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Japan (Japanese: ??/???, Nihon or Nippon,[1] officially Nihon-koku or Nippon-koku?) is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of China, Korea, and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name literally mean "Sun's Origin", thus Japan is also sometimes known as "The Land of the Rising Sun", a name that comes from the country's eastward position relative to China. Its capital is Tokyo. At over 377,872 square kilometres (145,898 sq mi), Japan is the 62nd largest country by area. It encompasses over 3,000 islands, the largest of which are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku. Most of Japan's islands are mountainous, and many are volcanic, including the highest peak, Mount Fuji. It has the world's 10th largest population, with nearly 128 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, with over 30 million residents, is the largest metropolitan area in the world. Archaeological research indicates that people were living on the islands of Japan as early as the upper paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan begins with brief appearances in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Japanese history has been marked by alternating periods of long isolation and radical influence from the outside world. Its culture today is a mixture of outside and internal influences. Since it adopted its constitution on May 3, 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament, the Diet, which is one of the oldest legislative bodies in Asia. Japan is an economic world power with the world's second largest economy, and is the sixth largest exporter and importer and is a member of the United Nations, G8, G4, and APEC. The first signs of civilization appeared around 10,000 BC with the Jomon culture, characterized by a mesolithic to neolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer lifestyle of pit dwelling and a rudimentary form of agriculture.[2] The Jomon people made decorated clay vessels, often with plaited patterns. Some of the oldest surviving examples of pottery in the world may be found in Japan.[3] The Yayoi period, starting around 300 BC, marked the influx of new practices such as rice farming and iron and bronze-making brought by migrants from continental East Asia.[4] Japan first appears in written history in 57 AD, in China's Book of Later Han, as "the people of Wa, formed from more than one hundred tribes." In the 3rd century, according to China's Book of Wei, the most powerful kingdom in Japan was called Yamataikoku. [edit] Classical era The Great Buddha at Todaiji, Nara, originally cast in 752The Yamato period, from the 3rd century to the 7th century, saw the establishment of a dominant polity centered in the Yamato area whence arose the Japanese imperial lineage. The kingdom of Baekje introduced Buddhism to Japan, and it was promoted by the Japanese ruling class. (Japan provided Baekje with military support.[5]) Prince Shotoku devoted his efforts to the spread of Buddhism and Chinese culture in Japan. He is credited with bringing relative peace to Japan through the proclamation of the Seventeen-article constitution. Starting with the Taika Reform Edicts of 645, the Yamato court intensified the adoption of Chinese cultural practices and reorganized the government and the penal code based on the Chinese administrative structure of the time.[6] This paved the way for the dominance of Confucian philosophy in Japan till the 19th century. This period also saw the first use of the word Nihon (??, Nihon?) as a name for the emerging state. The Nara period of the 8th century marked the first emergence of a strong Japanese state, centered around an imperial court in the city of Heijo-kyo. The imperial court then moved briefly to Nagaoka, and then to Heian-kyo (now Kyoto). Historical writing in Japan culminated in the early 8th century with the epic chronicles, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki. These two chronicles give a legendary account of Japan's beginnings. According to them Japan was founded in 660 BC by Emperor Jimmu, a descendant of the Shinto deity Amaterasu (the Sun Goddess). Emperor Jimmu is said to be the ancestor of the line of emperors that remains unbroken to this day. Historians, however, believe the first emperor who actually existed was Emperor Ojin, though the date of his reign is uncertain.