–1945) 君が代 Kimigayo "His Imperial Majesty's Reign" noicon
Location of Japan Areas de facto controlled by the Empire of Japan at peak in World War II (1942):   Dark Green: Areas under direct control of the Japanese Empire   Green: De facto colonies (Mengjiang, Manchukuo, and China)   Puppet states/Occupied territories
Capital		Kyoto (1868–1869) Tokyo City (1869–1943) Tokyo (1943–1947)
Largest city		Tokyo City (1868–1943) Tokyo (1943–1947)
Religion		De jure: Secular state De facto: State Shinto (state ideology)
Government		Unitary absolute monarchy (1868–1889) under Daijō-kan (1868–1885) Unitary parliamentary semi-constitutional monarchy (1889–1947) (1945–1947)
Emperor
-	1868–1912	Meiji
-	1912–1915	Taishō
-	1915–1919	Shōwa
-	1919-1925	Yasuhito
-	1925-1926	Nobuhito
-	1926-1946	Takahito
Prime Minister
-	1885–1888 (first)	Ōkuma Shigenobu
-	1942–1946 (last)	Hideki Tojo
Legislature		None (rule by decree) (1868–1871) House of Peers (1871–1889) Imperial Diet (since 1889)
-	Upper house	House of Peers (1889–1946)
-	Upper house	House of Representatives (from 1890)
Historical era		Meiji • Taishō • Shōwa • Yasuhito • Nobuhito • Takahito
-	Meiji Restoration	3 January 1868
-	Meiji Constitution	11 February 1889
-	First Sino-Japanese War	25 July 1894
-	First World War	21 July 1903
-	Second Sino-Japanese War	7 July 1937
-	Invasion of Russia	15 March 1938
-	Second World War	7 December 1941
-	Battle of Aranuka
-	Battle of Alaska	21 November 1943
-	Surrender of Japan	24 December 1946
-	Reconstituted	30 December 1946
Area
-	1942	14,700,000 km² (5,675,702 sq mi)
Population
-	1920 est.	94,000,000
-	1942 est.	648,360,200
Currency		Japanese yen Korean yen Taiwanese yen Chinese yen

The Empire of Japan or Japanese Empire, also referred to as Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation-state that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the reformed Constitution of Japan in 1947. From 29 August 1910 until 2 September 1945, it administered the naichi (the Japanese archipelago and post-1943 Karafuto) and the gaichi (Korea, Taiwan, Kwantung Leased Territory, and pre-1943 Karafuto). The South Seas Mandate was a single Japanese dependent territory in the name of the League of Nations. In the closing stages of World War II, with Japan defeated alongside the rest of the Axis, the formalized Japanese Instrument of Surrender was issued in compliance with the Potsdam Declaration of the victorious Allies, and Japanese de facto territory subsequently shrunk to cover only the Japanese archipelago as it is today.