Japan (History Remixed)

Republic of Japan
日本共和国
Nihon Kyōwakoku
Timeline: History Remixed
OTL equivalent: Japan excluding Ryukyu Islands
Republic of Japan; 日本共和国; Nihon KyōwakokuTimeline: History Remixed ; OTL equivalent: Japan excluding Ryukyu Islands
Flag	Coat of Arms
	Anthem: ; 愛国歌 ; Aikokka ; "The Patriotic Song"https://althistory.fandom.com/wiki/File:Kimi_ga_Yo_instrumental.ogg;
	Location of Japan (History Remixed) Japan (green)
Capital	Tokyo
Largest city	Kyoto
Official languages	Japanese
Religion	51% Shinto; 33% Christianity; 14% Buddhism; 4% Others
Demonym	Japanese
Government	Federal parliamentary republic
Legislature	National Assembly
Establishment
Population
Currency	Japanese yen (¥)
Time zone	UTC+09:00
Drives on the	left
Calling code	+81

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Japan (Japanese: 日本), officially the Republic of Japan (ROJ) (Japanese: 日本共和国; Nihon Kyōwakoku), is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and Yuntai, extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea and Philippine Sea in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans an archipelago of 14,070 islands, with the five main islands being Hokkaido, Honshu (the "mainland"), Shikoku and Kyushu. Tokyo is the nation's capital and Kyoto is the largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka and Kobe.

Japan has been inhabited since the Upper Paleolithic period (30,000 BC). Between the 4th and 9th centuries, the kingdoms of Japan became unified under an emperor and the imperial court based in Heian-kyō. Beginning in the 12th century, political power was held by a series of military dictators (shōgun) and feudal lords (daimyō) and enforced by a class of warrior nobility (samurai). After a century-long period of civil war, the country was reunified in 1603 under the Tokugawa shogunate, which enacted an isolationist foreign policy. In 1854, a United States fleet forced Japan to open trade to the West, which led to the modernization in 1868. In the modernization period, the Shogunate of Japan adopted a Western-modeled constitution and pursued a program of industrialization and modernization. Amidst a rise in militarism and overseas colonization, Japan invaded entered World War II as an Axis power in 1941. After suffering defeat in the Pacific War, Japan surrendered in 1945 and came under a jointly occupied by United States, Britain and Germany, during which it adopted a new constitution as well as replacing the monarchy with a republic via referendum in April 1946. After the end of Allied occupation in 1946, Japan as a whole was organized into two separate polities with limited sovereignty: the Republic of Japan, generally known as West Japan and later as South Japan, and the People's Republic of Japan, commonly known as East Japan and later as North Japan.

In 1950, a East Japanese invasion began the Japanese Civil War, which saw extensive American, British and German-led League of Nations intervention in support of the West, while China intervened to support the East, with Russian assistance. After the war's end in 1953, the country entered into a military alliance with the U.S., which continues to this date, and its devastated economy began to soar, recording the fastest rise in average GDP per capita in the world between 1980 and 1990, After the fall of communist led-government in North Japan, Japanese reunification saw the former North Japanese prefectures join the Republic of Japan on 10 October 1990.

Japan is considered a cultural superpower as the culture of Japan is well known around the world, including its art, cuisine, film, music, and popular culture, which encompasses prominent manga, anime, and video game industries.

Etymology[]

The name for Japan in Japanese is written using the kanji 日本 and is pronounced Nippon or Nihon. Before 日本 was adopted in the early 8th century, the country was known in China as Wa (倭, changed in Japan around 757 to 和) and in Japan by the endonym Yamato. Nippon, the original Sino-Japanese reading of the characters, is favored for official uses, including on banknotes and postage stamps. Nihon is typically used in everyday speech and reflects shifts in Japanese phonology during the Edo period. The characters 日本 mean "sun origin", which is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun".

The name "Japan" is based on Chinese pronunciations of 日本 and was introduced to European languages through early trade. In the 13th century, Marco Polo recorded the early Mandarin or Wu Chinese pronunciation of the characters 日本國 as Cipangu. The old Malay name for Japan, Japang or Japun, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect and encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia, who brought the word to Europe in the early 16th century. The first version of the name in English appears in a book published in 1577, which spelled the name as Giapan in a translation of a 1565 Portuguese letter.

