The history of Japan encompasses the history of the islands of Japan and the Japanese people, spanning the ancient history of the region to the modern history of Japan as a nation state. Following the last ice age, around 12,000 BC, the rich ecosystem of the Japanese archipelago fostered human development. The earliest-known pottery found in Japan belongs to the Jōmon period. The first known written reference to Japan is in the brief information given in Twenty-Four Histories in the 1st century AD. The main cultural and religious influences came from China. The first permanent capital was founded in 710 at Nara, which became a center of Buddhist art, religion and culture. The current imperial family emerged in about 700, but until 1868 (with few exceptions) had high prestige but little power. By 1550 or so, political power was subdivided into several hundred local units, or so called "domains" controlled by local "daimyō" (lords, Japanese: 大名), each with his own force of samurai (Japanese: 侍) warriors. Tokugawa Ieyasu came to power in 1600, gave land to his supporters, and set up his "bakufu" (feudal government) at Edo (modern Tokyo). The "Tokugawa period" was prosperous and peaceful and Japan terminated the Christian missions and cut off almost all contact with the outside world. In the 1860s, the Meiji period began, and the new national leadership systematically ended feudalism and transformed an isolated, underdeveloped island country, into a world power that closely followed Western models. Democracy was problematic, because Japan's powerful military was semi-independent and overruled—or assassinated—civilians in the 1920s and 1930s. The military moved into China starting in 1931 and declared all-out war on China in 1937. Japan controlled the coast and major cities and set up puppet regimes, but was unable to defeat China. Its attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 led to war with the United States and its allies. After a series of naval victories by mid-1942, Japan's military forces were overextended and its industrial base was unable to provide the needed ships, armaments, and oil. Even with his navy sunk and his main cities destroyed by U.S. air attacks, the Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) held out until August 1945 when two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a Soviet invasion forced a surrender. The U.S. occupied Japan until 1952. After 1955, it enjoyed very high economic growth rates, and became a world economic powerhouse, especially in engineering, automobiles and electronics. Since the 1990s economic stagnation has been a major issue, with an earthquake and tsunami in 2011 causing massive economic dislocations and loss of nuclear power supplies. The Edo, or Tokugawa period saw power centralized in the hands of a hereditary shogunate that took control of religion, regulated the entire economy, subordinated the nobility, and set up uniform systems of taxation, government spending and bureaucracies. It avoided international involvement and wars, established a national judiciary and suppressed protest and criticism. The Tokugawa era brought peace, and that brought prosperity to a nation of 31 million. About 80% of the people were rice farmers. Rice production increased steadily, but population remained stable, so prosperity increased. Rice paddies grew from 1.6 million chō in 1600 to 3 million by 1720. Improved technology helped farmers control the all-important flow of irrigation to their paddies. The daimyō operated several hundred castle towns, which became loci of domestic trade. Large-scale rice markets developed, centered on Edo and Ōsaka. In the cities and towns, guilds of merchants and artisans met the growing demand for goods and services. The merchants, while low in status, prospered, especially those with official patronage. Merchants invented credit instruments to transfer money, currency came into common use, and the strengthening credit market encouraged entrepreneurship. The samurai, forbidden to engage in farming or business but allowed to borrow money, borrowed too much. One scholar observed that the entire military class was living "as in an inn, that is, consuming now and paying later". The bakufu and daimyō raised taxes on farmers, but did not tax business, so they too fell into debt. By 1750 rising taxes incited peasant unrest and even revolt. The nation had to deal somehow with samurai impoverishment and treasury deficits. The financial troubles of the samurai undermined their loyalties to the system, and the empty treasury threatened the whole system of government. One solution was reactionary—with prohibitions on spending for luxuries. Other solutions were modernizing, with the goal of increasing agrarian productivity.

• published: 10 Apr 2015
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