Country Profiles: Japan
Part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, Japan encompasses an archipelago of about 6,852 islands, a territory in outer Manchuria and the Kansakka peninsula, with the seas of Japan and Hokkai separating the home isles from the Asian mainland territory. The six main islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Karafuto, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Okinawa) are comprising 32% of the country's area and 91% of the population.
Japan is divided into 67 prefectures and traditionally into thirteen regions. The majority of the country's terrain is mountainous and heavily forested, and less than one-sixth of its land is suitable for agriculture. Consequently, Japan is among the most densely populated and urbanized countries in the world. The largest urban area is the metropolitan area centered on the capital city of Tokyo, which is the most populous in the world. Japan itself is the world's fifth-most populous country.
Japan's current reign, historically known as the Third Empire, was born due to the violent end of the Second Empire and the beginning of the subsequent American occupation. In 1952, the occupation and governing power returned to the citizens of Japan as part of a constitutional monarchy, still led by Emperor Hirohito. During the inter-empire period, Japan was ruled by the Liberal Democratic Party, which briefly gave way to the Socialist Party and the Left Coalition. Tensions between the various factions within the Liberal Democrats led to the split of the right-wing of the party and the formation of the Constitutional Democratic Party, or Rikken Minseitō, under the leadership of former writer and actor Yukio Mishima. Mishima implemented his agenda for Japan through massive modernization of Japan's social and economic order, along with an expansion of the military under the San Francisco treaty that imposed restrictions on Japan's military development as a condition for ending the American occupation. In addition, Mishima worked to restore Japan's national confidence to pre-WWII levels. He succeeded in persuading Emperor Hirohito to reclaim his godhead before retiring and vacating the place to his son Masahito. The new Emperor, an ally of Mishima since the beginning of his political career, has strongly supported these initiatives and has been a significant proponent of the nation's official transformation into the "Great Empire of Japan".
Filled with national pride, Japan joined the Allies in World War III in a surprise attack on the Soviet Union's eastern territories. At the end of the war, Japan was a major part of the new world order and gained territories on the eastern edge of Asia, such as Soviet territory south of the Amur River and the Kamchatka Peninsula. After the war, Japan had a brief series of border incidents with China, which felt threatened by the Japanese presence on its border. In the incident, known as the third Sino-Japanese war, Japan won but did not annex new territories. Today, Japan is a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with the Emperor as a ceremonial, but influential, head of state and an elected bicameral legislature, with the House of Peers acting as the higher chamber and the National Diet as a lower chamber.
Since the adoption of the current system of governance, Japan has pursued a policy of partnership with the United States and the Freyist bloc but no formal alliance with any of them. Since the end of World War II, Japan has experienced massive economic growth that has intensified thanks to the stability provided by the Mishima government. Today, Japan enjoys a world-leading economy and a high standard of living. Japan is a foreign trade-dependent country because of most of the Japanese production, especially in automotive and electronics, is exported. Culturally, Japan is renowned for its art, cuisine, literature, cinema, music, and popular culture. Japan enjoys the highest life expectancy in the West, and at the same time, small population growth compared to Western countries.
