Occupied Japan
Military occupation
← 1945–1952 →   →   →
Flag¹ Imperial Seal
Dissolution of the Japanese Empire. See image for further information.
Capital	Tokyo
Language(s)	Japanese
Political structure	Military occupation
Military Governor
- 1945-1951	Douglas MacArthur
- 1951-1952	Matthew Ridgway
Emperor
- 1945-1952	Hirohito
Historical era	WWII/Cold War
- Surrender of Japan	August 14, 1945
- Established	August 28, 1945
- Instrument of Surrender signed	September 2, 1945
- San Francisco Treaty	April 28, 1952

History of Japan
Paleolithic 35,000–14,000 BCE Jōmon period 14,000–300 BCE Yayoi period 300 BCE–250 CE Kofun period 250–538 Asuka period 538–710 Nara period 710–794 Heian period 794–1185 Kamakura period 1185–1333 Kenmu restoration 1333–36 Muromachi period (Ashikaga) 1336–1573 Nanboku-chō period 1336–92 Sengoku period >1467–1573 Azuchi–Momoyama period 1568–1603 Nanban trade Edo period (Tokugawa) 1603–1868 Bakumatsu Meiji period 1868–1912 Meiji Restoration Taishō period 1912–26 Japan during World War I Shōwa period 1926–89 Shōwa financial crisis Militarism Occupation Post-occupation Heisei period 1989–present Lost Decade
Empire of Japan (prewar) 1868–1945 (political entity) Postwar Japan 1945–present (political entity) Economic history Currency Educational history Military history Naval history Earthquakes
Glossary Timeline
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Civil and naval ensign during the occupation of Japan.

At the end of World War II, Japan was occupied by the Allied Powers, led by the United States with a contribution from the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. This foreign presence marked the first time in its history that the island nation had been occupied by a foreign power.^[1] The San Francisco Peace Treaty, signed on September 8, 1951, marked the end of the Allied occupation, and after it came into force on April 28, 1952, Japan was once again an independent country.

Surrender[link]

The instrument of surrender, dated September 2, 1945.

Japan surrendered to the Allies on August 14, 1945, when the Japanese government notified the Allies that it had accepted the Potsdam Declaration. On the following day, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's unconditional surrender on the radio (the Gyokuon-hōsō). The announcement was the emperor's first ever radio broadcast and the first time most citizens of Japan ever heard their sovereign's voice.^[2] This date is known as Victory Over Japan, or V-J Day, and marked the end of World War II and the beginning of a long road to recovery for a shattered Japan.

On V-J Day, United States President Harry Truman appointed General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP), to supervise the occupation of Japan. During the war, the Allied Powers had planned to divide Japan amongst themselves for the purposes of occupation, as was done for the occupation of Germany. Under the final plan, however, SCAP was given direct control over the main islands of Japan (Honshū, Hokkaidō, Shikoku and Kyūshū) and the immediately surrounding islands, while outlying possessions were divided between the Allied Powers as follows:

• Soviet Union: North Korea (not a full occupation), Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands
• United States: South Korea (not a full occupation), Okinawa, the Amami Islands, the Ogasawara Islands and Japanese possessions in Micronesia
• Republic of China: Taiwan and Penghu

It is unclear why the occupation plan was changed. Common theories include the increased power of the United States following development of the atomic bomb, Truman's greater distrust of the Soviet Union when compared with Roosevelt, and an increased desire to contain Soviet expansion in the Far East after the Yalta Conference.

The Soviet Union had some intentions of occupying Hokkaidō.^[3] Had this occurred, there might have been the foundation of a communist "Democratic People's Republic of Japan" in the Soviet zone of occupation. However, unlike the Soviet occupations of East Germany and North Korea, these plans were frustrated by the opposition of U.S. President Harry S. Truman.^[3]

The Far Eastern Commission and Allied Council for Japan were also established to supervise the occupation of Japan.^[4]

Japanese officials left for Manila on August 19 to meet MacArthur and to be briefed on his plans for the occupation. On August 28, 150 U.S. personnel flew to Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture. They were followed by USS Missouri^[5], whose accompanying vessels landed the 4th Marine Division on the southern coast of Kanagawa. Other Allied personnel followed.

MacArthur arrived in Tokyo on August 30, and immediately decreed several laws: No Allied personnel were to assault Japanese people. No Allied personnel were to eat the scarce Japanese food. Flying the Hinomaru or "Rising Sun" flag was initially severely restricted (although individuals and prefectural offices could apply for permission to fly it). The restriction was partially lifted in 1948 and completely lifted the following year.^[6]

1946 newsreel

Representatives of Japan stand aboard the USS Missouri prior to signing of the Instrument of Surrender.

On September 2, Japan formally surrendered with the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender. On September 6, U.S. President Truman approved a document titled "US Initial Post-Surrender Policy for Japan".^[7] The document set two main objectives for the occupation: (1) eliminating Japan's war potential and (2) turning Japan into a western style nation with pro-American orientation. Allied (primarily American) forces were set up to supervise the country, and "for eighty months following its surrender in 1945, Japan was at the mercy of an army of occupation, its people subject to foreign military control."^[8] At the head of the Occupation administration was General MacArthur who was technically supposed to defer to an advisory council set up by the Allied powers, but in practice did everything himself. As a result, this period was one of significant American influence, having been already identified in 1951, that "for six years the United States has had a freer hand to experiment with Japan than any other country in Asia, or indeed in the entire world."^[9]

MacArthur's first priority was to set up a food distribution network; following the collapse of the ruling government and the wholesale destruction of most major cities, virtually everyone was starving. Even with these measures, millions of people were still on the brink of starvation for several years after the surrender.^[10] As expressed by Kawai Kazuo, "Democracy cannot be taught to a starving people,"^[11] and while the US government encouraged democratic reform in Japan, it also sent billions of dollars in aid.^[12]

Gaetano Faillace's photo of Douglas MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito.

Initially the US government provided emergency food relief through Government and Relief in Occupied Areas (GARIOA) funds. In fiscal year 1946, this aid amounted to US$92 million in loans. From April 1946, in the guise of Licensed Agencies for Relief in Asia, private relief organizations were also permitted to provide relief. Once the food network was in place, at a cost of up to US$1 million^{[citation needed]} per day, MacArthur set out to win the support of Hirohito. The two men met for the first time on September 27; the photograph of the two together is one of the most famous in Japanese history. However, many were shocked that MacArthur wore his standard duty uniform with no tie instead of his dress uniform when meeting the emperor. MacArthur may have done this on purpose, to send a message as to what he considered the emperor's status to be.^[13] With the sanction of Japan's reigning monarch, MacArthur had the ammunition he needed to begin the real work of the occupation. While other Allied political and military leaders pushed for Hirohito to be tried as a war criminal, MacArthur resisted such calls and rejected the claims of members of the imperial family such as Prince Mikasa and Prince Higashikuni and intellectuals like Tatsuji Miyoshi who asked for the emperor's abdication, arguing that any such prosecution would be overwhelmingly unpopular with the Japanese people.^[14]

By the end of 1945, more than 350,000 U.S. personnel were stationed throughout Japan. By the beginning of 1946, replacement troops began to arrive in the country in large numbers and were assigned to MacArthur's Eighth Army, headquartered in Tokyo's Dai-Ichi building. Of the main Japanese islands, Kyūshū was occupied by the 24th Infantry Division, with some responsibility for Shikoku. Honshū was occupied by the First Cavalry Division. Hokkaidō was occupied by the 11th Airborne Division.

