JAPAN

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of China, Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes identified as the "Land of the Rising Sun".

Japan comprises over 3,000 islands. Most of the islands are mountainous, many volcanic; for example, Japan's highest peak, Mount Fuji, is a volcano. Japan has the world's tenth largest population, with about 128 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.

MISSIONARIES:

Piatt, Bob & Sandy

HISTORY:

The Japanese first appear in written history in China's Book of Han during the 1st century AD. The Nara period of the eighth century marked the first emergence of a strong central Japanese state, centered on an imperial court in the city of modern day Nara. In addition to the continuing adoption of Chinese administrative practices, the Nara period is characterized by the appearance of massive amounts of written literature.

In 794, modern day Kyoto became the new capital, where it remained for more than a millennium. This marked the beginning of the Heian period, during which time a distinctly indigenous Japanese culture emerged, noted for its art, poetry and literature.

Japan's feudal era was characterized by the emergence of a ruling class of warriors, the samurai and the country was divided under various warlords. During the sixteenth century, traders and Jesuit missionaries from Portugal reached Japan for the first time, initiating active commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West. In 1590, the nation was finally unified.

On March 31, 1854, the United States Navy forced the opening of Japan to the outside world with the Convention of Kanagawa. Subsequent similar treaties with the Western countries brought Japan into economic and political crises. Adopting Western political, judicial and military institutions, the Cabinet organized the Privy Council, introduced the Meiji Constitution, and assembled the Imperial Diet. The Meiji Restoration transformed the Empire of Japan into an industrialized world power that embarked on a number of military conflicts to expand the nation's sphere of influence. After victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894 - 1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904 - 1905), Japan gained control of Taiwan, Korea, and the southern half of Sakhalin.

World War I enabled Japan, which joined the side of the Allies, to expand its influence and territorial holdings. Japan continued its expansionist policy by occupying Manchuria in 1931. As a result of international condemnation for this occupation, Japan resigned from the League of Nations two years later. In 1936, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany, joining the Axis powers in 1941.

In 1937, Japan invaded other parts of China, precipitating the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937 - 1945), after which the United States placed an oil embargo on Japan. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States naval base in Pearl Harbor and declared war on the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. This act brought the United States into World War II. After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, along with the Soviet Union joining the war against it, Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender on August 15. The war cost Japan millions of lives and left much of the country's industry and infrastructure destroyed.

In 1947, Japan adopted a new pacifist constitution emphasizing liberal democratic practices. The Allied occupation ended by the Treaty of San Francisco in 1952 and Japan was granted membership in the United Nations in 1956. Japan later achieved spectacular growth to become the second largest economy in the world, with an annual growth rate averaging 10% for four decades. This ended in the mid-1990s when Japan suffered a major recession. Positive growth in the early twenty-first century has signaled a gradual recovery.

RELIGION:

Roughly 85% of the Japanese population adheres to Shinto, Buddhism, or a combination of the two. A large majority of the remaining 15% have no religious beliefs at all. Less than 1% of the population claim to be Christians.