Contents:-
I. INTRODUCTION
II. LAND AND RESOURCES
A. Rivers and Lakes
B. Earthquakes
C. Climate
D. Natural Resources
E. Plants and Animals
III. POPULATION
A. Population Characteristics
B. Political Divisions
C. Principal Cities
D. Religion
E. Language
F. Education
1. History
2. Elementary and Secondary Schools
3. Universities and Colleges
G. Culture
IV. ECONOMY
A. Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing
B. Mining
C. Manufacturing
D. Tourism
E. Energy
F. Currency and Banking
G. Commerce and Trade
H. Labour
I. Transport
J. Communications
V. GOVERNMENT
A. Executive and Legislature
B. Political Parties
C. Judiciary
D. Local Government
E. Health and Welfare
F. Defence
G. International Organizations
VI. HISTORY
A. Early Settlement
1. The Jomon Period (c. 10,000 BC-c. 300 BC)
2. The Yayoi Period (c. 300 bc-c. AD 300)
B. The Kofun Period (c. 300-710)
1. The Imperial Clan
2. The Asuka Period (593-710)
C. The Nara Period (710-794)
D. The Heian Period (794-1185)
E. The Kamakura Period (1185-1333)
1. Mongol Threats and Imperial Restoration
F. Muromachi Period (1333-1568)
1. The Onin War and the Period of Warring States
G. The Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1568-1600)
H. The Edo Period (1600-1868)
I. The Meiji Era (1868-1912)
1. Expansionist Period
J. The Taisho Era (1912-1926)
K. The Early Showa Era (1926-1945)
1. Occupation of Dongbei
2. War with China
3. Outbreak of World War II
4. Attack on Pearl Harbor
5. The Tide Turns
6. Dissolution of Empire
L. The Later Showa Era (1945-1989)
1. The Peace Treaty, 1951
2. Post-War Foreign Relations: United States
3. Post-War Foreign Relations: USSR
4. Domestic Politics
5. Economic Growth
6. Cabinet Turnover
M. The Heisei Era (1989- )
1. LDP Revival, Economic Paralysis
Description:-
I INTRODUCTION
Japan, constitutional monarchy in East Asia, comprising four large islands, as well as the Ryukyu Islands and more than 1,000 lesser adjacent islands. It is bounded on the north by the Sea of Okhotsk, on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Pacific Ocean and the East China Sea, and on the west by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan (East Sea). In Japanese the country’s name is Dai (“great”) Nihon or Nippon (“origin of the Sun”), hence, Land of the Rising Sun. The Japanese islands extend in an irregular crescent from the island of Sakhalin (Russia) to the island of Taiwan(Formosa). Japan proper consists of the large islands of Hokkaido, the northernmost; Honshu, the largest, called the mainland; Shikoku; and Kyushu, the southernmost. The combined area of these islands is about 362,000 sq km (140,000 sq mi). The total area of Japan is 377,837 sq km (145,884 sq mi). Tokyo is Japan’s capital and largest city.The Kuril Islands, north of Hokkaido and formerly included in Japan proper as Chishimaretto, were occupied by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) at the conclusion of World War II under an agreement reached at the Yalta Conference in 1945. However Japan claims the southernmost part of the island chain. Until the unconditional surrender of Japan to the Allied powers on September 2, 1945, the Japanese Empire controlled, in addition to present-day Japan and the Kuril Islands, an area of about 1,651,100 sq km (637,500 sq mi), including Korea, Formosa, Dongbei, the leased territory of Guangdong (Kwangtung), the Pescadores (now P'enghu Islands), Karafuto (the southern half of Sakhalin), and the South Sea Mandated Territories, comprising the Marshall, Mariana (except Guam, a United States possession), and Caroline islands, which were made a Japanese mandate by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, after World War I.
II LAND AND RESOURCES
The islands of Japan are the projecting summits of a huge chain of mountains originally a part of the continent of Asia, from which they were detached in the Cenozoic era. The long and narrow main island, Honshu, measures less than 322 km (200 mi) at its greatest breadth. The coastline of Japan is exceedingly long in proportion to the area of the islands, and totals, with the many bays and indentations, about 24,950 km (15,500 mi). The greatest amount of indentation is on the Pacific coast, the result of the erosive action of the tides and severe coastal storms. The western coast of Kyushu, on the East China Sea, is the most irregular portion of the Japanese coast. Few navigable inlets are found on the eastern coast above Tokyo, but south of Tokyo Bay are many of the best bays and harbours in Japan. Between Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu is the Inland Sea, dotted with islands and connected with the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan by three narrow straits through which oceanic storms rarely pass. The western coast of the islands of Japan, on the almost tideless Sea of Japan, is relatively straight and measures less than 4,830 km (3,000 mi); the only conspicuous indentations in the coastline are Wakasa and Toyama bays in Honshu.
Topographically, Japan is a rugged land of high mountains and deep valleys, with many small plains. Because of the alternating sequence of mountain and valley, and the rocky soil, only an estimated 11 per cent of Japan is arable land.
The Japanese plains lie chiefly along the lower courses of the principal rivers, on plateaux along the lowest slopes of mountain ranges, and on lowlands along the sea coast. The most extensive plains are in Hokkaido: along the Ishikari River in the western part of the island, along the Tokachi River in the south-east, and around the cities of Nemuro and Kushiro on the east-central shore. Honshu has several large plains. The Osaka plain contains the cities of Kobe, Kyoto, and Osaka; the Kanto plain is the site of Tokyo; and Nagoya is the main city of the plain of Nobi. The Tsukushi plain is the most important level area in Kyushu.
The mountains of Japan are the most conspicuous feature of the topography. Mountain ranges extend across the islands from north to south, the main chains sending off smaller ranges that branch out laterally or run parallel to the parent range, and frequently descend to the coast, where they form bays and harbours. In the north, the island of Hokkaido is marked by a volcanic range that descends from the Kurils and merges in the south-western part of the island with a chain branching from Point Soya in the north-western tip. These mountains branch into two lines near Uchiura Bay, on the south-western coast, and reappear on the island of Honshu in two parallel ranges. The minor range, situated entirely in the north-east, separates the valley of the Kitakami River from the Pacific Ocean. The main range continues towards the south-west until it meets a mass of intersecting ridges that enclose the plateau of the Shinano River and forms a belt of mountains, the highest in Japan, across the widest part of the island. The highest peak, at 3,776 m (12,389 ft), is Fuji, an extinct volcano near Yokohama, which, because of its unique height and shape, and exceptional beauty, is one of the favourite themes of Japanese art. One of the subsidiary chains in the central mountain mass is called the Japanese Alps because of the grandeur of the landscape; the highest elevation in the chain is Mount Yariga (3,180 m/10,433 ft). Farther south is another chain of high peaks of which Mount Shirane (3,192 m/10,472 ft) is the highest. The islands of Shikoku and Kyushu are dotted with mountain ranges, although none contains any peak higher than Ishizuchi (1,981 m/6,500 ft) on the island of Shikoku. Volcanoes are common in the Japanese mountains; some 200 volcanoes are known, about 50 of which are still active. Thermal springs and volcanic areas emitting gases are exceedingly numerous.
A Rivers and Lakes
Although Japan is abundantly watered—almost every valley has a stream—no long navigable rivers exist. The larger Japanese rivers vary in size from swollen freshets during the spring thaw or the summer rainy season to small streams during dry weather. Successions of rapids and shallows are so common that only boats of extremely shallow draught can navigate. The longest river in Japan is the Shinano, on Honshu, which is about 370 km (230 mi) long; other large rivers on Honshu are the Tone, Kitakami, Tenryu, and Mogami. The important rivers of Hokkaido include the second-largest river of Japan, the Ishikari, and the Teshio and Tokachi. The Yoshino is the longest river in Shikoku. The many Japanese lakes are noted for their scenic beauty. Some are located in the river valleys, but the majority are mountain lakes, and many are summer resorts. The largest lake in Japan is Biwa, on Honshu, which covers about 685 sq km (265 sq mi).
B Earthquakes
Earthquakes are frequent in Japan. A survey showed that seismic disturbances, mostly of a minor nature, occurred more than three times a day. Geological research has shown that, possibly under the continuous impact of these disturbances, the western coast of the Japanese islands is settling, while the Pacific coast is rising. The eastern coast is subject to earthquakes affecting large areas and usually accompanied by great tidal waves; these shocks seem to begin at the bottom of the ocean near the north-eastern coast of Honshu, where a gigantic crater is thought to exist more than 8 km (5 mi) below the surface. The most disastrous earthquake in Japanese history occurred in 1923. It was centred in Sagami Bay and damaged Tokyo and Yokohama; about 150,000 people were killed by the earthquake and its aftermath. The most damaging post-war earthquake was the Great Hashin Earthquake of 1995, which struck the port of Kobe and killed some 5,000 people; its magnitude was roughly 7 on the Richter scale.
C Climate
The Japanese islands extend through approximately 17° of latitude, and Japan’s climatic conditions vary widely. Average mean temperatures range from about 5° C (41° F) in Nemuro (Hokkaido) to about 16° C (61° F) on Okinawa. Short summers and severe long winters characterize Hokkaido and the northern part of Honshu. The severity of the winters is caused in great part by the north-western winds blowing from Siberia and the cold Okhotsk (or Oyashio) Current, which flows south into the Sea of Japan. To the south and east of this region the winters are considerably moderated by the influence of the warm Kuroshio (or Japan) Current. In Shikoku, Kyushu, and southern Honshu the summers are hot and humid, almost subtropical, and the winters are mild with comparatively little snow. Japan lies in the path of the south-eastern monsoons, which add considerably to the oppressive humidity of the summers. Yearly precipitation ranges from about 1,015 mm (40 in) on Hokkaido to 3,810 mm (150 in) in the mountains of central Honshu. From June to October tropical cyclones, also called typhoons, occur: they can cause great damage, especially to shipping.
