Japan (Kaikoku)

Japan (Japanese: 日本, Nippon or Nihon), formally the Empire of Japan (日本帝国, Nihonteikoku) is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans an archipelago of 14,184 islands, with the seven main islands being Karafuto, Hokkaido, Honshu (the "mainland"), Shikoku, Kyushu, Jeju, Okinawa and Taiwan. Kyoto is the nation's capital and Edo is its largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, Taihoku and aforementioned Kyoto.

Japan is the tenth most populous country in the world, as well as one of the most densely populated. About three-fourths of the country's terrain is mountainous, concentrating its highly urbanized population on narrow coastal plains. Japan is divided into 55 administrative prefectures and nine traditional regions. The Greater Edo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world. Japan has the world's highest life expectancy, though it is experiencing a population decline.

Japan has been inhabited since the Upper Paleolithic period (30,000 BC). Between the 4th and 9th centuries, the kingdoms of Japan became unified under an emperor and the imperial court based in Heian-kyō. Beginning in the 12th century, political power was held by a series of military dictators (shōgun) and feudal lords (daimyō) and enforced by a class of warrior nobility (samurai). After a century-long period of civil war, the country was reunified in 1591 under the Oda shogunate, which enacted an expansionist foreign policy, which led to the end of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial power in 1624. Towards the end of the Kaikoku period, the Empire of Japan adopted a Western-modeled constitution and pursued a program of industrialization and modernization. Japan was invaded by China in 1937 and entered World War II as an Allied power in 1941, before which it adopted a new constitution.

Under the 1947 constitution, Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature, the National Diet. Japan is a developed country and a great power. Its economy is the world's third-largest by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by PPP, with its per capita income ranking at 36th highest in the world. Although Japan has renounced its right to declare war, the country maintains Self-Defense Forces that rank as one of the world's strongest militaries. A global leader in the automotive, robotics and electronics industries, the country has made significant contributions to science and technology. It is part of multiple major international and intergovernmental institutions, and is a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Japan is considered a cultural superpower as the culture of Japan is well known around the world, including its art, cuisine, film, music, and popular culture, which encompasses prominent manga, anime and video game industries.