The 2nd Battalion, 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles marching through Kure soon after their arrival in Japan. (May 1946)

By June 1950, all of these army units had suffered extensive troop reductions, and their combat effectiveness was seriously weakened. When North Korea invaded South Korea (see Korean War), elements of the 24th Division were flown into South Korea to try to stem the massive invasion force there, but the green occupation troops, while acquitting themselves well when suddenly thrown into combat almost overnight, suffered heavy casualties and were forced into retreat until other Japan occupation troops could be sent to assist.

The official British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF), composed of Australian, British, Indian and New Zealand personnel, was deployed on February 21, 1946. While U.S. forces were responsible for overall military government, BCOF was responsible for supervising demilitarization and the disposal of Japan's war industries.^[15] BCOF was also responsible for occupation of several western prefectures and had its headquarters at Kure. At its peak, the force numbered about 40,000 personnel. During 1947, BCOF began to decrease its activities in Japan, and officially wound up in 1951.

Outcomes of the occupation[link]

Disarmament[link]

Japan's postwar constitution, adopted under Allied supervision, included a "Peace Clause" (Article 9), which renounced war and banned Japan from maintaining any armed forces. This was intended to prevent the country from ever becoming an aggressive military power again. However, within a decade, America was pressuring Japan to rebuild its army as a bulwark against communism in Asia after the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War, and Japan established Self-Defense Forces. Traditionally, Japan's military spending has been restricted to about 1% of its gross national product, though this is by popular practice, not law, and has fluctuated up and down from this figure. Prime Ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe, and other politicians have tried to repeal or amend the clause. Although the intention of the American occupation was to demilitarize the Japanese, due to the subsequent perceived threat of communism in Asia, and at American urging, the Japanese military was slowly restored to considerable strength. Japan now has the sixth largest military budget in the world.^[16]

Liberalization[link]

The Occupation was not the simple experiment in democracy it is often portrayed to be. With the intensification of the Cold War, SCAP reined in its reform initiatives. From late 1947, U.S. priorities shifted perceptibly from liberal social change to internal political stability and economic recovery. Demilitarisation and democratization lost momentum and then seemed to stall. Economic deconcentration, for example, was left uncompleted as GHQ responded to new imperatives. American authorities encouraged business practices and industrial policies that have since become sources of contention between Japan and its major trade partners, notably the United States.^[17] During the Occupation, GHQ/SCAP successfully (if not entirely) abolished many of the financial coalitions known as the Zaibatsu, which had previously monopolized industry.^[18] Along with the later American change of heart, however (due in part to the need for an economically stronger Japan in the face of a perceived Soviet threat), these economic reforms were also hampered by the wealthy and influential Japanese who obviously stood to lose a great deal. As such, there were those who consequently resisted any attempts at reform, claiming that the zaibatsu were required for Japan to compete internationally, and looser industrial groupings known as keiretsu evolved. A major land reform was also conducted, led by Wolf Ladejinsky of General Douglas MacArthur's SCAP staff. However, Ladejinsky has stated that the real architect of reform was Hiro Wada, former Japanese Minister of Agriculture.^[19] Between 1947 and 1949, approximately 5,800,000 acres (23,000 km²) of land (approximately 38% of Japan's cultivated land) were purchased from the landlords under the government's reform program and resold at extremely low prices (after inflation) to the farmers who worked them. By 1950, three million peasants had acquired land, dismantling a power structure that the landlords had long dominated.^[20]

Democratization[link]

In 1946, the Diet ratified a new Constitution of Japan that followed closely a 'model copy' prepared by the GHQ/SCAP,^[21] and was promulgated as an amendment to the old Prussian-style Meiji Constitution. "The political project drew much of its inspiration from the US Bill of Rights, New Deal social legislation, the liberal constitutions of several European states and even the Soviet Union.... (It) transferred sovereignty from the Emperor to the people in an attempt to depoliticize the Throne and reduce it to the status of a state symbol. Included in the revised charter was the famous 'no war', 'no arms' Article Nine, which outlawed belligerency as an instrument of state policy and the maintenance of a standing army. The 1947 Constitution also enfranchised women, guaranteed fundamental human rights, strengthened the powers of Parliament and the Cabinet, and decentralized the police and local government."^[22] On December 15, 1945 the Shinto Directive was issued abolishing Shinto as a state religion and prohibiting some of its teachings and rites that were deemed to be militaristic or ultra-nationalistic. On April 10, 1946, an election with 78.52% voter turnout among men and 66.97% among women^[23] gave Japan its first modern prime minister, Shigeru Yoshida.

Trade Union Act[link]

In 1945 the Diet passed Japan's first ever trade union law protecting the rights of workers to form or join a union, to organize and take industrial action. There had been pre-war attempts to do so, but none that were successfully passed until the Allied occupation.^[24] A new Trade Union law was passed on June 1, 1949, which remains in place to the present day. According to Article 1 of the Act, the purpose of the act is to "elevate the status of workers by promoting their being on equal standing with the employer".^[25]

Labor Standards Act[link]

The Labor Standards Act was enacted on 7 April 1947 to govern working conditions in Japan. According to Article 1 of the Act, its goal is to ensure that "Working conditions shall be those which should meet the needs of workers who live lives worthy of human beings."^[26] While it was created while Japan was under occupation, the origins of the Act have nothing to do with the occupation forces. It appears to have been the brainchild of Kosaku Teramoto, a former member of the Thought Police, who had become the head of the Labor Standards section of the Welfare Ministry.^[27]

Education reform[link]

Before and during the war, Japanese education was based on the German system, with "Gymnasium" (selective grammar schools) and universities to train students after primary school. During the occupation, Japan's secondary education system was changed to incorporate three-year junior high schools and senior high schools similar to those in the U.S.: junior high school became compulsory but senior high school remained optional. The Imperial Rescript on Education was repealed, and the Imperial University system reorganized. The longstanding issue of Japanese script reform, which had been planned for decades but continuously opposed by more conservative elements, was also resolved during this time. The Japanese written system was drastically reorganized with the Tōyō kanji-list in 1946, predecessor of today's Jōyō kanji, and orthography was greatly altered to reflect spoken usage.

Impact of the occupation[link]

Hideki Tojo takes the stand at the Tokyo war crimes tribunal.

Purging of war criminals[link]

While these other reforms were taking place, various military tribunals, most notably the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Ichigaya, were trying Japan's war criminals and sentencing many to death and imprisonment. However, many suspects such as Tsuji Masanobu, Nobusuke Kishi, Yoshio Kodama and Ryoichi Sasakawa were never judged, while the Showa Emperor, all members of the imperial family implicated in the war such as Prince Chichibu, Prince Asaka, Prince Hiroyasu Fushimi, Prince Higashikuni and Prince Takeda, and all members of Unit 731 were given immunity from criminal prosecution by General MacArthur.