D Natural Resources
The most important natural resources of Japan are primarily agricultural. Although arable land is limited, Japan has some of the highest crop yields per land area sown in the world, and the country produces about 71 per cent of its food. Japan’s large hydroelectric power potential has been extensively developed, but mineral resources are limited. The country is obliged to import most of its mineral requirements. Geothermal power is a potentially great, as yet unexploited, resource.
E Plants and Animals
The great variety and luxuriance of Japanese plant life is mainly caused by the heat and moisture of Japanese summers, as well as Japan’s proximity to the Eurasian mainland. More than 17,000 species of flowering and non-flowering plants are found, and many are widely cultivated. The white and red plum and the cherry bloom early and are particularly admired. The Japanese hills are colourful with azaleas in April, and the tree peony, one of the most popular cultivated flowers, blossoms at the beginning of May. The lotus blooms in August, and in November the blooming of the chrysanthemum occasions one of the most celebrated of the numerous Japanese flower festivals. Other flowers include the pimpernel, bluebell, gladiolus, and many varieties of lily. Few wild flowers are found, because the small area of arable land permits little space for uncultivated vegetation in the plains.
The predominant variety of Japanese tree is the conifer; a common species is the sugi, or Japanese cedar, which sometimes attains a height of 46 m (150 ft). Other evergreens include the larch, spruce, and many varieties of fir. In Kyushu, Shikoku, and southern Honshu subtropical trees, such as the bamboo, camphor tree, and banyan are found, and the tea plant and wax tree are cultivated. In central and northern Honshu the trees are those of the Temperate Zone, such as the beech, willow, chestnut, and many conifers. Lacquer and mulberry trees are cultivated extensively, and the cypress, yew, box, holly, and myrtle are plentiful. In Hokkaido the vegetation is subarctic and similar to that of southern Siberia. Spruce, larch, and northern fir are the most common trees; some forests contain alders, poplars, and beeches. The most common Japanese fruits are peaches, pears, and oranges.
The Japanese practise a unique kind of landscape gardening. Japanese gardens attempt to reproduce in miniature a stylization of natural landscapes. The Japanese also cultivate dwarf trees, such as the cherry and plum, which, through skilful pruning, are kept as small as 30 cm (12 in). The potted flora that are dwarfed by special methods of culture are called “bonsai”.
As compared with its luxuriant flora, Japan suffers a dearth of animal life. Yet Japanese fauna includes at least 140 species of mammals, 450 species of birds, and a wide variety of reptiles, batrachians (frogs and toads), and fish. The only primate mammal is the red-faced monkey, the Japanese macaque, found throughout Honshu. The carnivores include the red bear, black bear, and brown bear. Foxes are found throughout Japan, as are badgers. Other fur-bearing animals include the wild boar, marten, Japanese mink, otter, weasel, and several varieties of seal. Hares and rabbits are numerous, as are rodents, which include squirrels, flying squirrels, rats, and mice, although the common house mouse is not found. Many varieties of bat exist; insectivores include the Japanese mole and shrew mouse. Of the two species of deer, the more common is the small Japanese deer, which has a spotted white coat in summer and a brown coat in winter.
The sparrow, house swallow, and thrush are the commonest Japanese birds. Water birds constitute almost 25 per cent of the known species and include the crane, heron, swan, duck, cormorant, stork, and albatross. Songbirds are numerous, the bullfinch and two varieties of nightingale being the best known. Among other common birds are the robin, cuckoo, woodpecker, pheasant, and pigeon.
The coastal waters of Japan teem with fish, which are caught in enormous quantities for use as fresh food or for canning and also for fertilizer. Various seaweeds are also eaten.
III POPULATION
The modern Japanese are essentially a Mongoloid race and are similar in appearance to the Chinese and Koreans; the Japanese, however, are slightly smaller in stature. The Ainu, a Caucasian people now resident principally on Hokkaido, are the only significant non-Japanese native group, but they are now almost entirely intermarried with the Japanese. Japan is an industrialized urban society, and approximately 79 per cent of the population lives in metropolitan areas.
A Population Characteristics
Japan has a population of 126,771,660 (2001 estimate). The overall population density is about 336 people per sq km (869 per sq mi), though local density varies considerably due to the mountainous terrain, with very many high concentrations along the Tokyo-Osaka metropolitan corridor and much lower densities in northern Honshu and Hokkaido.
B Political Divisions
Japan is divided into 47 prefectures. The prefectures include Okinawa, which was occupied by the United States after World War II and returned to Japan in 1972.
C Principal Cities
Tokyo, the financial and commercial centre of the country, has a population of 7,919,771 (2000). Other leading cities, with their population figures, are Yokohama, 3,375,772 (2000), a leading seaport and shipbuilding and industrial centre, with manufactures including chemicals, machinery, and metal and petroleum products; Osaka, 2,471,100 (2000), an important seaport and airline terminus and one of Japan’s largest financial centres; Nagoya, 2,101,877 (2000), a manufacturing centre noted for its lacquerware, textiles, and pottery; Kyoto, 1,388,267 (2000), the historical capital, famed for the manufacture of art goods, including silk brocades and textiles, and a centre of heavy industry; and Kobe, 1,461,678 (2000), a leading seaport and shipbuilding and transport centre devastated in the January 1995 earthquake. More than 75 other cities have populations exceeding 250,000.
D Religion
The principal religious faiths of Japan are Shinto, a polytheistic religion based on ancestor and nature worship, with about 200 sects and denominations; and Buddhism, with about 207 sects and denominations. Christianity—represented in Japan by the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Greek Orthodox faiths—is practised by less than 4 per cent of the population. Virtually all the Japanese engage in Shinto ceremonies, and the majority of Shintoists are also Buddhists. In the latter half of the 19th century Shinto was made a state religion, stressing worship of the emperor as a divinity and the unique divine origin of the Japanese; all Japanese, regardless of their religious affiliation, were obliged to worship at Shinto shrines. In 1946 the Allied occupation authorities ordered Shinto disestablished and reduced it to the level of a sect. On January 1, 1946, Emperor Hirohito renounced all claim to divinity. The constitution promulgated in 1947 re-established absolute freedom of religion and ended state support of Shinto.
E Language
The Japanese language is the official language of Japan. Its precise family descent is unclear, though it may be one of the Altaic languages. Japanese is written with three different scripts: modified Chinese characters and two syllabic scripts, hiragana and katakana, used respectively for phonetic rendering of ordinary Japanese words and for emphasis and foreign words. Despite the extreme complexity of this writing system, Japan has achieved almost universal literacy. Many Japanese also know some English.
F Education
The educational system of Japan is highly developed. The literacy rate, consequently, is 99 per cent for the entire nation. English, as a chief language for foreign contacts, is a required course of study in secondary schools.
F1 History
The early history of Japanese education was profoundly affected by the Chinese. From the Chinese, the Japanese acquired new crafts and, most important, a system of writing. The acquisition of writing cannot be precisely dated, but by about ad 400 Korean scribes were using Chinese ideographs for official records at the Japanese imperial courts. Education in ancient Japan, however, was more aristocratic than in the Chinese system, with noble families maintaining their own private schooling facilities. During the medieval military-feudal period, Buddhist temples assumed much responsibility for education. Under the Tokugawa shogunate, which dominated the country from 1600, educational facilities spread to create one of the most literate of all pre-modern societies.
With the onset of the rule of Emperor Meiji and the so-called Meiji Restoration of 1868, Japan underwent a radical transformation in education as well as in social and economic matters. A ministry of education was created in 1872, and in the same year a comprehensive educational code that included universal primary education was formulated. The government sent educational missions to Europe and America to learn new educational approaches; it also invited foreign educators to carry on educational programmes and initiate changes in Japanese schools. In 1877, during this period of innovation, the University of Tokyo was founded. As a result of these reforms, Japan emerged as a modern nation with a full educational system that was in line with much of Western practice.
The defeat of Japan in World War II resulted in educational changes, many of which were recommended in 1946 by a US educational mission; some of these changes were discontinued when Japan regained sovereign status as a nation in 1952. The teaching of nationalistic ideology was banned, greater emphasis was placed on social studies, and classroom procedures were redesigned to encourage self-expression.
Education in Japan is centralized under the Ministry of Education. Its school system operates under the Fundamental Law of Education of 1947 and subsequent legislation and enables all students to compete for admission to institutions of higher education. One of the continuing problems facing Japanese educators is the teaching of the complex Japanese language, which combines several scripts. In 1995, 4.7 per cent of the state budget was spent on education.
F2 Elementary and Secondary Schools
Education is free and compulsory for nine years—that is, six of elementary school and three of junior high school. Beyond the junior high school level, education is optional, and a small tuition fee is charged, even in public senior high schools and public institutions of higher learning. In 1997-1998 Japan had about 24,376 primary schools attended by some 7.86 million pupils and, in 1995,about 16,775 secondary schools with about 9.3 million pupils. Primary school teachers numbered about 420,901 (1996), and there were some 552,137 (1995) secondary school teachers. Technical, commercial, and vocational schools are also maintained, as are schools for the physically disabled. Private tutorial colleges are a widespread and popular adjunct to the fiercely competitive educational system.
