- published: 04 Feb 2015
- views: 12443
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.
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Planet Earth is slowing down
Overseas, underground
Wherever you look around
Lord, take me by the hand
lead me through these desert sands
To the shores of a promised land.
You make me start when you look into my heart
And see me for who I really am.
If you can't change the world. Change yourself.
If you can't change the world. Change yourself.
I didn't care if the sun didn't shine
& the rain didn't fall from the sky
I just cared about myself
From this world to the next
And from the next back to this.
By our actions we are bound.
We're running out of love
running out of hate
running out of space for the human race.
Planet Earth is slowing down.
You make me cry when you look into my eyes.
And see me for who I really am.
If you can't change the world. Change yourself.
If you can't change the world. Change yourself.
And if you can't change yourself....change the world.
I'm in love with the planet I'm standing on
I can't stop
I can't stop thinking of
All the people I've ever loved
All the people I have lost
All the people I'll never know
All the feelings I've never shown.
The world's too big. And life's too short.
To be alone...To be alone. side & climbed in my mind
& taken me down to where the heat