Before the war crimes trials actually convened, the SCAP, the International Peace and SecurityPS and Shōwa officials worked behind the scenes not only to prevent the imperial family from being indicted, but also to slant the testimony of the defendants to ensure that no one implicated the Emperor. High officials in court circles and the Shōwa government collaborated with Allied GHQ in compiling lists of prospective war criminals, while the individuals arrested as Class A suspects and incarcerated in Sugamo prison solemnly vowed to protect their sovereign against any possible taint of war responsibility.^[28] Thus, months before the Tokyo tribunal commenced, MacArthur's highest subordinates were working to attribute ultimate responsibility for Pearl Harbor to Hideki Tōjō"^[29] by allowing "the major criminal suspects to coordinate their stories so that the Emperor would be spared from indictment."^[30] and "with the full support of MacArthur's headquarters, the prosecution functioned, in effect, as a defense team for the emperor."^[31]

For historian John W. Dower,

Even Japanese peace activists who endorse the ideals of the Nuremberg and Tokyo charters, and who have labored to document and publicize Japanese atrocities, cannot defend the American decision to exonerate the emperor of war responsibility and then, in the chill of Cold war, release and soon afterwards openly embrace accused right-wing war criminals like the later prime minister Kishi Nobusuke.^[32] In retrospect, apart from the military officer corps, the purge of alleged militarists and ultranationalists that was conducted under the Occupation had relatively small impact on the long-term composition of men of influence in the public and private sectors. The purge initially brought new blood into the political parties, but this was offset by the return of huge numbers of formally purged conservative politicians to national as well as local politics in the early 1950s. In the bureaucracy, the purge was negligible from the outset.... In the economic sector, the purge similarly was only mildly disruptive, affecting less than sixteen hundred individuals spread among some four hundred companies. Everywhere one looks, the corridors of power in postwar Japan are crowded with men whose talents had already been recognized during the war years, and who found the same talents highly prized in the "new" Japan.^[33]

Rape[link]

There are allegations that during the three months in 1945 when Okinawa was gradually occupied there were rapes committed by U.S. troops. According to George Feifer there were thousands of rapes, and according to Peter Schrijvers one historians estimate of over 10 000 rapes is a not unlikely number of rapes by US forces.^[34][35]

Many Japanese civilians in the Japanese mainland feared that the Allied occupation troops were likely to rape Japanese women. The Japanese authorities set up a large system of prostitution facilities (RAA) in order to protect the population. According to John W. Dower, precisely as the Japanese government had hoped when it created the prostitution facilities, while the RAA was in place "the incidence of rape remained relatively low given the huge size of the occupation force".^[36]:130 However, there was a resulting large rise in venereal disease among the soldiers, which led the US army to close down the prostitution in early 1946.^[37] The incidence of rape increased after the closure of the brothels, possibly eight-fold; Dower states that "According to one calculation the number of rapes and assaults on japanese women amounted to around 40 daily while the RAA was in operation, and then rose to an average of 330 a day after it was terminated in early 1946."^[38] Michael S. Molasky states that while rape and other violent crime was widespread in naval ports like Yokosuka and Yokohama during the first few weeks of occupation, according to Japanese police reports and journalistic studies, the number of incidents declined shortly after and were not common on mainland Japan throughout the rest of occupation.^[39] Two weeks into the occupation the Occupation administration began censoring all media, this included any mention of rape or other sensitive social issues.^{[40] [41]}

According to Dower, "more than a few incidents" of assault and rape were never reported to the police.^[42] According to Toshiyuki Tanaka, 76 cases of rape or rape-murder were reported on Okinawa during the first five years of occupation, but according to Tanaka this is "but the tip of the iceberg" as most of the rapes went unreported.^[43]

Censorship[link]

After the surrender of Japan in 1945, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers abolished all forms of censorship and controls on Freedom of Speech, which was also integrated into Article 21 of the 1947 Constitution of Japan. However, press censorship remained a reality in the post-war era, especially in matters of pornography, and in political matters deemed subversive by the American government during the occupation of Japan.

The Allied occupation forces suppressed news of criminal activities such as rape; on September 10, 1945 SCAP "issued press and pre-censorship codes outlawing the publication of all reports and statistics 'inimical to the objectives of the Occupation'."^[44]

According to David M. Rosenfeld:

Not only did Occupation censorship forbid criticism of the United States or other Allied nations, but the mention of censorship itself was forbidden. This means, as Donald Keene observes, that for some producers of texts "the Occupation censorship was even more exasperating than Japanese military censorship had been because it insisted that all traces of censorship be concealed. This meant that articles had to be rewritten in full, rather than merely submitting XXs for the offending phrases."

—Donald Keene, quoted in Dawn to the West^[45]

Industrial disarmament[link]

To further remove Japan as a potential future threat to the U.S., the Far Eastern Commission decided that Japan was to be partly de-industrialized. The necessary dismantling of Japanese industry was foreseen to have been achieved when Japanese standards of living had been reduced to those existing in Japan the period 1930 - 1934.^[46][47] In the end the adopted program of de-industrialisation in Japan was implemented to a lesser degree than the similar U.S. "industrial disarmament" program in Germany.^[46] In view of the cost to American taxpayers for emergency food aid to Japan, in April 1948 the Johnston Committee Report recommended that the economy of Japan should instead be reconstructed. The report included suggestions for reductions in war reparations, and a relaxation of the "economic deconcentration" policy. For the fiscal year of 1949 funds were moved from the GARIOA budget into an Economic Rehabilitation in Occupied Areas (EROA) programme, to be used for the import of materials needed for economic reconstruction.

Prostitution[link]

With the acceptance of the Allied occupation authorities the Japanese organized a brothel system for the benefit of the more than 300,000 occupation troops. "The strategy was, through the special work of experienced women, to create a breakwater to protect regular women and girls."

In December 1945 a senior officer with the Public Health and Welfare Division of the occupation's General Headquarters wrote regarding the typical prostitute:

"The girl is impressed into contracting by the desperate financial straits of her parents and their urging, occasionally supplemented by her willingness to make such a sacrifice to help her family," he wrote. "It is the belief of our informants, however, that in urban districts the practice of enslaving girls, while much less prevalent than in the past, still exists."

"The worst victims ... were the women who, with no previous experience, answered the ads calling for 'Women of the New Japan'."

When MacArthur finally closed the brothels on March 25, 1946, it is estimated that more than 25% of the U.S. troops had sexually transmitted diseases.^{[48][49][50][51]}

Expulsions[link]

The defeat of the Japanese Empire meant reversal of its previous annexations—Taiwan and Manchuria were returned to China, while Korea regained its independence.

The Soviet Union claimed South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, with 400,000 Japanese fleeing or expelled. Similar actions happened in Taiwan and Manchuria after their return to China, while independent Korea saw flight of over 800,000 Japanese settlers—fearing reprisals for Japanese war crimes and decades of looting of the peninsula by settlers.

Other[link]

In a bid to occupy as much Japanese territory as possible, Soviet troops continued offensive military operations after the Japanese surrender, causing large scale civilian casualties.^[52]

Politics[link]

Unlike the case in Germany Japan retained a native government throughout the occupation, although its de facto authority was strictly limited at first and senior figures in the government such as the Prime Minister effectively served at the pleasure of the occupational authorities prior to the first post-war elections being held.

Political parties had begun to revive almost immediately after the occupation began. Left-wing organizations, such as the Japan Socialist Party and the Japan Communist Party, quickly reestablished themselves, as did various conservative parties. The old Seiyukai and Rikken Minseito came back as, respectively, the Liberal Party (Nihon Jiyuto) and the Japan Progressive Party (Nihon Shimpoto). The first postwar elections were held in 1946 (women were given the franchise for the first time), and the Liberal Party's vice president, Yoshida Shigeru (1878–1967), became prime minister. For the 1947 elections, anti-Yoshida forces left the Liberal Party and joined forces with the Progressive Party to establish the new Japan Democratic Party (Minshuto). This divisiveness in conservative ranks gave a plurality to the Japan Socialist Party, which was allowed to form a cabinet, which lasted less than a year. Thereafter, the socialist party steadily declined in its electoral successes. After a short period of Democratic Party administration, Yoshida returned in late 1948 and continued to serve as prime minister until 1954. However, because of a heart failure Yoshida was replaced by Shinto in 1955.