F3 Universities and Colleges
Japan has about 60 national (formerly called imperial) universities and many private universities. Among the biggest national universities are Chiba University (1949); Hiroshima University (1949); Hokkaido University (1876) at Sapporo; Kobe University (1949); Kyoto University (1897); Kyushu University (1911) at Fukuoka; Nagoya University (1939); Okayama University (1949); Osaka University (1931); Tohoku University (1907) at Sendai; the University of Tokyo (1877); and the University of Tsukuba (1973). Major private institutions include Hosei University (1880), Nihon University (1889), and Waseda University (1882), in Tokyo; Doshisha University (1875) in Kyoto; Fukuoka University (1934); and Kansai University (1886) in Osaka. In 1995, institutions of higher education in Japan had a combined enrolment of over 2.5 million students.
G Culture
Japanese culture derives from the early contacts of the islands with the civilizations of China and Korea. Classic influences of ancient China are found pre-eminently in the Japanese language, which makes considerable use of Chinese characters and loanwords, but also in Japanese literature, Japanese art, and Japanese music. Religion, especially Buddhism, has played an important role in the cultural life of Japan, especially in early Japanese drama. Western influences, which began in earnest during the 19th century, exist side by side and often intermingle with the traditions and stylized forms of Japanese culture.
Tokyo outranks all other Japanese cities in the number of its important libraries. Among the most important are the National Diet Library, an international book exchange and information centre of Japan. It has seven departments, and its combined collection exceeds 9.4 million volumes. The Cabinet Library in Tokyo contains about 549,000 volumes. Among the important university collections in Tokyo are those at the University of Tokyo Library with more than 6 million volumes, Meiji University Library with about 1.1 million volumes, and Nihon University Library with some 4.2 million volumes. Major collections are also housed in the libraries of the provinces. The Osaka Prefectural Nakanoshima Library contains more than 838,000 volumes, and Kobe City Library has more than 240,000 volumes. Important university libraries are located throughout the country.
The museums of Japan, with the exception of several modern galleries in the large cities, represent treasure halls, usually found in temples and shrines, or private family and company collections. Among the most famous of these is the Myohoin Temple in Kyoto. Tokyo contains several important museums and art galleries. The largest art museum in Japan is the Tokyo National Museum. Major specialized collections in Tokyo are in the Calligraphy Museum, the National Museum of Western Art, the Meiji Shrine Treasure Museum, and the Japanese Folk Art Museum. Important museum collections are found in virtually every major city.
IV ECONOMY
In recent decades the Japanese economy has expanded rapidly. The industrial base of Japan has shifted from light industries to heavy industries, chemicals, and electronics, which together constitute at least two-thirds of the total value of yearly exports. In 1999, the annual gross national product of Japan was US$4,055 billion (World Bank figure), one of the largest in the world, yielding a per capita income of US$32,030. The national budget for 1993 included revenues of US$893 billion and expenditures of US$1,013 billion.
Before and during World War II much of the Japanese economy was controlled by about a dozen wealthy families, collectively called the zaibatsu (“wealth cliques”). The greatest of these families were the Mitsui, Iwasaki (operating under the company name Mitsubishi), Sumitomo, and Yasuda; they controlled most of the coal, iron, pulp, and aluminium industries. In 1945 and 1946 family ownership of these immense trusts was dissolved by the Allied occupation authorities. The business organizations remained intact, however, and have since acquired even greater economic power by expanding into shipping, banking, and other industries.
Following the bursting of the so-called “bubble economy” in the early 1990s, Japan entered a prolonged period of relative economic stagnation. Chief causes were heavy corporate debts (partly concealed by Japanese accounting practices), aggravated by a collapse in property prices and a slump in share values. These factors combined to devalue the assets of both companies and individuals, leading to low consumer confidence, poor sales, and very cautious investment. Japan was not directly affected by the Asian economic crisis of the mid-1990s, as its own crisis was already under way, with many banks and companies technically insolvent. Politicians and bureaucrats attempted to tackle Japan’s various interlocking economic problems with various methods, including market-opening reforms and public spending boosts, but with little effect. By the end of the decade, the Japanese economic model once held up as an example to the world had clearly run its course and was badly in need of complete restructuring.
A Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing
The farm population has declined in recent years. The importance of agriculture, however, has not decreased. More than 40 per cent of the cultivated land is devoted to rice production, which in the mid-1990s represented about one-third of the total crop income. Rice remains the staple of the Japanese diet; alterations in the national diet, however, and development of better yielding strains of rice have brought about significant overproduction. Wheat and barley are other important grain crops.
In 2000 annual production in tonnes included rice, 11.8 million; potatoes, 3.40 million; sugar beet, 4 million; sugar cane, 1.57 million; mandarin oranges, 1 million (1995); cabbage, 2.6 million (1995); sweet potatoes, 1 million; onions, 1.2 million (1995); and cucumbers, 866,000 (1995). Other crops include melons, tomatoes, apples, wheat, soya beans, tea, tobacco, and other fruits and vegetables.
Because arable land is scarce and consequently valuable, relatively little acreage is used for livestock. Nevertheless, Japan in 2000 had 9.88 million pigs, 4.60 million cattle, and 298 million poultry birds. The arable land is divided into small farms and almost 70 per cent of this land consists of farms of 1 hectare (2.5 acres) or less. Most farmers also work part-time in industry. The land is tilled intensively; almost all farms have electricity and most use modern machinery. Japanese farmers frequently raise two or more crops yearly. Much of the land suffers from soil exhaustion. Heavy use of chemical fertilizers, improved strains, and advanced techniques, however, have made Japanese farms among the most productive in the world.
About 64 per cent of the total land area of Japan is woodland, some two-fifths of which contains softwoods. Approximately two thirds of the forest area is privately owned. Although Japan ranks high in world production of timber, the steadily increasing domestic demand for timber compels the country to import much of its needs. Roundwood production in 1999 was about 19 million cu m (672 million cu ft).
Fish is a food staple for the Japanese and is second in importance only to rice. Consequently, fishing is one of the most important industries, both for the domestic and export markets. The Japanese fishing fleet is one of the world’s largest. The industry may be divided into three principal categories: offshore, coastal, and deep-sea fishing. Offshore fishing from medium-sized boats accounts for a substantial amount of the total catch, but only about one-quarter of the total value of production. Deep-sea fishing by large vessels that operate in international fishing grounds brings in a catch about equal to that of offshore fishing, while coastal fishing, either by small boats, set nets, or breeding techniques, represents almost half of the industry’s total production. In 1997 the annual catch totalled some 6.69 million tonnes and included sardines, bonito, crab, pike, prawn, salmon, pollack, mackerel, squid, clams, saury, sea bream, scallops, tuna, and yellowtail. In addition, Japan is among the world’s few remaining whaling countries, and large amounts of seaweed and other marine plants are harvested.
B Mining
The mineral resources of Japan are varied but limited in quantity. Limestone is the principal mineral. Other mined minerals include coal, copper, lead, zinc, and quartzite, but quantities of these are insufficient to meet domestic demand.
C Manufacturing
Japanese industry suffered extensive damage in World War II. Subsequently, the country undertook a reconstruction that resulted in a complete modernization of its manufacturing facilities. Primary emphasis was placed on the chemical and petrochemical industries and the heavy-machinery industry. By the mid-1950s industrial production had surpassed pre-war levels; manufacturing growth averaged 9.4 per cent annually during the period from 1965 to 1980 and 6.7 per cent a year during the period from 1980 to 1988. In the mid-1990s Japan was the leading shipbuilding country in the world and among the leading world producers of electrical and electronic products, steel, and motor vehicles. Crude steel production in 1995 was some 101.6 million tonnes; and pig iron output was about 75 million tonnes. Japanese industry also produced 7.6 million passenger cars, 2.5 million lorries and trucks, 44.6 million watches, 7.8 million colour television sets, 11.4 million 35-mm cameras, and numerous other electric and electronic items for the home and workplace. Japanese companies were increasingly investing in industrial plants outside Japan.
In the mid-1990s Japan was also among the leading world producers of basic chemical raw materials. Japan was one of the leading textile manufacturers in the world and among the three largest world producers of synthetic fibre. Silk and cotton production during this period, however, declined in importance to the economy.
D Tourism
During 1999, around 4.44 million foreigners visited Japan. During 1995, an estimated 13.6 million Japanese travelled overseas. Japan’s income from tourism in 1999 totalled US$3.28 billion.
E Energy
Japan is among the world’s leading countries in the annual production of electricity. About 57 per cent of the electricity is generated in thermal plants using coal or petroleum products; hydroelectric facilities account for about 9 per cent, and nuclear power plants around 32 per cent. In 1993 Japan had an installed electricity-generating capacity of 213 million kW, and the output of electricity in 1999 was some 1,018 billion kWh.
Lacking adequate domestic energy resources, Japan depends on fuel imports to meet its energy needs. Because of improvements in energy efficiency and conservation, Japan’s annual growth in energy consumption decreased from 6.1 per cent during the period from 1965 to 1980 to 1.9 per cent during the period from 1980 to 1988, while the share of annual merchandise imports represented by imported fuels dropped from 19 per cent to 14 per cent.
F Currency and Banking
The monetary unit of Japan is the yen of 100 sen (116.36 yen equal US$1: 2001). The Bank of Japan, established in 1882, is the central bank, acts as general fiscal agent for the government, and is the sole issuer of currency. More than 85 commercial banks constitute the heart of the financial system. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is one of the world’s leading securities markets.
