JAPAN

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JAPAN
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• Japan is an island country in the North Pacific
  Ocean. It lies off the east coast of mainland
  Asia across from Russia, Korea, and China. Four
  large islands and thousands of smaller ones make
  up Japan.

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• Four large islands and thousands of smaller ones
  make up Japan. The four major islandsHokkaido,
  Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikokuform a curve that
  extends for about 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers).
  About 127 million people are crowded on these
  islands, making Japan one of the most densely
  populated countries in the world.

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• Mountains and hills cover most of Japan, making
  it a country of great beauty. But the mountains
  and hills take up so much area that the great
  majority of the people live on a small portion of
  the landnarrow plains along the coasts.

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• These coastal plains have much of Japan's best
  farmland and most of the country's major cities.
  Most of the people live in urban areas. Japan's
  big cities are busy, modern centers of culture,
  commerce, and industry. Tokyo is the capital and
  largest city.

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• Japan is one of the world's economic giants. Its
  total economic output is exceeded only by that of
  the United States. The Japanese manufacture a
  wide variety of products, including automobiles,
  computers, steel, television sets, textiles, and
  tires.

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• The country's factories have some of the most
  advanced equipment in the world. Japan has become
  a major economic power even though it has few
  natural resources. Japan imports many of the raw
  materials needed for industry and exports
  finished manufactured goods.

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• Life in Japan reflects the culture of both the
  East and the West. For example, the favorite
  sporting events in the country are baseball games
  and exhibitions of sumo, an ancient Japanese
  style of wrestling.

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• Although most Japanese wear Western-style
  clothing, many women dress in the traditional
  kimono for festivals and other special occasions.
  The Japanese no and kabuki dramas, both hundreds
  of years old, remain popular. But the Japanese
  people also flock to see motion pictures and rock
  music groups. Many Japanese artworks combine
  traditional and Western styles and themes.

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• Baseball in Japan is the country's favorite
  sport. The champions of the two professional
  leagues play for the national title. The winning
  team, shown here, traditionally tosses its
  manager into the air.

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• Early Japan was greatly influenced by the
  neighboring Chinese civilization. From the late
  400's to the early 800's, the Japanese borrowed
  heavily from Chinese art, government, language,
  religion, and technology. During the mid-1500's,
  the first Europeans arrived in Japan.

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• Trade began with several European countries, and
  Christian missionaries from Europe converted some
  Japanese. During the early 1600's, however, the
  rulers of Japan decided to cut the country's ties
  with the rest of the world. They wanted to keep
  Japan free from outside influences.

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• During the 1870's, the Japanese government began
  a major drive to modernize the country. New ideas
  and manufacturing methods were imported from
  Western countries. By the early 1900's, Japan had
  become an industrial and military power.

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• During the 1930's, Japan's military leaders
  gained control of the government. They set Japan
  on a program of conquest. On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan
  attacked United States military bases at Pearl
  Harbor in Hawaii, bringing the United States into
  World War II. The Japanese won many early
  victories, but then the tide turned in favor of
  the United States and the other Allied nations

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• In August 1945, U.S. planes dropped the first
  atomic bombs used in warfare on the Japanese
  cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On Sept. 2,
  1945, Japan officially surrendered, and World War
  II ended.

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• World War II left Japan completely defeated. Many
  Japanese cities lay in ruins, industries were
  shattered, and Allied forces occupied the
  country. But the Japanese people worked hard to
  overcome the effects of the war.

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• An atomic blast demolished the center of
  Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945. Japan agreed
  to surrender after a second atomic bomb was
  dropped on Nagasaki on August 9.

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• By the 1970's, Japan had become a great
  industrial nation. The success of the Japanese
  economy attracted attention throughout the world.
  Today, few nations enjoy a standard of living as
  high as Japan's.

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• Japan is a constitutional monarchy with a
  parliamentary government. The Constitution, which
  took effect in 1947, guarantees many rights to
  the people, including freedom of religion,
  speech, and the press. It awards the vote to all
  men and women age 20 and older. The Constitution
  establishes three branches of governmentthe
  executive, the legislative, and the judicial.

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• Japan is one of the world's most populous
  nations. About 90 percent of the people live on
  the coastal plains, which make up only about 20
  percent of Japan's territory. These plains rank
  among the most thickly populated places in the
  world.

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• Millions of people crowd the big cities along the
  coasts, including Tokyo, Japan's capital and
  largest city. The Tokyo metropolitan region,
  which includes the cities of Yokohama and
  Kawasaki, is the most populous urban area in the
  world.

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• Japanese is the official language of Japan.
  Spoken Japanese has many local dialects. These
  local dialects differ greatly in pronunciation.
  However, the Tokyo dialect is the standard form
  of spoken Japanese. Almost all the people
  understand the Tokyo dialect, which is used in
  schools and on radio and television.

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• Written Japanese is considered one of the most
  difficult writing systems in the world. It uses
  Japanese phonetic symbols that represent sounds
  as well as Chinese characters. Each character is
  a symbol that stands for a complete word or
  syllable. Schools in Japan also teach students to
  write the Japanese language with the letters of
  the Roman alphabet.

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• City life. About three-fourths of the Japanese
  people live in urban areas. Most of the urban
  population is concentrated in three major
  metropolitan areas (1) the Tokyo metropolitan
  region, which also includes the cities of
  Kawasaki and Yokohama (2) Osaka and (3) Nagoya.

