Japan
Article
July 6, 2022
Japan (Japanese: 日本; hepburn: Nihon listen or Nippon listen - officially: 日本国; hepburn: Nihonkoku or Nipponkoku) is a country in East Asia. It is an island state located east of the Sea of Japan and west of the Pacific Ocean and has sea borders with Russia north of the Strait of La Pérouse, South Korea west of the Strait of Korea and China in the south and southwest of the East China Sea. Japan is a chain of islands consisting of the main islands, from north to south: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, as well as 6,848 smaller islands. The islands total 377,972 km2 and extend over 3,000 km from north to south. With a population of 126 million inhabitants, Japan is the world's tenth most populous country. Japan's capital and largest city is Tokyo, located on the southeast coast of Japan in the Kantō region of Honshu Island. Honshu is Japan's largest island and the world's second most populous island after Java. Japan is divided into 8 regions, and most of the smaller islands belong to either the Kantō region or the Kyushu region. The archipelago is located between three tectonic plates: the Eurasian plate, the North American plate and the Philippine plate. This location has given Japan many mountains, 160 volcanoes and about 3,000 hot springs. It also makes Japan frequently vulnerable to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. This is also causing major natural disasters such as the Tōhoku earthquake on March 11, 2011, which wreaked havoc in the Tōhoku region. Japan is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional empire, with Emperor Naruhito as head of state and Fumio Kishida (LDP) as prime minister since October 4, 2021. Japan is a unitary state with two administrative levels under the state, 47 prefectures and 1,719 municipalities. Japan is a member of the G7, G20, APEC, the World Trade Organization and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. After Japan lost World War II, Japan was occupied by the United States from 1945 to 1952, and under American leadership, Japan drafted a new constitution in 1947 to democratize the country. After the occupation, Japan experienced great economic growth, which made Japan one of the economic superpowers. Since the 1990s, Japan has had deflation and declining growth rates.