G Commerce and Trade
Before World War II Japan ranked fifth in world trade. In 1939 Japanese exports amounted to about US$928 million and imports totalled some US$757 million. Most Japanese exports went to territories controlled by the Japanese empire, such as Dongbei and occupied China. The yearly trade balance with other countries, such as the United States and Great Britain, was unfavourable; annual imports from the United States, for example, exceeded exports to that country by more than US$70 million. Allied occupation authorities permitted a resumption of foreign trade by private enterprises in 1946. By 1999 yearly imports totalled about US$311 billion, and exports totalled about US$419 billion. Manufactured goods accounted for about 94.1 per cent of total exports; fuel, such as crude and refined petroleum, for about 15.4 per cent of total imports. Other imports included food and live animals, basic manufactures (such as textile fabrics and iron and steel), and raw materials such as wood and metal ores. Until 1993 rice imports were prohibited, but poor harvests in 1993-1994 forced emergency importation of some 1 million tonnes from Thailand, Australia, and the United States, and the 1993 conclusion of the Uruguay round of talks under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade compelled a gradual easing of restrictions.
Foreign trade is essential to the Japanese economy. The domestic market is unable to fully absorb the manufactured goods that are produced by Japanese industry. Furthermore, because Japan must import much of the raw material on which its industries depend, the country also must export a substantial proportion of its annual national product to effect a favourable balance of trade. Japan has used the huge trade surpluses accumulated during the 1970s and 1980s to invest heavily overseas, thus becoming the world’s leading creditor nation.
In 1995, Asian countries accounted for 36 per cent of Japan’s imports and purchased about 43 per cent of its exports. Japan’s leading Asian trade partners were South Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. During the same period, countries of the European Union—notably Germany, France, and the United Kingdom—provided 16 per cent of Japan’s imports and purchased 17 per cent of its exports. The United States absorbs about 27 per cent of Japan’s exports and supplies about 22 per cent of its imports. Other principal trade partners include Australia, Canada, and Russia.
H Labour
An enormous increase in the number and membership of trade unions took place in Japan after World War II. In 1946 more than 12,000 trade unions had a combined membership of about 3.7 million. By the late 1970s the number of unions had increased to more than 70,000. The combined membership in 1994 stood at 12.7 million, or about 20 per cent of the total employed population. In 1987 the nation’s leading private trade union federations agreed to merge into a single body, the National Federation of Private Sector Trade Unions, known as Rengo.
I Transport
The major railways were nationalized in 1907; they were reorganized and transferred to the private sector in 1987. Railway track in 1994 totalled about 27,150 km (16,870 mi), of which about 55 per cent was electrified. Construction of a new high-speed rail network spanning about 7,000 km (4,350 mi) and linking principal cities, the famous Shinkansen or “bullet trains”, began in the early 1970s.
Japan has about 1,156,371 km (718,536 mi) of roads, of which 76 per cent are paved. Motor vehicles in 1996 included about 43 million passenger cars and 20.5 million commercial vehicles, or 1 vehicle for every 2 people.
Japan ranks among world leaders in the size of its merchant fleet, with 8,012 (2000) vessels, aggregating a total of about 15 million gross registered tons. Japan Air Lines, established in 1951, provides service from Tokyo to Europe, the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Middle East, and South East Asia. All Nippon Airways, primarily a domestic service, has expanded its international operations in recent years, and a number of other small domestic carriers have begun operating under air traffic liberalization reforms.
J Communications
In 1993 Japan had more than 59 million telephone subscribers. In 1997 there were about 121 million radios and 87 million television sets were in use. Some 122 daily newspapers are published; their combined circulation is approximately 73 million. Japanese dailies have one of the highest combined circulation levels in the world. The newspapers with the largest daily circulation are Tokyo’s Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun.
V GOVERNMENT
Japan is governed according to the provisions of a constitution that came into force in 1947. Under the terms of this document, which was formulated under the guidance of the Allied occupation authorities after World War II, the emperor is the symbol of the nation.
A Executive and Legislature
Between 1889, when the first modern Japanese constitution was promulgated, and the end of World War II in 1945, the supreme executive power in Japan was officially designated as resident in the sacred and inviolable person of the emperor, called the Dai Nippon Teikoku Tenno (“Emperor of the Empire of Great Japan”). The throne is hereditary and descends only in the male line of the imperial family; if no heir is produced, an emperor may be chosen only from four princely families equal in rank to the imperial house. Emperor Akihito, who succeeded to the throne in 1989, is said to be the 125th of his line. Under the 1947 constitution, the emperor has only ceremonial functions.
Executive power is vested in a Cabinet, headed by a prime minister. The prime minister, who is the head of the party in power, chooses the Cabinet from among members of the national legislature (Diet), subject to the latter’s approval. The prime minister and the Cabinet are both responsible to the Diet.
Before the Japanese defeat in World War II, legislative power resided in a House of Peers (composed of hereditary peers, distinguished commoners nominated by the emperor, and a limited number of elective seats) and a House of Representatives elected by male citizens over 25 years of age. Cabinet ministers were responsible to and appointed by the emperor.
Since 1947 the Japanese Diet has been the supreme organ of government power. Members of the Diet designate a prime minister. The Diet is a bicameral body consisting of the House of Representatives (lower house) and the House of Councillors (upper house). Lower-house members, totalling 500, are elected for a term not to exceed four years (electoral reform legislation passed in January 1994 reduced the original tally of 511 members). Upper-house members, totalling 252, are elected for six-year terms; elections for one-half the membership are held every three years. The lower house is the more powerful of the two houses of the Diet; decisions made by the upper house may be vetoed by the lower house, which also retains control over legislation dealing with treaties and fiscal matters. The first-past-the-post voting system, in place since World War II, was replaced in January 1994 by a partial proportional representation system. In both houses of the Diet, some of the seats are now filled directly through district elections, and other seats are allocated to the various political parties based on national election results. In the lower house, 300 seats are filled directly and 200 are allocated (prior to 1994 all seats were filled directly from multi-member constituencies); in the upper house, 152 are filled directly and 100 are allocated. All Japanese citizens at least 20 years of age can vote.
B Political Parties
In 1998 the main political parties in Japan were the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Social Democratic Party of Japan (SDJP), the Liberal Party (LP), the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the New Party Sakigake, the Clean Government Party, the Democratic Socialist Party, the Japan Communist Party, the New Party Peace, the Dawn Club, and the Voice of the People. The LDLP held a near-monopoly of government from its formation in 1955 until 1993, and was returned to power in 1994. Opposition parties in Japan have been in flux since 1994, with membership shifting between several new bodies.
C Judiciary
The Japanese judicial system is entirely separate from and independent of the executive authority. Except for reasons of health, judges may be removed only by public impeachment. The highest court in the nation is the Supreme Court, established by the constitution and consisting of a chief justice appointed by the Emperor upon the recommendation of the Cabinet and 14 associate justices appointed by the Cabinet. Four types of lower courts are prescribed by the constitution: high courts, district courts, family courts, and summary courts. The Supreme Court is the tribunal of final appeal in all civil and criminal cases and has authority to decide on the constitutionality of any act of the legislature or executive. High courts hear appeals in civil and criminal cases from lower courts. District courts have both appellate and original jurisdiction. Family and summary courts are exclusively courts of first instance. All police forces in Japan are under the control of the central government.
D Local Government
Including Okinawa, which was returned to Japan by the United States in 1972, the country is divided into 47 prefectures or their equivalent; each is administered by an elected governor and assembly. Each municipality in the prefectures has a legislature composed of popularly elected representatives. The municipalities have fairly broad powers; they control public education and may levy taxes.
E Health and Welfare
In 1994 about 6.45 per cent of the annual national budget was allocated for health purposes. A medical insurance system has been in effect in Japan since 1927. Self-employed people and employees in the private and public sectors are included under the medical plan.
Social welfare services have greatly expanded since World War II; legislation enacted or amended in the post-war years includes the Livelihood Security Law for Needy Persons, the Law for the Welfare of Disabled Persons, the National Health Insurance Law, the Welfare Pension Insurance Law, Old Age Welfare Law, and the Maternal and Child Welfare Law. The entire population is covered by various insurance systems. Most working people retire at the age of 55 and receive retirement pensions amounting to about 40 per cent of their salary. Health conditions are generally excellent. In 2001 life expectancy at birth was 78 years for men and 84 years for women; the infant mortality rate was a very low 4 per 1,000 live births. Japan in 1994 had about 228,640 doctors (1 per 547 people), 79,900 dentists, and 1,681,000 hospital beds.
F Defence
The National Police Reserve, created under the direction of the Allied occupation authorities in 1950, formed the nucleus of the defence forces subsequently organized when the Japanese regained national sovereignty. In 1999 the Japanese Self-Defence Forces consisted of about 236,700 people. These comprised an army (148,500 service personnel), a navy (42,600), and an air force (44,200).
G International Organizations
Japan is a member of the UN, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Colombo Plan, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. Japan has long campaigned for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
VI HISTORY
The earliest surviving records of Japanese history, aside from Chinese accounts, are contained in two semi-mythical chronicles, the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) and the Nihon shoki or Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan), the former compiled in AD 712 and the latter in ad 720. These chronicles purport to concern events from about the 7th century BC to the 7th century ad. The chronicles and other collections of legends were the basis of the traditional accounts of the history of Japan. The Nihon shoki gives 660 BC as the year in which Jimmu, descendant of the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu and the first Emperor of Japan, ascended the throne, thereby founding the Japanese Empire.
A Early Settlement
Early settlers of the Japanese archipelago probably moved into it from the East Asian Siberian mainland during the Palaeolithic period around 30,000 bc, but linguistic evidence suggests that some colonization also took place from the Polynesian island chains. The Ainu may also have moved into the archipelago at an early stage, but proto-Japanese of Mongoloid stock evidently predominated from earliest times, despite now disproved theories that the Ainu may have been the original inhabitants.