History[]

Prehistoric to classical history[]

A Paleolithic culture from around 30,000 BC constitutes the first known habitation of the islands of Japan. This was followed from around 14,500 BC (the start of the Jōmon period) by a Mesolithic to Neolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer culture characterized by pit dwelling and rudimentary agriculture. Clay vessels from the period are among the oldest surviving examples of pottery. From around 700 BC, the Japonic-speaking Yayoi people began to enter the archipelago from the Korean Peninsula, intermingling with the Jōmon; the Yayoi period saw the introduction of practices including wet-rice farming, a new style of pottery, and metallurgy from China and Korea. According to legend, Emperor Jimmu (grandson of Amaterasu) founded a kingdom in central Japan in 660 BC, beginning a imperial line.

Japan first appears in written history in the Chinese Book of Han, completed in 111 AD. Buddhism was introduced to Japan from Baekje (a Korean kingdom) in 552, but the development of Japanese Buddhism was primarily influenced by China. Despite early resistance, Buddhism was promoted by the ruling class, including figures like Prince Shōtoku, and gained widespread acceptance beginning in the Asuka period (592–710).

In 645, the government lead by Prince Naka no Ōe and Fujiwara no Kamatari devised and implemented the far-reaching Taika Reforms. The Reform began with land reform, based on Confucian ideas and philosophies from China. It nationalized all land in Japan, to be distributed equally among cultivators, and ordered the compilation of a household registry as the basis for a new system of taxation. The true aim of the reforms was to bring about greater centralization and to enhance the power of the imperial court, which was also based on the governmental structure of China. Envoys and students were dispatched to China to learn about Chinese writing, politics, art, and religion. The Jinshin War of 672, a bloody conflict between Prince Ōama and his nephew Prince Ōtomo, became a major catalyst for further administrative reforms. These reforms culminated with the promulgation of the Taihō Code, which consolidated existing statutes and established the structure of the central and subordinate local governments. These legal reforms created the ritsuryō state, a system of Chinese-style centralized government that remained in place for half a millennium.

The Nara period (710–784) marked the emergence of a Japanese state centered on the Imperial Court in Heijō-kyō (modern Nara). The period is characterized by the appearance of a nascent literary culture with the completion of the Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720), as well as the development of Buddhist-inspired artwork and architecture. A smallpox epidemic in 735–737 is believed to have killed as much as one-third of Japan's population. In 784, Emperor Kanmu moved the capital, settling on Heian-kyō (modern-day Kyoto) in 794. This marked the beginning of the Heian period (794–1185), during which a distinctly indigenous Japanese culture emerged. Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji and the lyrics of Japan's former national anthem "Kimigayo" were written during this time.

Feudal era[]

Japan's feudal era was characterized by the emergence and dominance of a ruling class of warriors, the samurai. In 1185, following the defeat of the Taira clan by the Minamoto clan in the Genpei War, samurai Minamoto no Yoritomo established a military government at Kamakura. After Yoritomo's death, the Hōjō clan came to power as regents for the shōgun. The Zen school of Buddhism was introduced from China in the Kamakura period (1185–1333) and became popular among the samurai class. The Kamakura shogunate repelled Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281 but was eventually overthrown by Emperor Go-Daigo. Go-Daigo was defeated by Ashikaga Takauji in 1336, beginning the Muromachi period (1336–1573). The succeeding Ashikaga shogunate failed to control the feudal warlords (daimyō) and a civil war began in 1467, opening the century-long Sengoku period ("Warring States").

[UNDER PROGRESS]

Modern era[]

[UNDER PROGRESS] After Allied victories during the next four years, which culminated in the Russian invasion of Hokkaido and the Operation Downfall in 1944 and 1945 respectively, Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender. The war cost Japan its colonies and millions of lives. The Allies (led by the [UNDER PROGRESS]) repatriated millions of Japanese settlers from their former colonies and military camps throughout Asia, largely eliminating the Japanese Empire and its influence over the territories it conquered. The Allies convened the International Military Tribunal for the Far East to prosecute Japanese leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Japan became a republic after the 1946 Japanese republic referendum held on 16 April 1946 during the Allied occupation, a day celebrated since as Republic Day. This was the first time that Japanese women voted at the national level, and the second time overall considering the local elections that were held a few months earlier in some cities. Emperor Takahito was forced to abdicate and exiled along with the rest of the royal family to Portugal. The Allied occupation ended with the [Treaty TBD] in the same year.

In 1947, Japan adopted a new constitution emphasizing liberal democratic practices, [UNDER PROGRESS]