JAPAN

Japan Yesterday and Today

"Wa people live in the in the mountainous islands in the middle of the Ocean..."
Chinese chronicle Wej Ti from the year 297 A.D.

Geographical data

Japan is situated in the area of over 377 thousand square kilometres and is created by the archipelago of 3.900 islands (the data from various sources may vary), from which about 500 islands are inhabited. The majority of the area is formed by four main islands - Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku.

Japan has the oblong shape, it stretches from the North to the Southwest and its length is 3.800 km, which significantly affects the climatic conditions in individual parts of the country. The climate in the northern island Hokkaidó is approximately similar to the climate in Central Europe, the southernmost islands Kyushu and Okinawa are situated in the subtropical zone. The highest mountain of Japan - Fuji (3.776 m) is one of the symbols of the country.

Japan has over 120 million inhabitants with the average population density of about 332 persons per a square kilometre. However, this information may be rather misleading as about 70% of the territory of Japan is formed by the mountains and approximately 43 % of the population is thus concentrated in urban agglomerations around Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. Japanese currency is yen (JPY), whose rate of exchange oscillates between 100 and 115 yen per US Dollar.

In Japan, main religions are Buddhism and Shintoism. Statistics show, that high percentage of the population professes both religions, although not practising any of them actively.

History of Japan

The origin of Japanese has not been clarified yet satisfactorily. The islands of Japan have been inhabited in several waves, with Ainu nation being the one of the first. By know, there are several thousand of offsprings of this Nation with their own language and culture living in the northern island of Hokkaido. Also the inhabitants of Ryukyu (Okinawa) islands are a specific group of people forming the original ethnical group.
As a legend tells, the Empire of Japan was founded as early as in 660 B.C. by a direct descendant of Amaterasu, the Sun Godess. Historical data confirming the existence of the Empire date back to 297 A. D.

Throughout the whole history of the Japanese Empire one dynasty has been ruling and thus this is the oldest ruling dynasty of the world. However, for long parts of Japanese history emperors were just secondary ruling entities, while custodiers - regents - or military rulers - shoguns were the actual rulers. From the 12-th to 19-th century the real power in Japan was in their hands. At those times the Japanese society was divided into four classes: samurais (i.e. the military aristocracy), peasants, craftsmen and tradesmen.

In the history of Japan the periods of the intensive fascination with foreign cultures have alternated with the periods of total cultural isolation. Chinese culture affected the form of the Japanese culture significantly - Japan has had wide business and diplomatic contacts with China and took over its elements of arts, writing, religion (Buddhism and Confucianism) etc.

The fascination with the Western culture reached its peak in 15-th and 16-th centuries and than the period of another cultural isolation followed. This lasted till 1867, when the Emperor assumed the initiative again. Under pressure of the West, he started to modernise both administration and economy - followed by so called Meiji reforms. The traditional classification of the society was abandoned and the formal equality of sexes was instituted. The country went through the industrialization process and nucleus of democratic bodies was created. The initial enchantment with Western elements broke out into the aggressive nationalism - Japan occupied Korea, parts of China, Russia and Pacific islands and during the World War II they made alliance with Germany.

After the military surrender in 1945 the Emperor was forced to deny its heaven born origin publicly and the new Constituion, which was adopted in 1947, limited his authorities. Since than his political power has been diminished and he has only performed purely symbolic functions. After Showa emperor, whose own name was Hirohito, (1926-1989), his son Akihito (his official name is Heisei Emperor) took the power and he has ruled up to the present date. The political situation in Japan has been very stabile after World War II, since 1955 The Liberal Democratic Party has dominated the national politics.

Economy

The new fascination with the West as well as rapid economic development have placed Japan among the leading world economies as well as leading countries in terms of the technological development. However, the traditional principles of Confucianism, respect for authority and the hierarchy in the society, loyalty and the ability to submit to a team have still important place in the Japanese society.

U.S and China are the main trading partners of Japan; as main features of the economy of Japan we can mention the low unemployment, the stabilization of the production in fixed networks of manufacturers, sellers and services; the Japanese employees are very loyal to their firms, they identify with their goals and they have guaranteed jobs till the end of their professional careers.
A weakness of Japanese economy is its dependence upon the import of raw materials and fossil fuels, which are not available in the islands. Due to the lack of own sources Japan was forced to re-focus on the manufacturing production and more recently also on the services. Thanks to it, it has become second largest economy in the world, after the United States.

Zdeněk Kašpar