[citation needed] In the Heian period, from 794 to 1185, a distinctly indigenous culture emerged, noted for its art, especially poetry and literature. In the early 11th century, Lady Murasaki wrote the world's oldest surviving novel, The Tale of Genji. The Fujiwara clan's regency dominated politics during this period. [edit] Medieval era The samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga, Japan's first official ambassador to the Americas and Europe, in 1615.Japan's medieval era was characterized by the emergence of a ruling class of warriors, the samurai. In 1185, following the defeat of the rival Taira clan, Minamoto no Yoritomo was appointed Shogun and established a base of power in Kamakura. After Yoritomo's death, another warrior clan, the Hojo, came to rule as regents for the shoguns. The Kamakura shogunate managed to repel Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281, with assistance from a storm that the Japanese interpreted as a kamikaze, or Divine Wind. The Kamakura shogunate lasted another fifty years and was eventually overthrown by Ashikaga Takauji in 1333. The succeeding Ashikaga shogunate failed to manage the feudal warlords — the daimyo — and a civil war erupted. The Onin War (1467 to 1477) is generally regarded as the onset of the "Warring States" or Sengoku period. During the 16th century, traders and missionaries from Portugal reached Japan for the first time, initiating the Nanban ("southern barbarian") period of active commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West. Oda Nobunaga conquered numerous other daimyo by using European technology and firearms, and had almost unified the nation when he was assassinated in the "Incident at Honnoji" in 1582. Toyotomi Hideyoshi succeeded Nobunaga and united the nation in 1590. Hideyoshi twice invaded Korea, but was thwarted by Korean and Ming Chinese forces. Following several defeats and Hideyoshi's death, Japanese troops were withdrawn in 1597. [edit] Edo era One of Japan's Red seal ships (1634), which were used for trade throughout Asia.After Hideyoshi's death, Tokugawa Ieyasu utilized his position as the regent of Hideyoshi's son Toyotomi Hideyori as well as the conflicts among loyalists of the Toyotomi clan, to gain the support of warlords from across Japan. When open war broke out, he defeated rival clans in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Ieyasu was appointed shogun in 1603 and established the Tokugawa shogunate at Edo (modern Tokyo). After defeating Toyotomi clan, at the Siege of Osaka in 1614 and 1615, the Tokugawas became rulers of Japan, setting up a centralized feudal system with the Tokugawa shogunate at the head of the feudal domains. After Ieyasu, the Tokugawa shogunate enacted a variety of measures to control the daimyo, among them the sankin-kotai policy of enforced rotation between fiefs and attendance in Edo. In 1639, the shogunate began the isolationist sakoku ("closed country") policy that spanned the two and a half centuries of tenuous political unity known as the Edo period. This is often considered to be the height of Japan's medieval culture. The study of Western sciences, known as rangaku, continued during this period through contacts with the Dutch enclave at Dejima in Nagasaki. The Edo period also gave rise to kokugaku. Literally translated, this means "Japanese studies," though it more correctly is represented by the study of native Japan by the Japanese themselves.[7] Yamaga Soko is a strategist who advocated Bushido. His thought had a strong influence on Forty-seven Ronin and Sonno joi. [edit] Modern Japan Samurai of the Satsuma clan, during the Boshin War period, circa 1867. Photograph by Felice Beato.On March 31, 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry and the "Black Ships" of the United States Navy forced the opening of Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa. The Boshin War of 1867-1868 led to the resignation of the shogunate, and the Meiji Restoration established a government centered around the emperor. One of the main figures that helped bring change was Fukuzawa Yukichi who wrote the article "Leaving Asia", encouraging Japanese people to be open to change and modernize through Westernization. Japan adopted numerous Western institutions, including a modern government, legal system and military. Japan introduced a parliamentary system modeled after the British parliament, with Ito Hirobumi as first Prime Minister in 1882. The Meiji era reforms helped transform the Empire of Japan into a world power and embarked on a number of military conflicts to increase access to natural resources with victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). It was the first time that an Asian country had defeated a European imperial power. By 1910, Japan controlled Korea, Taiwan and the southern half of Sakhalin. Next year, the unequal treaties Japan had signed with western powers were canceled. The early 20th century saw a brief period of "Taisho democracy" overshadowed by the rise of Japanese expansionism and militarization. World War I enabled Japan, which fought on the side of the victorious Allies, to expand its influence in Asia and its territorial holdings in the Pacific. In 1920 Japan joined the League of Nations and became a member of its security council. Japan continued its expansionist policy by occupying Manchuria in 1931. The ensuing criticism from the League prompted its withdrawal in 1933. In 1936, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany, later join