Japan (For Want of a Telegram)

Japan
日本国
*Nippon-koku*
*Nihon-koku*
Japan 日本国; Nippon-koku; Nihon-koku
	Anthem: 君が代; Kimigayo; "His Imperial Majesty's Reign";
	Location of Japan
Capital; (and largest city)	Tokyo
Official languages	Japanese
Recognised regional languages	Mandarin; Ryukyuan
Ethnic groups (2011)	95% Japanese; 2.3% Korean; 1.8% Chinese; 0.9% others
Demonym	Japanese
Government	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
Legislature	National Diet
Formation
Population
Currency	Japanese Yen (JPY)

Japan (Japanese: 日本 Nippon or Nihon; formally 日本国 Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, means "State of Japan") is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland (east of China, Manchukuo Korea and Russia) and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippines.

The kanji that make up Japan's name mean "sun origin". 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon and means origin. Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet "Land of the Rising Sun" in reference to its Japanese name.

Japan is a stratovolcanic archipelago consisting of almost 7,000 islands. The five largest are Taiwan, Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, which make up about ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area and often are referred to as home islands. The country is divided into 69 prefectures in nine regions, Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Taiwan being the southernmost one. The population of 150 million is one of the world's largest. Japanese people make up 95% of Japan's total population. Approximately 9.1 million people live in the capital city of Tokyo.

Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly Imperial China, followed by periods of isolation, particularly from Western Europe, has characterized Japan's history. From the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor.

Japan entered into a long period of isolation in the early 17th century, which was ended in 1853 when a United States fleet pressured Japan to open to the West. After nearly two decades of internal conflict and insurrection, the Imperial Court regained its political power in 1868 through the help of several clans from Chōshū and Satsuma, and the Empire of Japan was established. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victories in the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. Although it was defeated in World War I, Japan escaped the conflict largely unscathed, and continued to pursue its imperial ambitions.

The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1944 following the atomic bombings by the United States of Shanghai and Taijin and the Chinese surrender. In 1958 the Emperor Hirohito oversaw the introduction of sweeping reforms to Japan's constitution, and within the next few years, both Manchukuo and Korea had become independent from the Empire. The reforms also established Japan as a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with an Emperor and an elected legislature called the National Diet. Throughout the Cold War, Japan was aligned with the United States against the Russian Nationalist Republic.

Japan is a member of the UN, and has a permanent seat on the Security Council. It is also a member of the OECD, the G7, the G8, and the G20 and is considered a great power. The country has the world's third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the world's fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the world's fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer. The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most highly educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. Japan also maintains a modern military with the world's eighth-largest military budget, which it uses both for self-defense and peacekeeping roles and for conflicts overseas. Japan is a developed country with a very high standard of living and Human Development Index whose population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world.