A1 The Jomon Period (c. 10,000 BC-c. 300 bc)
The Palaeolithic cultures of prehistoric Japan gave way around 10,000 BC to a Neolithic culture, the Jomon, who produced some of the earliest pottery designs known. Their often highly decorated pots, usually hand-turned and fired at low temperatures, have been unearthed throughout Japan, as have traces of sometimes fairly large and sophisticated pit dwellings or huts. Their economy was apparently based on hunting, fishing, and gathering, with perhaps some primitive agriculture. Jomon society appears to have been fairly egalitarian, with few marked status divisions.
A2 The Yayoi Period (c. 300 bc-c. AD 300)
The Jomon gave way to a new culture that arose on Kyushu then slowly spread eastwards, gradually supplanting its predecessors. The Yayoi culture was more advanced, introducing wet-rice agriculture, weaving, simple utilitarian pots fired at high temperatures, and iron implements. Most Yayoi innovations, especially iron and bronze, were probably introduced from China via Korea. More diverse and sophisticated burial customs indicate that Yayoi society was more complex and stratified than Jomon, a common concomitant of agricultural organization. The advent of Yayoi seems to have changed the culture of the early Japanese but made little difference to their racial stock, and was probably more a process of cultural diffusion than ethnic conquest.
Chinese official chronicles of the Later Han dynasty provide the first recorded mention of Japan. They record that in ad 57 “the state of Nu in Wo” sent emissaries to the imperial court and received a gold seal (later found in Japan in 1748). Nu was apparently one of dozens of statelets occupying the Japanese archipelago (Wo in the Chinese chronicles). The chronicles also show a fairly developed society with a hierarchical organization, markets for barter trade, and professional scribes writing in Chinese. Mention of a queen called Himiko, also named in the Japanese chronicles, who extended her authority from a capital called Yamatai over numerous states around ad 200 suggests that Yayoi Japan may have been a matriarchal society with priestess queens enjoying considerable power.
B The Kofun Period (c. 300-710)
The Kofun period is named after the large kofun (Japanese, tumuli) which marked the graves of the Japanese emperors and nobility, demonstrating that the principal feature of the period was the unification of Japan under the imperial house. According to the chronicles, Emperor Jimmu, having established his rule in Kyushu, led his forces northwards and extended his domains to Yamato, a province in central Honshu, which gave its name to the imperial house and eventually to all ancient Japan; but historical and archaeological evidence contradict the traditional dates given for his exploits.
B1 The Imperial Clan
The ruling Yamato chieftain consolidated his power by making a primitive form of Shinto the general religion and, thus, a political instrument. During the late Yayoi and early Kofun periods the Yamato chieftains exerted indirect control over various autonomous tribal units known as uji. Each uji had its own clan gods and its own domain. The most important of the uji were the Muraji, longtime vassals of the Yamato court, and the Omi, who had declared their fealty during the Yamato rise to power: government officials were drawn from both groups. The large graves of clan notables were often decorated with pottery figures of soldiers, people, and objects, called haniwa. The rule of the imperial clan, regarded as the head clan, was more nominal than actual, although its principal deity, the sun goddess, was worshipped nationally.
During the early period of the Yamato court, Korea made significant cultural contributions to Japan. Korean culture, greatly influenced by neighbouring China, had already advanced to a comparatively high level, and until the middle of the 6th century intercourse between Japan and Korea, including Korean immigration to Japan and Japanese import of iron from Korea, considerably stimulated the developing civilization of the islands. The kingdom of Paekche, in south-western Korea,which was an ally of the Yamato court, greatly assisted in the importation of Chinese writing, literature, and philosophy. At the beginning of the 5th century the Chinese script came into use at the Yamato court. Around 430 the imperial court appointed its first historiographers, and more dependable records were kept.
By the 6th century ad the Yamato court was apparently losing power, unable to assert its will over the uji and faced with weakening ties to the Korean mainland, owing to the absorption of Korea’s small states by the kingdom of Silla. The reigning Emperor was actually murdered by the powerful Soga clan in 587. However, the Yamato court oversaw one more immensely significant event: the importation of Buddhism. This is usually dated to 552, when the king of Paekche sent Buddhist priests to Japan, together with religious images, Buddhist scriptures, calendars, and methods of keeping time. The imported culture soon became strongly rooted in the archipelago, and while contacts between the two countries weakened, it made little difference; by the early 7th century Buddhism had become the official religion of Japan.
B2 The Asuka Period (593-710)
The Asuka period began when Empress Suiko (reigned 593-628), ascended to the throne and established her palace in the Asuka valley in Yamato province (modern Nara Prefecture). Her nephew and regent, Prince Shotoku, began a reform programme prompted by Japan’s domestic troubles. In 604 he drafted the first Japanese constitution, the Seventeen-Article Constitution, comprising a simple set of maxims for good government. This followed the pattern of the centralized government of China. Originally 12, and later 8, hierarchical ranks of court officials were established. Shotoku’s attempts to promote Buddhism throughout the country helped to spread continental civilization across Japan.
Shotoku’s reforms were continued by Prince Naka no Oe, later Emperor Tenji, and Nakatomi Kamatari, founder of the Fujiwara family, who in 645 toppled the Soga clan and inaugurated the so-called Taika Reforms, aimed at strengthening the imperial house and weakening the uji. This created what was known as the ritsu-ryo system (Japanese ritsu, “penal”; ryo, “civil”), under a new Chinese-style law code. Clan lands were declared state property, to be redistributed to the people. A great council, the Dajokan, ruled the realm through local governors sent out from the capital, after the Chinese model.
C The Nara Period (710-794)
Japanese imperial capitals had traditionally been moved after the death of each sovereign, to avoid the contamination associated in Shinto with death. In 710 the capital was shifted from Asuka to Heijo-kyo (modern Nara), and the custom lapsed. Under Emperor Shomu (reigned 724-749) and his Fujiwara consort, Japan experienced a tremendous cultural flowering. The Great Buddha (completed 752), housed in what is still the world’s largest wooden building, symbolized Nara Japan’s commitment to Buddhism. Extensive connections were established with Tang dynasty China, and Japan became an eastern terminus of the Silk Route. In a far-reaching reform, the ritsu-ryo system was modified in 743 to encourage development of new farmland by giving full ownership rights to whoever opened it up. With the principle of public ownership of land compromised, the way was open for the great families and temples to reassert their independence and power, and the ritsu-ryo system grew gradually further from reality.
The Nara period produced landmarks in the native traditions: the completion of the two national histories, Kojiki and Nihon shoki, and the compilation of the first great poetry anthology, the Man’yoshu (Anthology of a Myriad Leaves); as well as proliferating Buddhist art. A devout Buddhist, Shomu worked to bring state and clergy together, creating problems for his successors. The ritsu-ryo system of the Taika Reforms worked well, but the secular power of the great temples grew increasingly burdensome for the imperial house. Finally in 784 Emperor Kammu (reigned 781-806) broke away from the influence of the temples in Nara by moving the imperial capital first to Nagaoka-kyo, then ten years later to Heian-kyo (later Kyoto), which was to remain the titular capital until 1868.
D The Heian Period (794-1185)
Named after its new capital, the Heian period brought Japan over 350 years of relative peace and prosperity. By the 9th century the Yamato court had come to rule all the main islands of Japan except Hokkaido, though pacification campaigns were still waged to integrate the aboriginal inhabitants of northern Honshu. However, during the 9th century the emperors began to withdraw from active government. Delegating the affairs of state to subordinates, they went into seclusion and, in time, came to be regarded as abstractions in the national life rather than its directors. Partly this was due to the burdensome ritual duties imposed on the Emperor as head of the Shinto state cult. The retirement of the emperors was accompanied by the rising power of the Fujiwara, the leading family of court nobles. In 858 the Fujiwara became virtual masters of Japan, maintaining their power for the next three centuries. In that year a Fujiwara prince, Yoshifusa, became regent for his grandson, then less than one year old. The Fujiwara monopolized most of the court and administrative offices, edging other families out of government, and controlled the imperial family by marrying their daughters to generation after generation of emperors, who were encouraged to retire early in favour of infant successors dominated by Fujiwara regents. In 884 Fujiwara Mototsune became the first official civil dictator (kampaku). The greatest of the Fujiwara leaders was Fujiwara Michinaga, whose five daughters married successive emperors, and who dominated the court from 995 to 1028.
The period of Fujiwara supremacy was marked by a great flowering of Japanese culture and by the growth of a civilization greatly influenced but no longer dominated by the Chinese one, which had been its fountainhead. The Kokinshu (Anthology of Ancient and Modern Poems), first of the great imperial poetry anthologies, was compiled in 905. The dictatorship of Michinaga is regarded as the classical age of Japanese literature: he was a close friend of the court ladies Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon, two of the age’s great writers. The great Tendai and Shingon sects of Buddhism gained immense wealth and power, and became rich sources of artistic patronage. The character of the government also changed under the Fujiwara ascendancy. The centralized administration became a cloak for Fujiwara rule, and the country in time was divided up into large, hereditary estates, owned by the nobles as tax-free emoluments for their official positions, or attached to the great Buddhist temples. Most peasants were only too willing to attach their lands to such estates in order to escape the heavy burden of taxes on the public lands that had been meted out to them. Thus, great private estates spread throughout the country.
