You have not yet voted on this site! If you have already visited the site, please help us classify the good from the bad by voting on this site. The English name of Singapore is an anglicisation of the native Malay name for the country, Singapura, which was in turn derived from Sanskrit (

The Japanese word for Japan is . The character nichi ( Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /srv/users/serverpilot/apps/jujaitaly/public/index.php on line 447.

Japan - Wikipedia. Coordinates: 3. 5. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian mainland, and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the southwest. The kanji that make up Japan's name mean . Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet .

The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, which make up about ninety- seven percent of Japan's land area and often are referred to as home islands. The country is divided into 4. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one. The population of 1. Japanese people make up 9.

Japan's total population. Approximately 9. 1 million people live in the city of Tokyo. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, particularly from Western Europe, has characterized Japan's history. From the 1. 2th century until 1. Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a long period of isolation in the early 1.

United States fleet pressured Japan to open to the West. After nearly two decades of internal conflict and insurrection, the Imperial Court regained its political power in 1. Ch. In the late 1.

First Sino- Japanese War, the Russo- Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino- Japanese War of 1. World War II in 1. Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese surrender. Since adopting its revised constitution on May 3, 1.

SCAP, Japan has maintained a unitaryparliamentaryconstitutional monarchy with an Emperor and an elected legislature called the National Diet. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, and the G2.

It is also the world's fourth- largest exporter and fourth- largest importer. The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most highly educated countries in the world, with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. Japan is a developed country with a very high standard of living and Human Development Index. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world. The character nichi(.

At the end of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan requested that Nihon be used as the name of their country. 96 Hours Trailer Deutsch Download Music more. This name may have its origin in a letter sent in 6. Sui dynasty. The message said: .

How are you. The term Wa (. The Old Mandarin or possibly early Wu Chinese pronunciation of Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. In modern Shanghainese, a Wu dialect, the pronunciation of characters . The old Malay word for Japan, Japun or Japang, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect, probably Fukienese or Ningpo. This was followed from around 1. BC (the start of the J. Around 3. 00 BC, the Yayoi people began to enter the Japanese islands, intermingling with the J. Adobe Get Flash Player Download.

Buddhism was introduced to Japan from Baekje, Korea and was promoted by Prince Sh. The Nara period is characterized by the appearance of a nascent literature as well as the development of Buddhist- inspired art and architecture.

Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji and the lyrics of Japan's national anthem . Pure Land Buddhism (J. In 1. 18. 5, following the defeat of the Taira clan in the Genpei War, sung in the epic Tale of Heike, samurai Minamoto no Yoritomo was appointed shogun by Emperor Go- Toba, and Yoritomo established a base of power in Kamakura. After his death, the H. The Zen school of Buddhism was introduced from China in the Kamakura period (1. Emperor Go- Daigo was himself defeated by Ashikaga Takauji in 1. Ashikaga Takauji established the shogunate in Muromachi, Kyoto.

This was the start of the Muromachi period (1. The Ashikaga shogunate achieved glory in the age of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and the culture based on Zen Buddhism (art of Miyabi) prospered. This evolved to Higashiyama Culture, and prospered until the 1. On the other hand, the succeeding Ashikaga shogunate failed to control the feudal warlords (daimy. This allowed Oda Nobunaga to obtain European technology and firearms, which he used to conquer many other daimy. His consolidation of power began what was known as the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1. After Nobunaga was assassinated in 1.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified the nation in 1. Korea in 1. 59. 2 and 1.

Tokugawa Ieyasu served as regent for Hideyoshi's son and used his position to gain political and military support. When open war broke out, Ieyasu defeated rival clans in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1. Tokugawa Ieyasu was appointed shogun by Emperor Go- Y.

The Edo period also gave rise to kokugaku (. Subsequent similar treaties with Western countries in the Bakumatsu period brought economic and political crises. The resignation of the shogun led to the Boshin War and the establishment of a centralized state nominally unified under the Emperor (the Meiji Restoration). The Meiji Restoration transformed the Empire of Japan into an industrialized world power that pursued military conflict to expand its sphere of influence. After victories in the First Sino- Japanese War (1. Russo- Japanese War (1.

Japan gained control of Taiwan, Korea, and the southern half of Sakhalin. The early 2. 0th century saw a brief period of .

The subsequent . In 1. Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria and following international condemnation of this occupation, Japan resigned from the League of Nations in 1. In 1. 93. 6, Japan signed the Anti- Comintern Pact with Germany, and the 1. Tripartite Pact made it one of the Axis Powers. The Imperial Japanese Army swiftly captured the capital Nanjing and conducted the Nanking Massacre.

The Allies (led by the US) repatriated millions of ethnic Japanese from colonies and military camps throughout Asia, largely eliminating the Japanese empire and restoring the independence of its conquered territories. However, the bacteriological research units and members of the imperial family involved in the war were exonerated from criminal prosecutions by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers despite calls for the trial of both groups. The Allied occupation ended with the Treaty of San Francisco in 1. Japan later achieved rapid growth to become the second- largest economy in the world, until surpassed by China in 2. This ended in the mid- 1. Japan suffered a major recession.

In the beginning of the 2. The country, including all of the islands it controls, lies between latitudes 2. The main islands, from north to south, are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. The Ryukyu Islands, which include Okinawa, are a chain to the south of Kyushu.

Together they are often known as the Japanese archipelago. Japan is one of the most densely populated countries in the world.

They are primarily the result of large oceanic movements occurring over hundreds of millions of years from the mid- Silurian to the Pleistocene as a result of the subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate beneath the continental Amurian Plate and Okinawa Plate to the south, and subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Okhotsk Plate to the north. The Boso Triple Junction off the coast of Japan is a triple junction where the North American Plate, the Pacific Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate meets. Japan was originally attached to the eastern coast of the Eurasian continent. The subducting plates pulled Japan eastward, opening the Sea of Japan around 1. During the twentieth century several new volcanoes emerged, including Sh. Destructive earthquakes, often resulting in tsunami, occur several times each century.

Japan's geographical features divide it into six principal climatic zones: Hokkaido, Sea of Japan, Central Highland, Seto Inland Sea, Pacific Ocean, and Ryukyu Islands. The northernmost zone, Hokkaido, has a humid continental climate with long, cold winters and very warm to cool summers.