INFORMATION ABOUT JAPAN
Geography & Climate
Japan is an island country forming an arc in the Pacific Ocean to the east of the Asian continent. The land comprises four large islands named (in decreasing order of size) Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku, together with many smaller islands. The Pacific Ocean lies to the east while the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea separate Japan from the Asian continent. Japan is 20 times smaller than Australia (Japan is 377,800 km²).
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Regions of Japan
The Japanese archipelago consists of mostly mountainous islands that stretch from northeast to southwest about 2,800 km long. The four major islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Japan is also divided into 8 regions (Tokyo is in the Kanto region). Japan’s total population in 2005 was 127,645,000 (2010).
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Governmental Structure
The Constitution of Japan, which came into effect in 1947, is based on the principles of popular sovereignty, respect for fundamental human rights, and the advocacy of peace.
Japan’s political system is one of constitutional democracy. In accordance with the principle of “separation of powers,” the activities of the national government are formally divided into legislative, judicial, and executive organs. Japan also has 47 prefectures (sub national jurisdictions) with directly elected governors and single chamber assemblies. Each prefecture is further subdivided into districts, cities, towns, villages and wards.
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Economy
The Japanese economy is the second largest market economy in the world as of 2009. Japan’s post-war economy developed from the remnants of an industrial infrastructure that suffered widespread destruction during World War II. In 1952, at the close of the Allied Occupation, Japan was a “less-developed country,” with per capita consumption roughly one fifth that of the United States.
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Education
| Primary School |
6 years |
Grade 1-6 |
| Junior High School |
3 years |
Grade 7-9 |
| High School |
3 years |
Grade 10-12 |
| University |
4 years |
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Education is compulsory for 9 years (in Australia its 10). However, only a very small percentage choose to leave school after 9 years. Most people go to university. Getting into a good university is extremely competitive. Most students study at 'cram school' after school. Many do not get home until 9-10pm (even some primary school students go to cram schools).
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Language
As of July 2009, Japan's population stood at over 127 million and linguistically it is a nearly homogenous nation, with more than 99% of the population using the same language. This means that the Japanese language is the sixth most spoken language in the world. However, the language is spoken in scarcely any region outside Japan.
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Food Culture
The rice-centred food culture of Japan evolved following the introduction of wet rice cultivation from Asia more than 2,000 years ago. The tradition of rice served with seasonal vegetables and fish and other marine products reached a highly sophisticated form in the Edo period (1600-1868) and remains the vibrant core of native Japanese cuisine. In the century and a half since Japan reopened to the West however, Japan has developed an incredibly rich and varied food culture that includes not only native-Japanese cuisine but also many foreign dishes, some adapted to Japanese tastes and some imported more or less unchanged.
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(Information Source: Web Japan)
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