Fujiwara hegemony declined after Michinaga’s death in 1028 as power ebbed away in two directions. In the mid-11th century the Fujiwara lost their monopoly of imperial consorts, and the retired emperors became the nucleus of a new system of “cloister government”, whereby abdicated emperors who had taken Buddhist vows ran the administration on behalf the reigning emperors. Meanwhile, in the often lawless provinces, local groups of warriors banding together for protection had formed proto-feudal groups of lords and vassals. These first samurai administered and defended estates for their aristocratic owners. The leaders of these groups were often members of the Taira and the Minamoto clans, both of which had been founded by imperial princes, or similar aristocratic groups which had sought fresh wealth and opportunities outside Kyoto. The Taira warriors acquired their military renown and power in the south-west; the Minamoto, in the east. In the 12th century both great military clans started to extend their power to the court itself, and a struggle for control of Japan ensued.
In 1156 a civil war, the Hogen Disturbance, broke out between retired and reigning emperors and their associated branches of the Fujiwara family, giving the military clans their opening. After a second war, the Heiji Disturbance (1159-1160), the Taira crushed the Minamoto and seized control of Japan from the Fujiwara. The Taira leader, Taira Kiyomori, was named chief minister in 1167, and, modelling his policies on those of the Fujiwara, filled court posts with his family and married his daughter to an imperial prince, their infant son Antoku becoming Emperor in 1180. In the same year a surviving Minamoto leader, Minamoto Yoritomo, set up his headquarters at Kamakura in eastern Japan and started an uprising, which soon drove the Taira from the capital. The civil war lasted for five years, ending in 1185 with the naval battle of Dannoura, near present-day Shimonoseki on the Inland Sea, and the extirpation of the Taira. Yoritomo became the leader of Japan, ending the era of imperial administration and inaugurating a military dictatorship that ruled Japan for the next seven centuries.
E The Kamakura Period (1185-1333)
Stressing the almost complete break between the civil and military forms of government, Yoritomo remained in Kamakura, using his field headquarters, the bakufu (Japanese, tent government), as the nucleus of his new administration. From that time forward, Japanese feudalism developed until it was stronger than the imperial administration had ever been. Yoritomo appointed constables and stewards to run provinces and landed estates in parallel with the official governors or proprietors. In 1192 he was appointed to the office of Seiitaishogun (“barbarian-subduing great general”), usually shortened to shogun, the military commander-in-chief, with authority to move at any time against the Emperor’s enemies. Through his military network, Yoritomo was already the virtual ruler of Japan, and his shogunate made him titular leader as well. The Emperor and court were largely powerless before the Shogun. Kamakura became the true court and government, while Kyoto remained a titular court, without power.
In 1219 the Hojo family, by means of a series of conspiracies and murders that eliminated Minamoto heirs and their supporters, became the military rulers of Japan. No Hojo ever became Shogun; instead, the family prevailed on the Emperor to appoint figurehead shoguns, sometimes small children, while a Hojo leader governed as the shikken, or regent, with the actual power.
Despite the violent conclusion of the long Heian peace, the Kamakura period was culturally fertile. The tragic fall of the Taira was immortalized in a war epic, the Heike monogatari (The Tales of the Taira Clan, c. 1220). Classical poetic tradition reached perhaps its height with the compilation in 1205 of the Shin kokinshu (New Anthology of Ancient and Modern Poems) by Fujiwara Teika under Emperor Go-Toba. New forms of Buddhism, especially Pure Land Buddhism and Zen, spread and gained a broad popularity which the older sects had never enjoyed. Zen sects and the straightforward military rulers encouraged the vigorous sculpture of Unkei and his successors.
E1 Mongol Threats and Imperial Restoration
For more than 100 years the Hojo maintained their rule. Their constables and stewards in the provinces gained power over local lands and proprietors, and joined with them to form new military clans, the daimyo, who became the greatest challenge to shogunal authority. In 1274 and again in 1281 the Mongol empire, then in control of China and Korea, attempted to invade Japan, each time unsuccessfully. The invasions were a serious drain on Hojo resources, and the Hojo were unable to reward the daimyo for support during the invasions. An able emperor, Go-Daigo, led an anti-Hojo rebellion in conjunction with disaffected daimyo, especially Ashikaga Takauji, head of the Ashikaga clan. The revolt, the so-called Kemmu Restoration, culminated in 1333 in the defection of key shogunal vassals and the downfall of the Hojo.
F Muromachi Period (1333-1568)
From 1333 to 1336 Go-Daigo tried to restore the imperial administration. His reactionary ideas doomed him to failure, and Ashikaga Takauji revolted, driving Daigo from Kyoto, and set up his own candidate for emperor. Go-Daigo and his supporters fled to Yoshino, a region south of Nara in Honshu, and established a rival court. In 1338 Takauji became Shogun, and set up his own bakufu in Kyoto. The Muromachi district of Kyoto, which became the Ashikaga shogunal seat, gave its name to the period of Ashikaga government, the Muromachi period. Civil war between Daigo and his successors and the emperors controlled by the Ashikaga dragged on for 56 years. At length, in 1392, an Ashikaga envoy persuaded the true emperor at Yoshino to abdicate and relinquish the sacred imperial regalia. With their nominees acknowledged as rightful emperors, the Ashikaga shoguns were, in theory, legitimate rulers of all Japan.
The Ashikaga shoguns were never able to exercise absolute control over the powerful daimyo. The third Ashikaga Shogun, Yoshimitsu, was distinguished both as forceful leader and patron of the No drama of Zeami, but his successors too often let art take precedence over statecraft. In general, the period of Ashikaga ascendancy was one of great refinement of manners, of great art and literary endeavour. The age also saw the development of Buddhism as a political force. For some centuries Buddhist monasteries had been so wealthy and powerful that they were great forces in the country. Buddhist monks and lay brethren, clad in armour and bearing weapons, often turned the tide of medieval battles with their strong forces and fortified monasteries.
F1 The Onin War and the Period of Warring States
Growing daimyo power and Ashikaga impotence led to the outbreak of the Onin War (1467-1477), when the Hosokawa and Yamana daimyo families intervened on opposite sides of an Ashikaga succession struggle. Petering out with no apparent victor, the war devastated Kyoto, destroyed Ashikaga authority, and fatally weakened the existing daimyo. The Ashikaga shoguns became pawns in a new age of bitter fighting, dubbed the “Period of Warring States” (sengoku jidai) after an epoch of Chinese history, in which old daimyo families were displaced and annihilated by usurpers. Yet the consequent dispersion of court culture enriched the provinces, where trade, castle towns, and ports were developing. Freed from shogunal interference, the new daimyo were often better rulers than their predecessors. The fertile culture of the age is typified by the art of Sesshu and the linked verse of Sogi. Other cultural influences entered the archipelago courtesy of Portuguese traders, the first Europeans to visit Japan, who landed on an island near Kyushu about 1543: their muskets were swiftly copied by local craftsmen, transforming Japanese warfare. St Francis Xavier, the Jesuit missionary, brought Christianity to Japan in 1549.
G The Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1568-1600)
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| Himeji Castle |
H The Edo Period (1600-1868)
Ieyasu had himself appointed Shogun in 1603, reducing Hideyoshi’s heir to a lowly provincial post, and made his bakufu at Edo (later Tokyo) his capital. In a short time the city became the greatest in Japan, developing culturally and economically as well as politically, and gave its name to the Edo period. Ieyasu retired as titular Shogun in 1605 to concentrate on consolidating his dynasty’s rule. In 1614 he launched a campaign against the Toyotomi family at Osaka Castle; by the following year the castle was his and the remaining opposition to the Tokugawa shogunate destroyed. In 1615 Ieyasu also issued new legal codes which brought the feudal organization that had been planned by Hideyoshi to fulfilment, bringing Japan over 250 years of peace.
Under Ieyasu’s codes, the so-called bakuhan system, the daimyo fiefs (han) and administrators, as well as the Emperor and his court, were put under the strict control of the bakufu. Each daimyo was left as supreme ruler within his fief, but swore fealty to the Tokugawa, left his family as hostages in Edo, and personally attended the shogun there every alternate year. Confiscations of land after the Battle of Sekigahara had left the Tokugawa as the richest daimyo family, with roughly a quarter of the country’s land owned by them or their immediate vassals. Daimyo were graded according to their relationship to the Tokugawa or their actions at Sekigahara, and the most suspect of them, such as the great western fiefs of Satsuma and Choshu, were watched over by strategically placed loyalist fiefs. Shogunal power was enhanced by the right to confirm each succeeding daimyo in his fief, or dismiss him. Social classes were rigidly stratified into four principal groups: warriors, farmers, artisans, and merchants. The samurai were taken off the land and sequestered in castle towns, while the peasantry were organized in mutual-responsibility groups and forced to provide rice stipends for their masters. The form of feudalism established by Ieyasu and the succeeding Tokugawa shoguns endured until the end of the feudal period in the mid-19th century.
Another result of Tokugawa domination was the imposed isolation of Japan from the Western world. Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch traders had visited Japan more and more frequently in the 16th century. The Tokugawa shoguns regarded Christianity as potentially subversive and, from 1612, Christians became subject to official persecution. The Spanish were refused permission to land in Japan after 1624, and a series of edicts in the next decade forbade travel abroad, prohibiting even the building of large ships. The only Europeans permitted to remain in Japan were a small group of Dutch traders restricted to the artificial island of Dejima in the harbour of Nagasaki and continually subjected to limitations on their activities. Trade with China continued, although subject to tight regulation.
During the succeeding two centuries the forms of Japanese feudalism remained static. Bushido, the code of the feudal warriors, became the standard of conduct for the great lords and the gentry-class of samurai who served as their retainers and administrators. Edo culture, closed to outside influence, was ingrown but tremendously vital, yielding kabuki theatre, the art of Hon’ami Koetsu and the Ukiyo-e school, and the literature of Saikaku and Basho. Confucianism became a new ideology of government, but this was counterpointed by a new interest in native traditions which, in the hands of Motoori Norinaga, spawned almost accidentally a new strain of radical pro-imperial nationalism.
