Portal:Japan
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Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asian mainland, it is bordered to the west by the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk in the north, and the East China Sea in the south. The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands alongside over 14,000 smaller islands. Japan is divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions, and around 75% of its terrain is mountainous and heavily forested, concentrating its agriculture and highly urbanized population along its eastern coastal plains. With a population of almost 123 million as of 2026, it is the world's 11th most populous country. Tokyo is the country's capital and largest city. Japan is a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature known as the National Diet. Widely considered a great power and the only Asian member of the G7, it maintains one of the world's strongest militaries but has constitutionally renounced its right to declare war. A developed country with one of the world's largest economies by nominal GDP, it is a global leader in the automotive, electronics, and robotics industries, in addition to making significant contributions to science and technology. It has one of the world's highest life expectancies, but is undergoing a population decline. The culture of Japan is well known around the world, particularly its popular culture as expressed in animation, art, comics, cuisine, fashion, films, music, television, theater, and video games. (Full article...) Selected article – show another
The Ehime Maru and USS Greeneville collision was a ship collision between the United States Navy submarine USS Greeneville (SSN-772) and the Japanese fishing training ship Ehime Maru on February 9, 2001, about 9 nautical miles (17 km) off the south coast of Oahu, Hawaii, USA. In a demonstration for some civilian visitors, Greeneville performed an emergency surfacing maneuver. As the submarine surfaced, it struck Ehime Maru, a high-school fishing training ship from Ehime Prefecture, Japan. Within minutes of the collision, Ehime Maru sank. Nine of its crewmembers were killed, including four high school students. Many Japanese, including government officials, were concerned over news that civilians were present in Greeneville's control room at the time of the accident. Some expressed anger because of a perception that the submarine did not try to assist Ehime Maru's survivors and that the submarine's captain, Scott Waddle, did not apologize immediately afterwards. The United States Navy (USN) conducted a public court of inquiry, placed blame on Waddle and other members of Greeneville's crew, and dealt nonjudicial punishment or administrative disciplinary action to the captain and some crew members. In response to requests from the families of Ehime Maru's victims and the government of Japan, the USN raised Ehime Maru from the ocean floor in October 2001 and moved it to shallow water near Oahu. Once there, Navy and Japanese divers located and retrieved the remains of eight of the nine victims from the wreck. (Full article...)
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Selected quote – show anotherSelected biography – show anotherPortrait of Lady Saigō, Hōdai-in, Shizuoka, Japan Lady Saigō (西郷局 or 西郷の局 Saigō no Tsubone; 1552 – 1 July 1589), also known as Oai, was one of the concubines of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the samurai lord who unified Japan at the end of the sixteenth century and then ruled as shōgun. She was also the mother of the second Tokugawa shōgun, Tokugawa Hidetada. Her contributions were considered so significant that she was posthumously inducted to the Senior First Rank of the Imperial Court, the highest honor that could be conferred by the Emperor of Japan. During their relationship, Lady Saigō influenced Ieyasu's philosophies, choice of allies, and policies as he rose to power during the late Sengoku period, and she thus had an indirect effect on the organization and composition of the Tokugawa shogunate. Although less is known of her than some other figures of the era, she is generally regarded as the "power behind the throne", and her life has been compared to a "Cinderella story" of feudal Japan. (Full article...) Selected prefecture – show another
Okayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Okayama. During the Meiji Restoration, Bitchu Province, Bizen Province and Mimasaka Province were combined to form Okayama Prefecture. It borders Hyōgo Prefecture, Tottori Prefecture and Hiroshima Prefecture and faces Kagawa Prefecture in Shikoku across the Seto Inland Sea and includes 90 islands in the sea. There are fifteen cities located in Okayama Prefecture. It is home to the historic town of Kurashiki. Most of the population is concentrated around Kurashiki and Okayama. The small villages in the northern mountain region are aging and declining in population--more than half of the prefectures municipalities are officially designated as depopulated.
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General imagesThe following are images from various Japan-related articles on Wikipedia.
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