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Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asian mainland, it is bordered to the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands alongside 14,121 smaller islands, covering 377,975 square kilometers (145,937 sq mi). Divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions, about 75% of the country's terrain is mountainous and heavily forested, concentrating its agriculture and highly urbanized population along its eastern coastal plains. With a population of over 123 million as of 2025, it is the 11th most populous country. The country's capital and largest city is Tokyo.

The first known habitation of the archipelago dates to the Upper Paleolithic, with the beginning of the Japanese Paleolithic dating to c. 36,000 BC. Between the 4th and 6th centuries, its kingdoms were united under an emperor in Nara and later Heian-kyō. From the 12th century, actual power was held by military dictators known as shōgun and feudal lords called daimyō, enforced by warrior nobility named samurai. After rule by the Kamakura and Ashikaga shogunates and a century of warring states, Japan was unified in 1600 by the Tokugawa shogunate, which implemented an isolationist foreign policy. In 1853, an American fleet forced Japan to open trade to the West, which led to the end of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial power in 1868.

In the Meiji period, Japan pursued rapid industrialization and modernization, as well as militarism and overseas colonization. The country invaded China in 1937 and attacked the United States and European colonial powers in 1941, thus entering World War II as an Axis power. 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. Afterwards, the country underwent rapid economic growth and became one of the five earliest major non-NATO allies of the U.S. 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.

Japan is a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature known as the National Diet. It is a great power and the only Asian member of the G7, and has constitutionally renounced its right to declare war but maintains one of the world's strongest militaries. A developed country with one of the world's largest economies by nominal GDP, it is a global leader in the automotive, electronics, and robotics industries, in addition to making significant contributions to science and technology. It is consistently ranked within the top three countries on lists of highest life expectancies, but is undergoing a severe population decline and has the highest proportion of elderly citizens of any country in the world. The culture of Japan is globally well known, especially its popular culture, which includes art, cuisine, films, music, animation, comics, and video games. (Full article...)

Ōkami is an action-adventure video game developed by Clover Studio and published by Capcom. It was released for Sony's PlayStation 2 video game console in 2006 in Japan and North America, and 2007 in Europe and Australia. Despite the closure of Clover Studio a few months after the game's initial release, a version for Nintendo's Wii console was developed and produced by Ready at Dawn and Capcom, which was released in North America on 15 April 2008, in Europe in June 2008, and will be released in Japan on 15 October 2009. Set sometime in classical Japanese history, Ōkami combines several Japanese myths, legends and folklore to tell the story of how the land was saved from darkness by the Shinto sun goddess, named Amaterasu, who took the form of a white wolf. It features a distinct sumi-e-inspired cel-shaded visual style and the Celestial Brush, a gesture-system to perform miracles. Ōkami was one of the last PlayStation 2 games selected for release prior to the release of the PlayStation 3. Although it suffered from poor sales, Ōkami earned high acclaim from reviewers and earned, among other awards, the title of IGN's 2006 Game of the Year. The Wii version has earned similar praise though the motion control scheme has received mixed reviews from both critics and gamers. A sequel, Ōkamiden: Chīsaki Taiyō, has been announced by Capcom for release in 2010 on the Nintendo DS. (Full article...)

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20 July 2025 – 2025 Japanese House of Councillors election
Japanese citizens vote for 125 of the 248 members of the House of Councillors, the upper house of the National Diet. (NHK)
The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito lose their majority in the House of Councillors. This marks the first time in the 70-year history of the LDP that it leads a coalition in the Diet without having a majority in either house. (NHK)
6 July 2025 – Japan–Philippines relations
The Yomiuri Shimbun reports that the Japanese Navy will export six used Abukuma-class destroyer escorts to the Armed Forces of the Philippines to strengthen the Philippine Navy due to territorial disputes in the South China Sea. (Reuters)
2 July 2025 – Quadrilateral Security Dialogue
Australia, India, Japan, and the United States announce a joint initiative to work towards securing minerals necessary for new technologies and reduce reliance on Chinese sources. (DW) (The Guardian)
27 June 2025 –
Serial killer and rapist Takahiro Shiraishi is executed for the 2017 murders and dismemberments of nine people in his apartment in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. (CTV News)

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Ariwara no Narihira by Kanō Tan'yū, 1648

Ariwara no Narihira (在原 業平; Japanese pronunciation: [a.ɾi.wa.ɾa no (|) na.ɾiꜜ.çi.ɾa], 825 – 9 July 880) was a Japanese courtier and waka poet of the early Heian period. He was named one of both the Six Poetic Geniuses and the Thirty-Six Poetic Geniuses, and one of his poems was included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu collection. He is also known as Zai Go-Chūjō, Zai Go, Zai Chūjō or Mukashi-Otoko.

There are 87 poems attributed to Narihira in court anthologies, though some attributions are dubious. Narihira's poems are exceptionally ambiguous; the compilers of the 10th-century Kokin Wakashū thus treated them to relatively long headnotes. (Full article...)