During the 18th century, however, new social and economic conditions in the islands began to indicate the inevitable collapse of rigid feudalism. The population grew rapidly, straining limited agricultural resources. Internal communications, trade, and the money economy grew and developed under the impetus of the regular traffic of rich daimyo to and from Edo. A large, wealthy merchant class developed immense social and indirect political power, though they were near the bottom of the formal Tokugawa hierarchy. During the 18th century Edo, with around a million inhabitants, was the largest city on Earth, hub of one of the most advanced and prosperous economies in the pre-industrial world. At that time, too, peasant disturbances became more frequent under the pressure of food shortages.
Japan’s awakening consciousness of the outside world was formally acknowledged in 1720, when the Shogun Yoshimune repealed the proscription on European books and study. By the early 19th century visits from Europeans, mostly traders and explorers, became comparatively frequent, although the ban was still officially in force. Foreign books and ideas began to filter into Edo Japan, including the Prussian blue pigment and the system of perspective used by Ukiyo-e artists. The United States was particularly anxious to make a treaty of friendship and, if possible, one of trade with Japan. One object behind this American policy was to secure the release of American whalers from ships wrecked on the Japanese coast; another was to open up Japanese markets. In 1853 the American government sent a formal mission to the Emperor of Japan; this mission was headed by Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, who arrived with a squadron of ships. Following extended negotiations, Perry and representatives of the Emperor signed a pact on March 31, 1854, establishing relations between the United States and Japan. A further treaty was secured by Townsend Harris in 1858. In 1860 a Japanese embassy was sent to the United States, and two years later Japanese trade missions visited European capitals to negotiate formal agreements.
Japan was opened more through shows of Western force than by any Japanese desire for foreign relations. The so-called unequal treaties gave Westerners considerable privileges, including extraterritoriality, and shogunal weakness in making these concessions was a major source of resentment. The Japanese warlords, handicapped by outdated weapons and organization, were dismayed by Western military equipment and dared not, at first, resist. Nevertheless, a militant anti-foreign faction immediately developed, and attacks on foreign traders became common in the 1860s. The leaders of the anti-foreign movement were young samurai from Satsuma, Choshu, and the other great western fiefs that had always resented Tokugawa rule from Edo, and sympathizers with pro-imperial ideology. Their anti-Western patriotism was yoked to plans for an anti-Tokugawa imperial “restoration” under the slogan sonno joi (“revere the emperor, expel the barbarians”). They rallied around the Emperor at Kyoto and, with imperial support, initiated military and naval attacks on foreign ships in Japanese harbours. Shogunal efforts to contain them, such as the so-called Ansei Purge led by Ii Naosuke, were ineffective. The anti-foreign movement was short-lived, however; it ended in 1864 after a retaliatory bombardment of Shimonoseki by Western warships, but it had galvanized anti-shogunal sentiment. Choshu was commandeered by pro-imperial samurai in 1864, and a shogunal expedition to pacify it was repulsed in 1866. Shogunate and fiefs were now both importing Western arms and technology, and proposing new governmental structures to meet the apparent imperialist threat. Under a compromise plan, the last Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, resigned late in 1867, intending to re-emerge high in a new daimyo coalition. Pro-imperial radicals, determined to force the issue, surrounded the imperial palace in Kyoto on January 3, 1868, and proclaimed an imperial restoration.
I The Meiji Era (1868-1912)
Forces from Satsuma, Choshu, and Tosa fiefs, now the imperial army, joined battle with Tokugawa loyalists in 1868 while most fiefs stood aside and awaited the outcome. The struggle, the Boshin War, soon ended after the capitulation of shogunal forces in Edo, and the Meiji Restoration was assured. The young Emperor, Mutsuhito, regained the position of actual head of the government, and took the name Meiji (“enlightened government”) to designate his reign, and this became his imperial title. In fact his main function was as a talisman of sovereignty used by Okubo Toshimichi, Saigo Takamori, Kido Takayoshi, and the other Choshu and Satsuma samurai who monopolized ministerial positions round the throne to legitimize their transformation of Japan. The royal capital was transferred to Edo, renamed Tokyo (“eastern capital”). In 1869 the lords of the great Choshu, Hizen, Satsuma, and Tosa clans surrendered their feudal fiefs to the Emperor, and, after a succession of such surrenders by other clans, an imperial decree in 1871 abolished all fiefs and created centrally administered prefectures in their stead, with the old daimyo lords reappointed as governors.
Under the direction of the Meiji leaders, the Japanese remained untouched by the European imperialism that, at the time, was engulfing other Asian countries. By concerted imitation of Western civilization in all its aspects, they set out to make Japan itself a world power, under the slogan fukoku kyohei (“enrich the country, strengthen the army”). French officers were engaged to remodel the army; British seamen reorganized the navy; and Dutch engineers supervised new construction in the islands. Japanese were sent abroad to analyse foreign governments and to select their best features for duplication in Japan. A new penal code was modelled on that of France. A ministry of education was established in 1871 to develop a system of universal education based on that of the United States, though it was to promote a nationalist pro-imperial state ideology developed from Shinto. Rapid industrialization was instituted under government supervision. Universal military service was decreed in 1872, and four years later the samurai class of professional warriors was abolished by decree, though not without a tragic confrontation between conscripts and samurai at Satsuma in 1877, ending in Saigo Takamori’s death as a rebel.
Changes in the Japanese political system were imposed from the top by the Choshu-Satsuma oligarchy, and were not the result of political demands by the people. The peasantry continued to bear most of the state’s tax burden, and rice riots continued into the 20th century. Nevertheless, constitutional government was sought to strengthen the country and improve its global standing. In 1881 a proposal to establish a national legislature was issued as a formal imperial promise, and in 1884, in preparation for an upper house, a peerage was created with five orders of nobility. A Cabinet modelled on that of Germany was organized in 1885 with Marquis Ito Hirobumi as the first prime minister, and a privy council was created in 1888, both being responsible to the Emperor. The new constitution, drafted by Marquis Ito after constitutional research in Europe and the United States, was promulgated in 1889. The bicameral Diet was designed to have a house of peers of 363 members and a 463-member lower house elected by citizens paying direct annual taxes of not less than 15 yen. The emperor’s powers were carefully safeguarded; he was permitted to issue decrees as laws, and only he could declare war or the cessation of war. Moreover, the lower house could be dissolved and the upper one adjourned by imperial decree. The constitution offered far more liberty and security of property than the Tokugawa system, plus some room for political dissent, but it left the limits of executive power unclear. Later ordinances confined the posts of ministers for the army and navy to serving officers, leaving the military with veto rights over the formation of Cabinets and great latent political power.
The empire also embarked on an aggressive foreign policy. In 1879 Japan had taken over the Ryukyu Islands, a Japanese protectorate since 1609, designating them the prefecture of Okinawa. The struggle for control of Korea became the next step in Japanese expansion. Conflict with China in Korea resulted in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), in which the modernized Japanese forces soon crushed the Chinese army and navy. By the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki in April 1895, China gave Japan Taiwan (Formosa), the Pescadores, and a large monetary indemnity. The treaty had originally also awarded the Liaodong Peninsula (southern Dongbei) to Japan, but intervention by Russia, France, and Germany forced Japan to accept an additional indemnity instead.
The decisive Japanese triumph indicated to the world that a new, strong power was rising in the East. As a preliminary to negotiating full equality with the great powers, Japan, in 1890, had completely revised its criminal, civil, and commercial law codes on Western models. Thus, the empire was in a position to demand the revocation of extraterritoriality clauses from its treaties. By 1899 all the great powers had signed treaties abandoning extraterritoriality in Japan. In 1894 the United States and Great Britain were the first nations given the freedom of the entire empire for trade.
I1 Expansionist Period
In pursuing its interests in Korea, Japan inevitably came into conflict with Russia, then expanding eastwards through north-east Asia. Resentment against Russia was already high, because that country had been the principal agent in depriving Japan of the Liaodong Peninsula after the Chinese war. The two countries signed a treaty pledging the independence of Korea in 1898, but allowing Japanese commercial interest to predominate. In 1900, following the Boxer Rebellion in China, Russia occupied Dongbei and, from bases there, began to penetrate northern Korea.
In 1904, after repeated attempts to negotiate the matter had failed, Japan broke off diplomatic relations with Russia and attacked Russian-leased Port Arthur (now part of Lüda) in southern Dongbei, beginning the Russo-Japanese War. Japan won its second modern war in less than 18 months. The peace treaty, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, was signed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on September 5, 1905. Japan was awarded the lease (to 1923, later extended to 1997) of the Liaodong Peninsula, including the Guangdong (Kwangtung) territory, and the southern half of Sakhalin, thereafter known as Karafuto. Moreover, Russia acknowledged the paramount interest of Japan in Korea, which was rapidly subjected to Japanese hegemony. Five years later (1910) Korea was formally annexed to Japan and named Chosen.
Japanese-American relations had for some years been strained by difficulties over Japanese emigration to the United States. Thousands of Japanese had settled in America, and residents demanded the exclusion of the Japanese by legislation similar to the Chinese Exclusion Acts of 1882, 1892, and 1902. This agitation was led by American labour unions, resenting the fact that Japanese labourers were willing to work for lower wages and longer hours than those called for by American labour policies. Formal protests against the treatment of Japanese were delivered by the Japanese ambassador in Washington in 1906, and, after a series of negotiations, Japan and the United States concluded a so-called “gentleman’s agreement” in 1908. By this extra-legal agreement, confirmed in 1911, Japan consented to withhold passports from labourers, and the US Department of State promised to disapprove anti-Japanese legislation. The problem, however, was never fully resolved, and it contributed to anti-American feeling in Japan, which increased in the following three decades.
