Japan

Japan whose national capital is Tokyo, is an island country lying off the east coast of Asia. It consists of great string of islands in Northeast- southwest arc that stretches approximately 1,500miles through the western Pacific Ocean. Japan consists of 6,852 islands, although Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku are the four main island in japan that takes nearly the entire land while the numerous other smaller islands take up the remaining small areas. Amongst the four main island Honshu is the largest, followed in size by Hokkaido, Kyushu and shikoku.
Japan is the world’s tenth largest country with a population of about 127million people, while the capital city Tokyo has a population of 13.8 million. Japanese society is linguistically, ethnically and culturally homogeneous, composed of 98.5% ethnic Japanese, with small populations of foreign workers. More than 99 percent of the population speaks Japanese as their first language. Japanese is an agglutinative language distinguished by a system of honorifics reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society. Japanese writing uses kanji (Chinese characters) and two sets of kana (syllabaries based on cursive script and radical of kanji), as well as the Latin alphabet and Arabic numerals.
Japan has an extremely high population density because the major land areas in japan are forested, rugged, mountainous and unsuitable for residential, industrial or agricultural purpose, therefore the population is clustered in urban areas on the coast, plains and valleys, making it one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Housing in Japan is characterized by limited land supply in urban areas.
Japan is divided into 47 prefectures, each overseen by an elected governor, legislature and administrative bureaucracy. Each prefecture is further divided into cities, towns and villages. Over the years japan has grown and is currently the world’s third-largest economy by nominal GDP after united states and China, It’s also the world’s fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity after United States, china and India. Furthermore, it is one of the most highly educated countries in the world as a result of its highly developed economy and exceptionally skilled workforce, It is also the world’s fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer.
It has a large industrial capacity and this sector makes up approximately 27.5% of its GDP. Japan is the third largest automobile producer in the world, and is home to Toyota, the world’s largest automobile company. It is also home to some of the largest and technological advanced producers of electronics, steel, motor vehicles, textile, machine tools, ships, chemicals and processed food amongst other.
Japan is a leading nation in scientific research, particularly in fields related to the natural sciences and engineering. Over the years, Japanese scientists and engineers have immensely contributed to the advancement of Science and modern day technology, the country ranks second among the most innovative countries in the Bloomberg Innovation Index.
Japan is a force to be reckoned with in the world especially when it comes to their military, in 2015 Japan was ranked as the world’s fourth most powerful military behind the united states, Russia, and china. it’s budget for maintaining its modern military for self-defense and international peace keeping roles is the world’s eighth largest military budget. The 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). Japan has close economic and military relations with the United States and has served as a non-permanent Security Council member of the United nations. It is also one of the G4 nations seeking permanent membership in the Security Council and is the highest ranked Asian country in the global peace index.
The climate and geography of the islands are reflected by nine forest ecoregions, 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. This is hugely responsible for Japan’s rich wildlife, japan has over 90,000 species of wildlife which includes brown bear, Japanese macaque, the Japanese raccoon dog, the large Japanese field mouse and the Japanese giant salamander amongst others.
Only 13% of Japan’s land is suitable for agriculture, as a result japan is the second largest agricultural product importer in the world. It has a very small agricultural sector with only about 5% of the labor force working in agriculture. The government of japan subsidizes and support small scale cultivation instead of large scale agriculture and as a result of lack of arable land, a system of terraces is used to farm in small areas, this results to one of the world’s highest levels of crop yields per unit area Additionally, Japan maintains one of the world’s largest fishing fleets and accounts for nearly 15% of the global catch.
They are also well known for their historical and extensive cinemas as well as their rich cuisine, animation, video gaming and vibrant music industry among many other numerous things. Japan is known for its high standard of living and human Development index. The citizens of japan boast of the highest life expectancy and also the lowest infant mortality rate in the world.
One of the most iconic landmark in japan is Mount Fuji which is the highest peak, japan also has 20 world heritage sites, including Himeji Castle, Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto and Nara. Japan is a great tourist location and it attracts millions of international tourist annually, some Popular tourist attractions include Tokyo and Hiroshima, Mount Fuji, ski resorts such as Niseko in Hokkaido, Okinawa, riding the shinkansen and taking advantage of Japan’s hotel and hot spring network.
Japan has a developed system for the protection and promotion of both tangible and intangible Cultural Properties and National Treasures. Traditional Japanese arts include crafts such as ceramics, textiles, lacquerware, swords and dolls; performances of bunraku, kabuki, noh, dance, and rakugo; and other practices, the tea ceremony, ikebana, martial arts, calligraphy, origami, onsen, Geisha and games.