End of the occupation[link]

In 1949, MacArthur made a sweeping change in the SCAP power structure that greatly increased the power of Japan's native rulers, and the occupation began to draw to a close. The San Francisco Peace Treaty, signed on September 8, 1951, marked the end of the Allied occupation, and when it went into effect on April 28, 1952, Japan was once again an independent state (with the exceptions of Okinawa, which remained under U.S. control until 1972, and Iwo Jima, which remained under US control until 1968). Even though some 31,000 U.S. military personnel remain in Japan today, they are there at the invitation of the Japanese government under the terms of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan (1960) and not as an occupying force.

Criticism of the occupation[link]

On the day the occupation of Japan was over, the Asahi Shimbun published a very critical essay on the occupation, claiming it turned the Japanese population "irresponsible, obsequious and listless... unable to perceive issues in a forthright manner, which led to distorted perspectives".^[53]

Cultural reaction[link]

Nihonbashi, Tokyo, in 1946

Hirohito’s surrender broadcast was a profound shock to Japanese citizens. After years of being told about Japan’s military might and the inevitability of victory, these beliefs were proven false in the space of a few minutes. But for many people, these were only secondary concerns since they were also facing starvation and homelessness.

Post-war Japan was chaotic. The air raids on urban centers left millions displaced and food shortages, created by bad harvests and the demands of the war, worsened when the importation of food from Korea, Taiwan, and China ceased.^[54] Repatriation of Japanese living in other parts of Asia only aggravated the problems in Japan as these displaced people put more strain on already scarce resources. Over 5.1 million Japanese returned to Japan in the fifteen months following October 1, 1945.^[55] Alcohol and drug abuse became major problems. Deep exhaustion, declining morale and despair was so widespread that it was termed the "kyodatsu condition" (虚脱状態, kyodatsujoutai^?, lit. "state of lethargy").^[56] Inflation was rampant and many people turned to the black market for even the most basic goods. These black markets in turn were often places of turf wars between rival gangs, like the Shibuya incident in 1946. Prostitution also increased considerably.

In the 1950s, kasutori culture emerged. In response to the scarcity of the previous years, this sub-culture, named after the preferred drink of the artists and writers who embodied it, emphasized escapism, entertainment and decadence.^[57]

The phrase "shikata ga nai", or "nothing can be done about it," was commonly used in both Japanese and American press to encapsulate the Japanese public's resignation to the harsh conditions endured while under occupation. However, not everyone reacted the same way to the hardships of the postwar period. While some succumbed to the difficulties, many more were resilient. As the country regained its footing, they were able to bounce back as well.

There is an ongoing discussion regarding the concept of "authenticity" as experienced by the generation raised under American military occupation. Masaya Ito et al. compared different generations of Japanese and found no difference in the perception of authenticity.^[58] In reviewing the same data, A. James Giannini found that Japanese culture was not vertically homogeneous. In accordance with the work of Umberto Eco he noted a difference between expectancy and fulfillment of this particular word and concept.^[59]

A superstition was born from the occupation years as well. There are hotels in Japan in which rooms skip in sequence from 1943 to 1953.^{[citation needed]}

Japanese women and the occupation[link]

It has been argued that the granting of rights to women played an important role in the radical shift Japan underwent from a war nation to a democratized and demilitarized country.^[60] In the first postwar general elections of 1946, the unexpectedly high female voter turnout led to the election of 39 female candidates, and the increasing presence of women in politics was viewed by Americans as evidence of an improvement of Japanese women's condition.^[61] However, many scholars talk of the emphasis put at the time by Americans on Japanese women's enfranchisement as a way to disguise the imperialism endeavors behind the occupation.^[62][63] Some scholars also argue that Japanese feminists already had a history of seeking equal rights and that women would have gained suffrage without the occupation. Since the 1920s, the appearance of the "modern girl" (moga) and "modern boy" (mobo) saw an increase in the number of women taking on the role of industrial and white-collar workers and consumers.^[64] During the 1930s, women had also started filling in for men away from home for military service, and during the war, women did not hesitate to take up arms when needed.^[65]

However, Japanese women were perceived as helpless victims of feudalistic and chauvinistic traditions who needed the guidance of the United States. American women assumed a central role in the reforms that affected the lives of Japanese women: they educated Japanese about Western ideals of democracy, and it was an American woman who wrote the Japanese Equal Rights Amendment for the new constitution.^[66] Although their efforts were genuine for the most part and did bring benefits to Japanese women, the attitude of American women took roots into imperialist and orientalist perceptions of Japan.^[67] The American women perceived themselves as "feminist agents endowed with progressive and modern ideology and practice" who had been appointed the mission of liberating Japanese women.^[68] General Douglas MacArthur did not mean for Japanese women to give up their central role in the home as wives and mothers, but rather that they could now assume other roles simultaneously, such as that of worker.^[69][70]

In 1953, journalist Ichirō Narumigi commented that Japan had received "liberation of sex" along with the "four presents" that it had been granted by the occupation (respect for human rights, gender equality, freedom of speech, and women’s enfranchisement).^[71] Indeed, the occupation also had a great impact on relationships between man and woman in Japan. The "modern girl" phenomenon of the 1920s and early 1930s had been characterized by greater sexual freedom, but despite this, sex was usually not perceived as a source of pleasure in Japan. Westerners, as a result, were thought to be promiscuous and sexually deviant.^[72] The sexual liberation of European and North American women during World War II was unthinkable in Japan, especially during wartime where rejection of Western ways of life was encouraged.^[73]

The Japanese public was thus astounded by the sight of some 45,000 so-called "pan pan girls" (prostitutes) fraternizing with American soldiers during the occupation.^[71] In 1946, the 200 wives of U.S. officers landing in Japan to visit their husbands also had a similar impact when many of these reunited couples were seen walking hand in hand and kissing in public.^[74] Both prostitution and marks of affection had been hidden from the public until then, and this "democratization of eroticism" was a source of surprise, curiosity, and even envy. The occupation set new relationships models for Japanese men and women: the practice of modern "dating" spread, and activities such as dancing, movies and coffee were not limited to "pan pan girls" and American troops anymore, and became popular among young Japanese couples.^[75]

See also[link]

• Far Eastern Commission
• Japanese war crimes
• Comfort Women by the United States in Occupied Japan
• World War II
• Task Force 31
• 1945 in Japan
• History of Japan
• Pacific War
• GARIOA
• Shipping Control Authority for the Japanese Merchant Marine

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Asahi Shimbun Staff, The Pacific rivals; a Japanese view of Japanese-American relations, New York: Weatherhill, 1972. ISBN 978-0-8348-0070-0
• Bix, Herbert. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. New York: Harper Perennial, 2001. ISBN 0-06-093130-2
• Cripps, D. "Flags and Fanfares: The Hinomaru Flag and the Kimigayo Anthem". In Goodman, Roger & Ian Neary, Case Studies on Human Rights in Japan. London: Routledge, 1996. Pages 76–108. ISBN 1-873410-35-2.
• Dower, John W. Japan in War and Peace. New York: The New Press, 1993. ISBN 1-56584-067-4 or ISBN 1-56584-279-0.
• Dower, John W. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. Norton, 1999. ISBN 0-393-04686-9.
• Flores, Edmundo. Issues of Land Reform. The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 78, No. 4, Part 2: Key Problems of Economic Policy in Latin America. (Jul - Aug., 1970), pp. 890–905.
• Goodman, Roger & Kirsten Refsing. Ideology and Practice in Modern Japan London:Routledge, 1992. ISBN 0-415-06102-4
• Gordon. Andrew. A Modern History of Japan. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-511060-9
• Guillain, Robert. I Saw Tokyo burning: An Eyewitness Narrative from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima (J. Murray, 1981). ISBN 0-385-15701-0
• Sugita, Yoneyuki. Pitfall or Panacea: The Irony of US Power in Occupied Japan, 1945–1952 (Rutledge, 2003). ISBN 0-415-94752-9
• Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-674-01693-9
• Hood, Christopher Philip (2001). Japanese Education Reform: Nakasone's Legacy. New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.
• Kawai, Kazuo. "American influence on Japanese thinking" Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol. 278, 1951: pg. 23-31.
• Ness, Gayl D. Review of the book Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. American Sociological Review (1967), Volume 32, Number 5, pages 818–820.
• Schaller, Michael. The American Occupation of Japan: the Origins of the Cold War in Asia. New York, Oxford University Press, 1985.
• Takemae, Eiji trans. and adpt. by Robert Ricketts and Sebastian Swann. "Inside GHQ: The Allied Occupation of Japan and its Legacy." New York, Continuum, 2002.
• Weisman, Steven R. (1990, April 29). "For Japanese, Flag and Anthem Sometimes Divide". The New York Times.

