Japan

Japan is a country on an island chain, strictly east of Asia; its geography explains some of its culture. Generally considered part of East Asia, its closest neighbours are North and South Korea, which share with Japan deep cultural roots. The Japanese trace their origins as a unified culture back thousands of years, mingling their own distinct identity with ideas and influence brought mainly from China. Having chosen isolation for hundreds of years, Japan awoke with a new, international outlook in the nineteenth century, bringing significant influence to cultures worldwide. Despite a long period of nationalism in the twentieth century that eventually brought the country ruin, Japanese culture continues to make inroads into the lives of distant peoples - from fads for kimonos and toy crazes to an increasingly international military role, emerging via an economy which produces the newest and most innovative technology .

History

See also: History of Japan

In 1603, the Tokugawa shogunate (military dictatorship) ushered in a long period of isolation from foreign influence in order to secure its power. For 250 years this policy enabled Japan to enjoy stability and a flowering of its indigenous culture. Following the Treaty of Kanagawa with the United States of America in 1854, Japan opened its [port]]s and began to intensively modernise and industrialise.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Japan became a regional power that was able to defeat the forces of both China and Russia. It occupied Korea, Formosa (Taiwan), and southern Sakhalin Island. In 1931-1932. Japan occupied the Chinese province of Manchuria (Dongbei), and in 1937 it launched a full-scale invasion of China. Japan attacked U.S. forces in 1941 - triggering America's entry into World War II - and soon occupied much of East and Southeast Asia.

After its defeat in World War II, Japan was occupied by the U.S. until 1952, and recovered from the effects of the warto become an economic power, staunch American ally and a democracy. While the emperor retains his throne as a symbol of national unity, actual power rests in networks of powerful politicians, bureaucrats, and business executives. The economy experienced a major slowdown starting in the 1990s following three decades of unprecedented growth, but Japan still remains a major economic power, both in Asia and globally.