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| Sunday, 11 December 2005 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Japan - A unique place
Decisive dates.... 3500-2000 BC: Population begins migrating inland from coastal areas. 300 BC: Yayoi Period begins with the migration of people from Korea, who introduced rice cultivation. 500 - 600 AD: Buddhism arrives in Japan from Korea. 710: A new capital is established in Nara. 794: The capital is relocated to Kyoto. 1603: Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) moves capital to Edo (present-day Tokyo), beginning 250 years of isolation from the world. Edo becomes the largest city in the world. 1868: The name of the capital is changed from Edo to Tokyo (Eastern capital). 1895: Japan wins the Sino - Japanese War. 1923: Great Kanto Earthquake hits Tokyo area. 1937: Japan begins a military advance on China. 1941: Japan attacks Pacific and Asian targets. Within a year, Japan occupies most of East Asia and Western Pacific. 1945: American bombing raids destroy many of Japan's major cities. In August, two atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A week later,Japan surrenders. 1995: An earthquake hits Kobe area. 1999: Several die in Japan's worst ever nuclear accident at Uranium reprocessing plant in Tokaimura. Fact file * The Japanese archipelago has been inhabited by human beings for at least 30,000 years. * Japan has a British-style constitutional monarchy and parliament. * Japan's government is called a parliamentary democracy. The emperor is head of state. The prime minister of the majority party comes from the Diet. * Japan uses two methods for indicating the year: the Western system (i.e.2005) and a system based on how long the current emperor has reigned (i.e. Heisei 11). The latter appears frequently on official documents. * The Japanese archipelago consists of four main islands - Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu and Hokkaido. * Generally three or four typhoons hit Japan during the season, smaller ones in August building up to larger ones in September. The Japanese don't use names for typhoons, just numbers. * The main industrial regions are the Kanto and Kansai areas, centering on Tokyo and Osaka respectively. * In 1998 the number of Japanese older than 100 reached over 10,000. About 80 per cent were women. Japan's 65 plus generation, now at 15 per cent of the population, will reach 25 per cent by 2020. * Sumo (pronounced S'mo) is the 'official' national sport. |
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We have already featured Japan in our Globescan page, so you know
something about its history, culture and economy. Here is some more
information about this unique country. 