Further reading[link]

• Hirano, Kyōko (1992). Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo: The Japanese Cinema Under the American Occupation, 1945–1952. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute. OCLC 25367560. ISBN 1-56098-157-1, ISBN 1-56098-402-3. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Occupation of Japan

• J.C.S 1380/15 BASIC DIRECTIVE FOR POST-SURRENDER MILITARY GOVERNMENT IN JAPAN PROPER
• RELATIONS BETWEEN ALLIED FORCES AND THE POPULATION OF JAPAN
• The U.S. Army in Post WWII Japan
• The Road Ahead: Lessons in Nation Building from Japan, Germany, and Afghanistan for Postwar Iraq, by Ray Salvatore Jennings May 2003, Peaceworks No. 49, United States Institute of Peace (The PDF report contains an excellent chapter on the occupation policies.)
• Memories of War: The Second World War and Japanese Historical Memory in Comparative Perspective
• A sweet memory: My first encounter of an American soldier
• Hirata Tetsuo and John W. Dower, "Japan's Red Purge: Lessons from a Saga of Suppression of Free Speech and Thought"
• American Occupation of Japan, Voices of the Key Participants The Pacific Basin Institute produced a 10-part videotaped documentary series The Pacific Century, in 1993. For part 5, "Reinventing Japan," which focuses on post-World War II Japan, key figures of the American occupation government were interviewed about their contributions and views.
• Zaibatsu Dissolution, Reparations and Administrative Guidance.

< Expansionism | History of Japan | Post-Occupation >

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State of Japan 日本国 Nippon-koku Nihon-koku
Flag Imperial Seal
Anthem:  Kimigayo (君が代)
Government Seal of Japan 五七桐 (Go-Shichi no Kiri?)
Capital (and largest city)		Tokyo (de facto) 35°41′N 139°46′E / 35.683°N 139.767°E / 35.683; 139.767
Official language(s)		None[1]
Recognised regional languages		Aynu itak, Ryukyuan languages, Eastern Japanese, Western Japanese, and several other Japanese dialects
National language		Japanese
Ethnic groups		98.5% Japanese, 0.5% Korean, 0.4% Chinese, 0.6% other[2]
Demonym		Japanese
Government		Unitary parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy
-	Emperor	Akihito
-	Prime Minister	Yoshihiko Noda
Legislature		Diet
-	Upper house	House of Councillors
-	Lower house	House of Representatives
Formation
-	National Foundation Day	11 February 660 BC[3]
-	Meiji Constitution	29 November 1890
-	Current constitution	3 May 1947
-	Treaty of San Francisco	28 April 1952
Area
-	Total	377,944 km2 [4](62nd) 145,925 sq mi
-	Water (%)	0.8
Population
-	2011 estimate	127,799,000[5] (10th)
-	2010 census	128,056,026[6]
-	Density	337.1/km2 (36th) 873.1/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$4.440 trillion[7] (4th)
-	Per capita	$34,739[7] (25th)
GDP (nominal)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$5.869 trillion[7] (3rd)
-	Per capita	$45,920[7] (18th)
Gini		37.6 (2008)[8]
HDI (2011)		0.901[9] (very high) (12th)
Currency		Yen (¥) / En (円 or 圓) (JPY)
Time zone		JST (UTC+9)
-	Summer (DST)	not observed (UTC+9)
Date formats		yyyy-mm-dd yyyy年m月d日 Era yy年m月d日 (CE−1988)
Drives on the		left
ISO 3166 code		JP
Internet TLD		.jp
Calling code		81

This article contains Japanese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of kanji and kana.

Japan ⁱ/dʒəˈpæn/ (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon; formally 日本国  Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, literally the State of Japan) is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".

Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.

Archaeological research indicates that people lived in Japan 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 nations followed by long periods of isolation has characterized Japan's history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament called the Diet.

A major economic power,^[2] Japan has the world's third-largest economy by nominal GDP and fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the world's fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer. Although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military force in self-defense and peacekeeping roles. After Singapore, Japan has the lowest homicide rate (including attempted homicide) in the world.^[10] According to both UN and WHO estimates, Japan has the longest life expectancy of any country in the world. According to the UN, it has the third lowest infant mortality rate.^[11][12]

Etymology[link]

The English word Japan is an exonym. The Japanese names for Japan are Nippon (にっぽん^?)  listen (help·info) and Nihon (にほん^?)  listen (help·info); both names are written using the kanji 日本. The Japanese name Nippon is used for most official purposes, including on Japanese yen, postage stamps, and for many international sporting events. Nihon is a more casual term and is used in contemporary speech.

Japanese people refer to themselves as Nihonjin (日本人^?) and to their language as Nihongo (日本語^?). Both Nippon and Nihon mean "sun-origin" and are often translated as Land of the Rising Sun. This nomenclature comes from Japanese missions to Imperial China and refers to Japan's eastward position relative to China. Before Nihon came into official use, Japan was known as Wa (倭^?) or Wakoku (倭国^?).^[13]

The English word for Japan came to the West via early trade routes. The early Mandarin or possibly Wu Chinese (吳語) word for Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. In modern Shanghainese, a Wu dialect, the pronunciation of characters 日本 'Japan' is Zeppen [zəʔpən]. The old Malay word for Japan, Jepang, was borrowed from a Chinese language – Jih'pen'kuo^[14]—, and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in Malacca in the 16th century. Portuguese traders were the first to bring the word to Europe.^[15] It was first recorded in English in a 1565 letter, spelled Giapan.^[16]

History[link]

Prehistory and ancient history[link]

The Golden Hall and five-storey pagoda of Hōryū-ji, among the oldest wooden buildings in the world, National Treasures, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site

A Paleolithic culture around 30,000 BC constitutes the first known habitation of the Japanese archipelago. This was followed from around 14,000 BC (the start of the Jōmon period) by a Mesolithic to Neolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer culture, who include ancestors of both the contemporary Ainu people and Yamato people,^[17][18] characterized by pit dwelling and rudimentary agriculture.^[19] Decorated clay vessels from this period are some of the oldest surviving examples of pottery in the world. Around 300 BC, the Yayoi people began to enter the Japanese islands, intermingling with the Jōmon.^[20] The Yayoi period, starting around 500 BC, saw the introduction of practices like wet-rice farming,^[21] a new style of pottery,^[22] and metallurgy, introduced from China and Korea.^[23]

Japan first appears in written history in the Chinese Book of Han.^[24] According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, the most powerful kingdom on the archipelago during the 3rd century was called Yamataikoku. Buddhism was first introduced to Japan from Baekje of Korea, but the subsequent development of Japanese Buddhism was primarily influenced by China.^[25] Despite early resistance, Buddhism was promoted by the ruling class and gained widespread acceptance beginning in the Asuka period (592–710).^[26]

The Nara period (710–784) of the 8th century marked the emergence of a strong Japanese state, centered on an imperial court in Heijō-kyō (modern Nara). The Nara period is characterized by the appearance of a nascent literature as well as the development of Buddhist-inspired art and architecture.^[27] The smallpox epidemic of 735–737 is believed to have killed as much as one-third of Japan's population.^[28] In 784, Emperor Kammu moved the capital from Nara to Nagaoka-kyō before relocating it to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto) in 794.