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• Osaka is one of the three major metropolitan
  areas in Japan. Most Japanese people live in
  urban areas, and Japan's largest cities are among
  the most crowded in the world.

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• Most Japanese people who live in cities and
  suburbs enjoy a high standard of living. Many
  work in banks, hotels, offices, and stores.
  Others hold professional or government jobs.

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• In traditional homes, the rooms are separated by
  sliding paper screens, which can be rearranged as
  needed. Straw mats called tatami cover the
  floors. People sit on cushions and sleep on a
  type of padded quilt called a futon. Today, many
  Japanese apartments and houses have one or more
  rooms fitted with carpets instead of tatami and
  containing Western-style chairs and tables

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• Traditional Japanese houses blend with the
  natural beauty surrounding them. Such houses in
  Japan feature lovely gardens and peaceful pools.

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• Food and drink. Many Japanese families eat at
  restaurants on weeknights and weekends as well as
  on special occasions. Favorite dining spots
  include Japan's new casual family restaurants.
  Roads and superhighways are lined with such
  American establishments as Denny's and McDonald's
  and similar Japanese-owned chains called Skylark
  and Lotteria.

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• When dining at home, most older people eat
  traditional Japanese foods. They drink tea and
  eat rice at almost every meal. They supplement
  the rice with fish, tofu (soybean curd cake),
  pickled vegetables, soups made with miso (soybean
  paste), and on occasion, eggs or meat.

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• Overall, younger people now take in significantly
  more protein and fat then their grandparents did.
  The nutritional change has helped make the
  members of the younger generation an average of 3
  to 4 inches (8 to 10 centimeters) taller than
  their grandparents.

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• Religion. Many Japanese people say they are not
  devout worshipers and do not have strong
  religious beliefs. However, nearly everyone in
  Japanese society engages in some religious
  practices or rituals. Those practices are based
  on the two major religious traditions in Japan,
  Shinto and Buddhism.

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• Shinto means the way of the gods. It is the
  native religion of Japan and dates from
  prehistoric times. Shintoists worship many gods,
  called kami, that are found in mountains, rivers,
  rocks, trees, and other parts of nature. Shinto
  also involves ancestor worship.

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• Shinto and Buddhism are the two major religious
  traditions in Japan. The ceremony shown here is
  part of a Shinto observance.

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• A Shinto game called kemari developed from a
  sport played at Japan's royal court into a
  religious ritual to secure peace, happiness, and
  a good harvest for Japan.

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• Gender roles. Japanese society imposes strong
  expectations on women and men. The society
  expects women to marry in their mid-20's, become
  mothers soon afterward, and stay at home to
  attend to the needs of their husband and
  children.

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• Women often have a dominant role in raising
  children and handling the family finances. Men
  are expected to support their families as sole
  breadwinners. To make this possible, Japanese
  employers provide male workers with family
  allowances.

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• Most Japanese men accept this idea of their place
  in society, and many women do, too. But in
  practice, the majority of Japanese women do hold
  jobs at one time or another. Most women work
  before they marry, and many of them return to the
  labor force after their children are in school or
  grown. In addition, some Japanese women work
  while their children are young.

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• Altogether, about 50 percent of all Japanese
  women over age 15 are in the labor force at any
  one time. But because of the society's
  expectations about gender roles, female employees
  earn lower incomes and receive fewer benefits
  than male employees do, and have almost no job
  security.

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• Japanese society places an extremely high value
  on educational achievement, particularly for
  males. The Japanese measure educational
  achievement chiefly by the reputation of the
  university a student attends. The student's
  grades or field of study are less important as
  signs of success. Under most circumstances, any
  student who graduates from a top-ranked
  university has a big advantage over other college
  graduates in seeking employment.

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• Families work hard to get their children into a
  good university, starting as soon as the
  youngsters begin school.
• After six years at an elementary school, almost
  all Japanese children continue for another three
  years at a junior high school. Education at
  public schools is free during these nine years
  for children 6 to 14 years of age.

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• Public school students attend classes Monday
  through Friday and half a day on Saturday, except
  for two weeks each month when they have Saturdays
  off. The Japanese school year runs from April
  through March of the next year. Vacation is from
  late July through August.

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• During the last two years of junior high school,
  many students focus on attaining admission to a
  high school with a good record of getting its
  graduates into top universities. Many of the most
  successful high schools are expensive private
  institutions that require incoming students to
  pass a difficult entrance examination. To prepare
  for the test, many eighth- and ninth-grade
  students spend several hours each day after
  school taking exam-preparation classes at private
  academies called juku.

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• Students attend senior high school for three
  years. Classes include many of the same subjects
  studied in junior high school, along with courses
  to prepare students for college or train them for
  jobs. While in high school, a student may
  continue to study at a juku as preparation for
  the entrance exam to a university.

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• Japanese students consistently score well on
  international tests of science and mathematics
  skills. But many Japanese are concerned about the
  disadvantages of their educational system.
  Parents feel that it places too much emphasis on
  memorization and taking exams.

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• Most would prefer to have their children educated
  in a more creative environment that requires less
  time in classrooms. Many Japanese politicians and
  business people agree that their educational
  system has flaws.

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