Yahoo! Japan Corporation (ヤフー株式会社, Yahū Kabushiki-gaisha^?) is a Japanese internet company formed as a joint venture between the American internet company Yahoo! and the Japanese internet company SoftBank. It is headquartered at Midtown Tower in the Tokyo Midtown complex in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo.

Yahoo! and SoftBank formed Yahoo! Japan in January 1996 to set up the first web portal in Japan. Yahoo! Japan went live on April 1, 1996.

Yahoo! Japan was listed on JASDAQ in November 1997. In January 2000, it became the first stock in Japanese history to trade for more than ¥100 million per share. The company was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in October 2003 and became part of the Nikkei 225 stock market index in 2005.

Yahoo! Japan acquired the naming rights for the Fukuoka Dome in 2005, renaming the dome as the "Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome". The "Yahoo Dome" is the home field for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, a professional baseball team majority owned by SoftBank.

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.

Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years. The youngest child of the Jackson family, she began her career with the variety television series The Jacksons in 1976 and went on to appear in other television shows throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including Good Times and Fame.

After signing a recording contract with A&M in 1982, she came to prominence following the release of her third studio album Control (1986). Her collaborations with record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis incorporated elements of rhythm and blues, funk, disco, rap, and industrial beats, which led to crossover appeal in popular music. In addition to receiving recognition for the innovation in her records, choreography, music videos, and prominence on radio airplay and MTV, she was acknowledged as a role model for her socially conscious lyrics.

Zhao Wei (born 12 March 1976) is a Chinese actress and pop singer. Audiences sometimes refer to her by her English name, Vicki Zhao (sometimes spelled Vicky Zhao). She has been awarded the Hundred Flowers Award, Shanghai Film Critics Award, Huabiao Award, Golden Eagle TV Award as well as Shanghai Film Festival Golden Globe, amongst others.

After being chosen to work as an extra on a filming set, Zhao developed a love for acting. While studying at Beijing Film Academy, Zhao participated in various film projects. Zhao's breakout role as a leading actress was in Princess Pearl, a Chinese television series. In 1999, after Princess Pearl was broadcast, Zhao also began a singing career with her first album, Swallow. She is considered one of the "Four Young Dan actresses" in China (四小花旦), along with Xu Jinglei, Zhang Ziyi and Zhou Xun.

Zhao rose to international stardom in films such as Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer (2001), So Close (2002) and the epic Warriors of Heaven and Earth (2004). In John Woo's historical epic Red Cliff (2009), she played warrior princess Sun Shangxiang. She gained positive reviews from the Associated Press: "But the biggest surprise in the cast is Chinese actress Zhao Wei, who steals the show with her portrayal of Sun's spunky tomboy sister Sun Shangxiang." For her achievements in film, television, and music, Japanese media dubbed her China's No.1 actress, and UK's The Independent described her as "China's box office darling."