Byōdō-in (1053) is a temple of Pure Land Buddhism. It was registered to the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This marked the beginning of the Heian period (794–1185), during which a distinctly indigenous Japanese culture emerged, noted for its art, poetry and prose. Lady Murasaki's The Tale of Genji and the lyrics of Japan's national anthem Kimigayo were written during this time.^[29]

Buddhism began to spread during the Heian era chiefly through two major sects, Tendai by Saichō, and Shingon by Kūkai. Pure Land Buddhism greatly becomes popular in the latter half of the 11th century.

Feudal era[link]

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, sung in the epic Tale of Heike, samurai Minamoto no Yoritomo was appointed shogun and established a base of power in Kamakura. After his death, the Hōjō clan came to power as regents for the shoguns. The Zen school of Buddhism was introduced from China in the Kamakura period (1185–1333) and became popular among the samurai class.^[30] The Kamakura shogunate repelled Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281, but was eventually overthrown by Emperor Go-Daigo. Go-Daigo was himself defeated by Ashikaga Takauji in 1336.

Ginkaku-ji in Kyoto (Higashiyama period in Muromachi Period, c. 1489). It was registered as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto".

Ashikaga Takauji establishes the shogunate in Muromachi, Kyoto. It is a start of Muromachi Period (1336–1573). The Ashikaga shogunate receives glory in the age of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and the culture based on Zen Buddhism (art of Miyabi) has prospered. It evolves to Higashiyama Culture, and has prospered until the 16th century. On the other hand, the succeeding Ashikaga shogunate failed to control the feudal warlords (daimyo), and a civil war (the Ōnin War) began in 1467, opening the century-long Sengoku period ("Warring States").^[31]

During the 16th century, traders and Jesuit missionaries from Portugal reached Japan for the first time, initiating direct commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West. Oda Nobunaga conquered many other daimyo using European technology and firearms; after he was assassinated in 1582, his successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified the nation in 1590. Hideyoshi invaded Korea twice, but following defeats by Korean and Ming Chinese forces and Hideyoshi's death, Japanese troops were withdrawn in 1598.^[32] This age is called Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1573–1603).

Tokugawa Ieyasu served as regent for Hideyoshi's son and used his position to gain political and military support. When open war broke out, he defeated rival clans in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Ieyasu was appointed shogun in 1603 and established the Tokugawa shogunate at Edo (modern Tokyo).^[33] The Tokugawa shogunate enacted measures including buke shohatto, as a code of conduct to control the autonomous daimyo;^[34] and in 1639, the isolationist sakoku ("closed country") policy that spanned the two and a half centuries of tenuous political unity known as the Edo period (1603–1868).^[35] The study of Western sciences, known as rangaku, continued through contact with the Dutch enclave at Dejima in Nagasaki. The Edo period also gave rise to kokugaku ("national studies"), the study of Japan by the Japanese.^[36]

Modern era[link]

On 31 March 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry and the "Black Ships" of the United States Navy forced the opening of Japan to the outside world with the Convention of Kanagawa. Subsequent similar treaties with Western countries in the Bakumatsu period brought economic and political crises. The resignation of the shogun led to the Boshin War and the establishment of a centralized state nominally unified under the Emperor (the Meiji Restoration).^[37]

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 pursued military conflict to expand its 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.^[38] Japan's population grew from 35 million in 1873 to 70 million in 1935.^[39]

The Meiji Emperor (1868–1912), in whose name imperial rule was restored at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate

The early 20th century saw a brief period of "Taishō democracy" overshadowed by increasing expansionism and militarization. World War I enabled Japan, on the side of the victorious Allies, to widen its influence and territorial holdings. It continued its expansionist policy by occupying Manchuria in 1931; as a result of international condemnation of this occupation, Japan resigned from the League of Nations two years later. In 1936, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany, and the 1940 Tripartite Pact made it one of the Axis Powers.^[40] In 1941, Japan negotiated the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact.^[41]

The Empire of Japan invaded other parts of China in 1937, precipitating the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). In 1940, the Empire then invaded French Indochina, after which the United States placed an oil embargo on Japan.^[42] On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor and declared war, bringing the US into World War II.^[43][44] After the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender on 15 August.^[45] The war cost Japan and the rest of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere millions of lives and left much of the nation's industry and infrastructure destroyed. The Allies (led by the US) repatriated millions of ethnic Japanese from colonies and military camps throughout Asia, largely eliminating the Japanese empire and restoring the independence of its conquered territories.^[46] The Allies also convened the International Military Tribunal for the Far East on May 3, 1946 to prosecute some Japanese leaders for war crimes. However, the bacteriological research units and members of the imperial family involved in the war were exonerated from criminal prosecutions by the Supreme Allied Commander despite calls for trials for both groups.^[47]

In 1947, Japan adopted a new constitution emphasizing liberal democratic practices. The Allied occupation ended with the Treaty of San Francisco in 1952^[48] and Japan was granted membership in the United Nations in 1956. Japan later achieved rapid growth to become the second-largest economy in the world, until surpassed by China in 2010. This ended in the mid-1990s when Japan suffered a major recession. In the beginning of the 21st century, positive growth has signaled a gradual economic recovery.^[49] On 11 March 2011, Japan suffered the strongest earthquake in its recorded history; this triggered the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, one of the worst disasters in the history of nuclear power.^[50]

Politics[link]

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko

Japan is a constitutional monarchy where the power of the Emperor is very limited. As a ceremonial figurehead, he is defined by the constitution as "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people". Power is held chiefly by the Prime Minister of Japan and other elected members of the Diet, while sovereignty is vested in the Japanese people.^[51] Akihito is the current Emperor of Japan; Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan, stands as next in line to the throne.

Japan's legislative organ is the National Diet, a bicameral parliament. The Diet consists of a House of Representatives with 480 seats, elected by popular vote every four years or when dissolved, and a House of Councillors of 242 seats, whose popularly elected members serve six-year terms. There is universal suffrage for adults over 20 years of age,^[2] with a secret ballot for all elected offices.^[51] In 2009, the social liberal Democratic Party of Japan took power after 54 years of the liberal conservative Liberal Democratic Party's rule.^[52]

The Prime Minister of Japan is the head of government and is appointed by the Emperor after being designated by the Diet from among its members. The Prime Minister is the head of the Cabinet and appoints and dismisses the Ministers of State. Naoto Kan was designated by the Diet to replace Yukio Hatoyama as the Prime Minister of Japan on June 2, 2010.^[53] Although the Prime Minister is formally appointed by the Emperor, the Constitution of Japan explicitly requires the Emperor to appoint whoever is designated by the Diet. Emperor Akihito formally appointed Kan as the country's 94th Prime Minister on 8 June.^[54]

Historically influenced by Chinese law, the Japanese legal system developed independently during the Edo period through texts such as Kujikata Osadamegaki.^[55] However, since the late 19th century the judicial system has been largely based on the civil law of Europe, notably Germany. For example, in 1896, the Japanese government established a civil code based on a draft of the German Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch; with post–World War II modifications, the code remains in effect.^[56] Statutory law originates in Japan's legislature and has the rubber stamp of the Emperor. The Constitution requires that the Emperor promulgate legislation passed by the Diet, without specifically giving him the power to oppose legislation.^[51] Japan's court system is divided into four basic tiers: the Supreme Court and three levels of lower courts.^[57] The main body of Japanese statutory law is called the Six Codes.^[58]

Foreign relations and military[link]

JDS Kongō (DDG-173) guided missile destroyer launching a Standard Missile 3 anti-ballistic missile.

