Island country, lying off the eastern coast of Asia in the western Pacific Ocean.
Its four main islands are Hokkaido , Honshu , Shikoku , and Kyushu . It is separated from China by the China Sea and from South Korea, North Korea, and Russia by the Sea of Japan (East Sea). Area: 145,883 sq mi (377,835 sq km). Population (2002 est.): 127,347,000. Capital: Tokyo . The Japanese overwhelmingly are a single Asian ethnic group. Language: Japanese (official). Religions: Shintō , Buddhism , and Christianity. Currency: yen. Situated in one of Earth's most geologically active zones, Japan experiences volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Mountain ranges cover more than four-fifths of its land surface; its highest mountain is Mount Jimmu , in 660 BC. The Yamato court established the first unified Japanese state in the 4th–5th centuries AD; during this period, Buddhism arrived in Japan by way of Korea. For centuries Japan borrowed heavily from Chinese culture, but it began to sever its links with the mainland by the 9th century. The Fujiwara family held sway through the 11th century. In 1192 Minamoto Yoritomo established Japan's first bakufu , or shogunate (see Kamakura period ). The Muromachi period (1338–1573) was marked by warfare among powerful families. Unification was achieved in the late 1500s under the leadership of Oda Nobunaga , Toyotomi Hideyoshi , and Tokugawa Ieyasu . During the Tokugawa period , beginning in 1603, the government imposed a policy of isolation. Under the leadership of the emperor Meiji (1868–1912), it adopted a constitution (1889) and began a program of modernization and Westernization. Japanese imperialism led to war with China (1894–95) and Russia (1904–05) as well as to the annexation of Korea (1910) and Manchuria (1931). During World War II Japan attacked U.S. forces in Hawaii and the Philippines (December 1941) and occupied European colonial possessions in Southeast Asia. In 1945 the U.S. dropped atomic bomb s on Hiroshima and Nagasaki , and Japan surrendered to Allied powers. U.S. postwar occupation of Japan led to a new democratic constitution in 1947. In rebuilding Japan's ruined industrial plant, new technology was used in every major industry. A tremendous economic recovery followed, and Japan became one of the world's wealthiest countries. It was able to maintain a favourable balance of trade despite an economic recession that began in the early 1990s.