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Flag of Aichi Prefecture
Aichi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tokai region of the Chūbu region. The capital is Nagoya. It is the focus of the Chūkyō Metropolitan Area. Originally, the region was divided into the three provinces of Owari, Mikawa and Ho. After the Nou-sama era, Mikawa and Ho were united into a single entity. In 1871, after the abolition of the han system, Owari, with the exception of the Chita Peninsula, was institutionalized as Nagoya Prefecture, while Mikawa combined with the Chita Peninsula and formed Nukata Prefecture. Nagoya Prefecture was renamed to Aichi Prefecture in April 1872, and was united with Nukata Prefecture on November 27 of the same year. The Expo 2005 World Exposition was held in Seto and Nagakute. Located near the center of the Japanese main island of Honshū, Aichi Prefecture faces the Ise and Mikawa Bays to the south and borders Shizuoka to the east, Nagano to the northeast, Gifu to the north, and Mie to the west. It measures 106 km east to west and 94 km south to north and forms a major portion of the Nōbi Plain. With 5,153.81 km² it accounts for approximately 1.36% of the total surface area of Japan. The highest spot is Chausuyama at 1415 m above sea level. The western part of the prefecture is dominated by Nagoya, Japan's fourth largest city, and its suburbs, while the eastern part is relatively less densely populated but still contains several major industrial centers. Due to its robust economy, for the Oct 2005-Oct 2006 period, Aichi was the fastest growing prefecture in terms of population, beating Tokyo, at 7.4%.

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Seiden (main hall) of Shuri Castle

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The following are images from various Japan-related articles on Wikipedia.

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Eras Paleolithic | Jōmon | Yayoi | Kofun | Asuka | Nara | Heian | Kamakura | Muromachi | Azuchi-Momoyama | Edo | Meiji | Taishō | Shōwa | Heisei | Reiwa
History Economic history | Educational history | Military history | Naval history | Sengoku period | Meiji Restoration | Empire of Japan | Occupied Japan | Post-occupation Japan
Politics Constitution | Government | Emperors | Imperial Household Agency | Prime Ministers | Cabinet | Ministries | National Diet (House of Councillors · House of Representatives) | Judicial system | Law of Japan | LGBT rights | Elections | Political parties | Japanese political values | Japan Self-Defense Forces | Foreign relations
Culture Clothing | Customs and etiquette | Education | Festivals | Food | Holidays | Language | Religion | Imperial House of Japan | National symbols of Japan | National Treasure (Japan) | Monuments of Japan | Media of Japan | Honne and tatemae | Kawaii | Yamato-damashii | Wa | Miai | Ishin-denshin | Isagiyosa | Hansei | Amae | Kotodama | Onsen | Geisha | Kimono | Bushido | Shogun | Samurai | Ninja | Yakuza | Mythology | Karaoke
Art Architecture | Cinema | Literature | Music | Pornography | Theatre (Noh · Kabuki · Bunraku) | Anime | Manga | Ukiyo-e | Japanese tea ceremony | Japanese aesthetics | Ikebana | Poetry | Bonsai | Origami
Sports Sumo wrestling | Nippon Professional Baseball | Football J1 League | Super GT | All Japan Road Race Championship | Judo | Karate | Kendo | Kyūdō | Jujutsu | Ninjutsu | Aikido
Economy Japanese Companies | Primary sector | Industry | Tourism | Currency | Tokyo Stock Exchange | Japanese economic miracle | Communications | Transportation (Shinkansen · Tokyo Metro · Railway companies) | Japan Business Federation | Housing in Japan
Science and Technology Consumer electronics in Japan | Japanese automotive industry | Japanese inventions | Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) | Nuclear power in Japan | Japanese robotics
Geography Geography of Japan | Japanese archipelago | Islands of Japan | Cities | Lakes | Rivers | Waterfalls | Mountains | National Parks | Japanese Alps | Mount Fuji | Lake Biwa | Seto Inland Sea | Sea of Japan | EEZ of Japan
Demographics Demographics | Yamato people | Hāfu (half Japanese people) | Ainu people | Japanese people | Japanese names | Aging of Japan
Animals Animals in Japan | Japanese macaque | Japanese raccoon dog (Tanuki) | Japanese Green pheasant | Koi | Japanese Bobtail | Hokkaido dog | Shiba Inu | Akita (dog) | Asian giant hornet | Japanese badger
Other Tokyo | Kyoto | Nara | Osaka | Sapporo | Okinawa | Kinkaku-ji | Kiyomizu-dera | Yakushi-ji temple | Tōdai-ji temple | Sensō-ji temple | Meiji Shrine | Akihabara | Shinjuku | Tokyo Tower | Tokyo Imperial Palace | Himeji Castle | Matsumoto Castle | Osaka Castle | Nagoya Castle | Tokyo Disney Resort

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