Japan is a member of the G8, APEC, and "ASEAN Plus Three", and is a participant in the East Asia Summit. Japan signed a security pact with Australia in March 2007^[59] and with India in October 2008.^[60] It is the world's third largest donor of official development assistance after the United States and France, donating US$9.48 billion in 2009.^[61]

Japan has close economic and military relations with the United States; the US-Japan security alliance acts as the cornerstone of the nation's foreign policy.^[62] A member state of the United Nations since 1956, Japan has served as a non-permanent Security Council member for a total of 19 years, most recently for 2009 and 2010. It is one of the G4 nations seeking permanent membership in the Security Council.^[63]

Japan is engaged in several territorial disputes with its neighbors: with Russia over the South Kuril Islands, with South Korea over the Liancourt Rocks, with China and Taiwan over the Senkaku Islands, and with China over the EEZ around Okinotorishima.^[64] Japan also faces an ongoing dispute with North Korea over the latter's abduction of Japanese citizens and its nuclear weapons and missile program (see also Six-party talks).^[65]

Japan maintains one of the largest military budgets of any country in the world.^[66] Japan contributed non-combatant troops to the Iraq War but subsequently withdrew its forces.^[67] The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force is a regular participant in RIMPAC maritime exercises.^[68]

Japan's military is restricted by Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which renounces Japan's right to declare war or use military force in international disputes. Japan's military is governed by the Ministry of Defense, and primarily consists of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF), the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF). The forces have been recently used in peacekeeping operations; the deployment of troops to Iraq marked the first overseas use of Japan's military since World War II.^[67] Nippon Keidanren has called on the government to lift the ban on arms exports so that Japan can join multinational projects such as the Joint Strike Fighter.^[69]

Administrative divisions[link]

Japan consists of forty-seven prefectures, each overseen by an elected governor, legislature and administrative bureaucracy. Each prefecture is further divided into cities, towns and villages.^[70] The nation is currently undergoing administrative reorganization by merging many of the cities, towns and villages with each other. This process will reduce the number of sub-prefecture administrative regions and is expected to cut administrative costs.^[71]

Geography[link]

Topographic map of the Japanese Archipelago.

Hanami celebrations under the cherry blossoms in Ueno Park, Tokyo.

Autumn maple leaves (momiji) at Kongōbu-ji on Mount Kōya, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Japan has a total of 6,852 islands extending along the Pacific coast of East Asia.^[72][73] The country, including all of the islands it controls, lies between latitudes 24° and 46°N, and longitudes 122° and 146°E. The main islands, from north to south, are Hokkaidō, Honshū, Shikoku and Kyūshū. The Ryūkyū Islands, including Okinawa, are a chain to the south of Kyūshū. Together they are often known as the Japanese Archipelago.^[74]

About 73 percent of Japan is forested, mountainous, and unsuitable for agricultural, industrial, or residential use.^[2][75] As a result, the habitable zones, mainly located in coastal areas, have extremely high population densities. Japan is one of the most densely populated countries in the world.^[76]

The islands of Japan are located in a volcanic zone on the Pacific Ring of Fire. They are primarily the result of large oceanic movements occurring over hundreds of millions of years from the mid-Silurian to the Pleistocene as a result of the subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate beneath the continental Amurian Plate and Okinawa Plate to the south, and subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Okhotsk Plate to the north. Japan was originally attached to the eastern coast of the Eurasian continent. The subducting plates pulled Japan eastward, opening the Sea of Japan around 15 million years ago.^[77]

Japan has 108 active volcanoes. Destructive earthquakes, often resulting in tsunami, occur several times each century.^[78] The 1923 Tokyo earthquake killed over 140,000 people.^[79] More recent major quakes are the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, a 9.0-magnitude^[80] quake which hit Japan on 11 March 2011, and triggered a large tsunami.^[50] On 24 May 2012, 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northearstern Japan.No tsunami is expected though.^[81]

Climate[link]

The climate of Japan is predominantly temperate, but varies greatly from north to south. Japan's geographical features divide it into six principal climatic zones: Hokkaidō, Sea of Japan, Central Highland, Seto Inland Sea, Pacific Ocean, and Ryūkyū Islands. The northernmost zone, Hokkaido, has a humid continental climate with long, cold winters and very warm to cool summers. Precipitation is not heavy, but the islands usually develop deep snowbanks in the winter.^[82]

In the Sea of Japan zone on Honshū's west coast, northwest winter winds bring heavy snowfall. In the summer, the region is cooler than the Pacific area, though it sometimes experiences extremely hot temperatures because of the foehn wind. The Central Highland has a typical inland humid continental climate, with large temperature differences between summer and winter, and between day and night; precipitation is light, though winters are usually snowy. The mountains of the Chūgoku and Shikoku regions shelter the Seto Inland Sea from seasonal winds, bringing mild weather year-round.^[83]

The Pacific coast features a humid subtropical climate that experiences milder winters with occasional snowfall and hot, humid summers because of the southeast seasonal wind. The Ryukyu Islands have a subtropical climate, with warm winters and hot summers. Precipitation is very heavy, especially during the rainy season. The generally humid, temperate climate exhibits marked seasonal variation such as the blooming of the spring cherry blossoms, the calls of the summer cicada and fall foliage colors that are celebrated in art and literature.^[84]

The average winter temperature in Japan is 5.1 °C (41.2 °F) and the average summer temperature is 25.2 °C (77.4 °F).^[85] The highest temperature ever measured in Japan—40.9 °C (105.6 °F)—was recorded on 16 August 2007.^[86] The main rainy season begins in early May in Okinawa, and the rain front gradually moves north until reaching Hokkaidō in late July. In most of Honshū, the rainy season begins before the middle of June and lasts about six weeks. In late summer and early autumn, typhoons often bring heavy rain.^[87]

Biodiversity[link]

Japan has nine forest ecoregions which reflect the climate and geography of the islands. They range from subtropical moist broadleaf forests in the Ryūkyū and Bonin Islands, to temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in the mild climate regions of the main islands, to temperate coniferous forests in the cold, winter portions of the northern islands.^[88] Japan has over 90,000 species of wildlife, including the brown bear, the Japanese macaque, the Japanese raccoon dog, and the Japanese giant salamander.^[89] A large network of national parks has been established to protect important areas of flora and fauna as well as thirty-seven Ramsar wetland sites.^[90][91]

Environment[link]

In the period of rapid economic growth after World War II, environmental policies were downplayed by the government and industrial corporations; as a result, environmental pollution was widespread in the 1950s and 1960s. Responding to rising concern about the problem, the government introduced several environmental protection laws in 1970.^[92] The oil crisis in 1973 also encouraged the efficient use of energy due to Japan's lack of natural resources.^[93] Current environmental issues include urban air pollution (NOx, suspended particulate matter, and toxics), waste management, water eutrophication, nature conservation, climate change, chemical management and international co-operation for conservation.^[94]

Japan is one of the world's leaders in the development of new environment-friendly technologies, and is ranked 20th best in the world in the 2010 Environmental Performance Index.^[95] As a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol, and host of the 1997 conference which created it, Japan is under treaty obligation to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps to curb climate change.^[96]

Economy[link]

The Tokyo Stock Exchange, the largest stock exchange in Asia.^[97]

Some of the structural features for Japan's economic growth developed in the Edo period, such as the network of transport routes, by road and water, and the futures contracts, banking and insurance of the Osaka rice brokers.^[98] During the Meiji period from 1868, Japan expanded economically with the embrace of the market economy.^[99] Many of today's enterprises were founded at the time, and Japan emerged as the most developed nation in Asia.^[100] The period of overall real economic growth from the 1960s to the 1980s has been called the Japanese post-war economic miracle: it averaged 7.5 percent in the 1960s and 1970s, and 3.2 percent in the 1980s and early 1990s.^[101]

Growth slowed markedly in the 1990s during what the Japanese call the Lost Decade, largely because of the after-effects of the Japanese asset price bubble and domestic policies intended to wring speculative excesses from the stock and real estate markets. Government efforts to revive economic growth met with little success and were further hampered by the global slowdown in 2000.^[2] The economy showed strong signs of recovery after 2005; GDP growth for that year was 2.8 percent, surpassing the growth rates of the US and European Union during the same period.^[102]

As of 2011^[update], Japan is the third largest national economy in the world, after the United States and China, in terms of nominal GDP,^[103] and the fourth largest national economy in the world, after the United States, China and India in terms of purchasing power parity.^[7] As of January 2011^[update], Japan's public debt was more than 200 percent of its annual gross domestic product, the largest of any nation in the world. In August 2011, Moody's rating has cut Japan's long-term sovereign debt rating one notch from Aa3 to Aa2 inline with the size of the country's deficit and borrowing level. The large budget deficits and government debt since the 2009 global recession and followed by earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 made the rating downgrade.^[104] The service sector accounts for three quarters of the gross domestic product.^[105]

Japan has a large industrial capacity, and is home to some of the largest and most technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronics, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemical substances, textiles, and processed foods. Agricultural businesses in Japan cultivate 13 percent of Japan's land, and Japan accounts for nearly 15 percent of the global fish catch, second only to China.^[2] As of 2010, Japan's labor force consisted of some 65.9 million workers.^[106] Japan has a low unemployment rate of around four percent. Almost one in six Japanese, or 20 million people, lived in poverty in 2007.^[107] Housing in Japan is characterized by limited land supply in urban areas.^[108]

A plug-in hybrid car manufactured by Toyota, one of the world's largest carmakers. Japan is the second-largest producer of automobiles in the world.^[109]

Japan's exports amounted to US$4,210 per capita in 2005. Japan's main export markets are China (18.88 percent), the United States (16.42 percent), South Korea (8.13 percent), Taiwan (6.27 percent) and Hong Kong (5.49 percent) as of 2009. Its main exports are transportation equipment, motor vehicles, electronics, electrical machinery and chemicals.^[2] Japan's main import markets as of 2009 are China (22.2 percent), the US (10.96 percent), Australia (6.29 percent), Saudi Arabia (5.29 percent), United Arab Emirates (4.12 percent), South Korea (3.98 percent) and Indonesia (3.95 percent).^[110]

Japan's main imports are machinery and equipment, fossil fuels, foodstuffs (in particular beef), chemicals, textiles and raw materials for its industries.^[111] By market share measures, domestic markets are the least open of any OECD country.^[112] Junichiro Koizumi's administration began some pro-competition reforms, and foreign investment in Japan has soared.^[113]

Japan ranks 12th of 178 countries in the 2008 Ease of Doing Business Index and has one of the smallest tax revenues of the developed world. The Japanese variant of capitalism has many distinct features: keiretsu enterprises are influential, and lifetime employment and seniority-based career advancement are relatively common in the Japanese work environment.^[112][114] Japanese companies are known for management methods like "The Toyota Way", and shareholder activism is rare.^[115]

Some of the largest enterprises in Japan include Toyota, Nintendo, NTT DoCoMo, Canon, Honda, Takeda Pharmaceutical, Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Sharp, Nippon Steel, Nippon Oil, and Seven & I Holdings Co.^[116] It has some of the world's largest banks, and the Tokyo Stock Exchange (known for its Nikkei 225 and Topix indices) stands as the second largest in the world by market capitalization.^[117] Japan is home to 326 companies from the Forbes Global 2000 or 16.3 percent (as of 2006).^[118]

Science and technology[link]

H-II Transfer Vehicle.

Japan is a leading nation in scientific research, particularly technology, machinery and biomedical research. Nearly 700,000 researchers share a US$130 billion research and development budget, the third largest in the world.^[119] Japan is a world leader in fundamental scientific research, having produced fifteen Nobel laureates in either physics, chemistry or medicine,^[120] three Fields medalists,^[121] and one Gauss Prize laureate.^[122] Some of Japan's more prominent technological contributions are in the fields of electronics, automobiles, machinery, earthquake engineering, industrial robotics, optics, chemicals, semiconductors and metals. Japan leads the world in robotics production and use, possessing more than half (402,200 of 742,500) of the world's industrial robots.^[123]

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is Japan's space agency; it conducts space, planetary, and aviation research, and leads development of rockets and satellites. It is a participant in the International Space Station: the Japanese Experiment Module (Kibo) was added to the station during Space Shuttle assembly flights in 2008.^[124] Japan's plans in space exploration include: launching a space probe to Venus, Akatsuki;^[125][126] developing the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter to be launched in 2013;^[127][128] and building a moon base by 2030.^[129]

On 14 September 2007, it launched lunar explorer "SELENE" (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) on an H-IIA (Model H2A2022) carrier rocket from Tanegashima Space Center. SELENE is also known as Kaguya, after the lunar princess of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.^[130] Kaguya is the largest lunar mission since the Apollo program. Its purpose is to gather data on the moon's origin and evolution. It entered a lunar orbit on 4 October,^[131][132] flying at an altitude of about 100 km (62 mi).^[133] The probe's mission was ended when it was deliberately crashed by JAXA into the Moon on 11 June 2009.^[134]

Infrastructure[link]

Nozomi Shinkansen or 'Bullet Train' at Tokyo Station^[135]

As of 2008, 46.4 percent of energy in Japan is produced from petroleum, 21.4 percent from coal, 16.7 percent from natural gas, 9.7 percent from nuclear power, and 2.9 percent from hydro power. Nuclear power produced 25.1 percent of Japan's electricity, as of 2009.^[136] However, as of May 5, 2012, all of the countries nuclear power plants had been taken offline due to ongoing public opposition following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, though government officials have been continuing to try to sway public opinion in favor of returning at least some of Japan's 50 nuclear reactors to service.^[137] Given its heavy dependence on imported energy,^[138] Japan has aimed to diversify its sources and maintain high levels of energy efficiency.^[139]

Japan's road spending has been extensive.^[140] Its 1.2 million kilometers of paved road are the main means of transportation.^[141] A single network of high-speed, divided, limited-access toll roads connects major cities and is operated by toll-collecting enterprises. New and used cars are inexpensive; car ownership fees and fuel levies are used to promote energy efficiency. However, at just 50 percent of all distance traveled, car usage is the lowest of all G8 countries.^[142]

Dozens of Japanese railway companies compete in regional and local passenger transportation markets; major companies include seven JR enterprises, Kintetsu Corporation, Seibu Railway and Keio Corporation. Some 250 high-speed Shinkansen trains connect major cities and Japanese trains are known for their safety and punctuality.^[143][144] Proposals for a new Maglev route between Tokyo and Osaka are at an advanced stage.^[145] There are 173 airports in Japan; the largest domestic airport, Haneda Airport, is Asia's second-busiest airport.^[146] The largest international gateways are Narita International Airport, Kansai International Airport and Chūbu Centrair International Airport.^[147] Nagoya Port is the country's largest and busiest port, accounting for 10 percent of Japan's trade value.^[148]