J The Taisho Era (1912-1926)
Emperor Meiji died in 1912 and was succeeded by the mentally disabled Emperor Taisho. In August 1914, following the outbreak of World War I, Japan sent an ultimatum to Germany, demanding the evacuation of the German-leased territory of Jiaozhou (Kiaochow) in north-eastern China. When Germany refused to comply, Japan entered the war on the side of the Allies. Japanese troops occupied the German-held Marshall, Caroline, and Mariana islands in the Pacific Ocean. In 1915 the empire submitted the Twenty-One Demands to China, calling for industrial, railway, and mining privileges and a promise that China would not lease or give any coastal territory opposite Taiwan to a nation other than Japan. These demands, some of which were quickly granted, were the first statement of the Japanese policy of domination over China and the Far East. A year later, in 1916, China ceded commercial rights in Inner Mongolia and southern Dongbei to Japan.
As a result of the World War I peace settlement Japan received the Pacific Islands which it had occupied as mandates from the League of Nations, the empire having become a charter member of that organization. The leased territory of Jiaozhou was also awarded to Japan, but the empire restored it to China in 1922 as a result of an agreement, the Shandong (Shantung) Treaty, made during the Washington Conference of 1922. This conference also resulted in the replacement of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance by the Four-Power Treaty, by which Japan, France, Great Britain, and the United States pledged themselves to respect one another’s territories in the Pacific Ocean and to consult if their territorial rights were threatened; and the Nine-Power Treaty (Belgium, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Japan, France, Italy, China, and the United States) which bound the signatories to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of China. An additional treaty between Great Britain, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy dealt with naval disarmament on a 5-5-3-1.67-to-1.67 ratio, respectively, with the Japanese navy being limited to 315,000 tons of capital ships.
With the adoption of the Shandong and Nine-Power treaties, Japan demonstrated a conciliatory attitude towards China. Nevertheless, Japanese commercial interests in China were still regarded as paramount over Chinese interests. Russo-Japanese relations, which had become strained after the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the subsequent invasion of Siberia and northern Sakhalin by the Japanese in 1918, became more amicable after Japan recognized the Soviet regime in 1925. This less aggressive attitude on the part of Japan was due partly to a surge of political liberalism stimulated by the victory of the democratic nations in World War I.
The first prime minister from one of the nascent political parties, Hara Takashi, took office in 1918, and despite his assassination in 1921, Taisho is regarded as an era of experiments with democracy. Beginning in 1919 the government was assailed with increasing demands for universal male suffrage, an issue that occasioned rioting in the cities. In answer to these demands the government passed in 1919 a reform act doubling the electorate (to 3 million). In 1923 the Tokyo and Yokohama region was convulsed by the great Kanto earthquake, but the vigour of the new industrialized society was demonstrated by the speed of reconstruction. Democratic protests became even more intense and universal male suffrage was granted in 1925. The electorate increased sharply, to 14 million. Reflecting the rising interest in popular government, the political trend during the 1920s was towards party Cabinets and away from oligarchic rule by the nobility, the military leaders, and the so-called elder statesmen. This movement was short-lived, however.
K The Early Showa Era (1926-1945)
In 1926 Hirohito, the unassuming grandson of Emperor Meiji, succeeded to the throne. He adopted Showa (“enlightened peace”) as the official designation for his reign, but when General Baron Tanaka Giichi became prime minister in 1927, he declared the resumption of an aggressive policy towards China. The impelling force in this change of policy lay in the expansion of Japanese industry, which had begun with the start of World War I in 1914 and was continuing at a rapid pace, requiring new markets for its enhanced output. Japan’s population had doubled since 1868, and it was argued that more space and resources were needed for the new mouths. The collapse of the US silk market in 1929 ruined many peasants and increased the pressure for drastic action.
K1 Occupation of Dongbei
In the late 1920s Japan, in effect, gained domination of the administrative and economic affairs of Dongbei. The Chinese, however, increasingly resented Japanese interference in what was, technically, part of China. On September 18, 1931, the Japanese army in Guangdong, claiming that an explosion on the Japanese-owned South Manchuria Railway had been caused by Chinese saboteurs, seized the arsenals of Shenyang (Mukden) and of several neighbouring cities. Chinese troops were forced to withdraw from the area. Entirely without official sanction by the Japanese government, and often exceeding the wishes of its field commanders, the Guangdong army extended its operations into all Dongbei and, in about five months, was in possession of the entire region. Informed by the expansionist ideals of secret societies like the Black Dragon Society, its officers were keen to promote national interests by conquest regardless of the orders of party politicians. Dongbei was then established as the puppet state of Manchukuo; Henry Pu Yi (Xuandong as last Emperor of China) was crowned Emperor of Manchukuo in 1934 as Kang De.
All pretence of party government in Japan was abandoned as a result of the occupation of Dongbei. Politicians were terrorized and assassinated by radical rightists, and Viscount Saito Makoto formed a so-called national Cabinet composed chiefly of men who belonged to no party. The international repercussions of the Dongbei incident resulted in an inquiry by a League of Nations commission, acting by authority of the Kellogg-Briand Pact. In 1933, when the League Assembly requested that Japan cease hostilities in China, Japan instead announced its withdrawal from the League, to take effect in 1935. To consolidate its gains in China, Japan landed troops in Shanghai to quell an effective Chinese boycott of Japanese goods. In the north the Japanese army occupied and annexed the province of Chengde (Jehol) and threatened to occupy the cities of Beijing and Tianjin. Unable to resist the superior Japanese forces, China, in May 1933, recognized the Japanese conquest by signing a truce.
The independent action of the army indicated the power of the military leaders in Japanese politics. In 1936, after a factional coup which left much of Tokyo in military hands for a few days, the empire signed an anti-Communist agreement with Germany and, one year later, a similar pact with Italy. The establishment of almost complete military rule, with the cooperation of the zaibatsu, or industrial family trusts, made aggression and expansion the avowed policy of the empire.
K2 War with China
On July 7, 1937, a Chinese patrol clashed with Japanese troops on the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. Using the so-called “Marco Polo Bridge Incident” as a pretext to begin hostilities, the Japanese army in Dongbei moved troops into the area, precipitating the Sino-Japanese Conflict, although war was never formally declared. A Japanese force quickly overran northern China. By the end of 1937 the Japanese navy had completed a blockade of almost the entire Chinese coast. The army advanced into eastern and southern China throughout 1937 and 1938, capturing, successively, Shanghai, Suzhou (Soochow), Nanjing (Nanking), Qingdao (Tsingtao) , Canton (Guangzhou), and Hankou (Hankow), and forcing the Chinese army into the west. A Japanese force occupied the island of Hainan. Protests by foreign governments concerning property owned by their nationals and mistreatment by Japanese troops of foreigners resident in China were, in effect, ignored by the empire. By the end of 1938 the war had reached a virtual stalemate. The Japanese army was checked by the mountains of central China, behind which the Chinese waged guerrilla warfare against the invaders.
Japan, meanwhile, was subjected to a controlled war economy. In 1937 a Cabinet headed by Prince Konoe Fumimaro relegated the entire conduct of the war, without government interference, to army and navy leaders.
K3 Outbreak of World War II
The beginning of World War II in Europe, in September 1939, gave Japan new opportunity for aggression in South East Asia. These aggressive acts were prefaced by a series of diplomatic arrangements. In September 1940 the empire concluded a tripartite alliance with Germany and Italy, the so-called Rome-Berlin Axis, pledging mutual and total aid for a period of ten years. Japan considered, however, that a 1939 neutrality pact between Germany and the USSR had released the empire from any obligation incurred by the 1936 anti-Communist alliance. In September 1941, therefore, Japan signed a neutrality pact with the USSR, thus protecting the northern border of Dongbei. A year before, with the consent of the German-sponsored Vichy government of France, Japanese forces occupied French Indochina. At the same time Japan tried to obtain economic and political footholds in the Netherlands East Indies.
These acts led to American oil embargoes and increasing hostility between Japan and the United States. The protection of American property in eastern Asia had been a source of friction since the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, as had tacit Western support for the Chinese. In October 1941, General Tojo Hideki, who was militantly anti-American, became the Japanese premier and Minister of War. Negotiations aimed at settling the differences between the two countries continued in Washington throughout November, even after the decision for war had been made in Tokyo.
K4 Attack on Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, without warning and while negotiations between American and Japanese diplomats were still in progress, Japanese carrier-based aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the main US naval base in the Pacific. Simultaneous attacks were launched by the Japanese army, navy, and air force against the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, Midway Island, Hong Kong, British Malaya, and Thailand. On December 8 the United States declared war on Japan, as did all Allied powers except the USSR.
For about a year following the successful surprise attacks, Japan maintained the offensive in South East Asia and the islands of the South Pacific. The empire designated eastern Asia and its environs as the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” and made effective propaganda of the slogan “Asia for the Asians”. Moreover, nationalistic elements in some of the countries of South and South East Asia gave tacit and, in some cases, active support to the Japanese, because they saw an apparent way to free themselves from Western imperialism. In December 1941, Japan invaded Thailand, forcing the government to conclude a treaty of alliance.
K5 The Tide Turns
The tide of battle began to change in 1942, when an Allied naval and air force contained a Japanese invasion fleet in the Battle of the Coral Sea between New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. A month later a larger Japanese fleet was defeated in the Battle of Midway. Using combined operations of ground, naval, and air units under the command of the American general Douglas MacArthur, Allied forces fought northwards from island to island in the South Pacific, attacking and driving out the Japanese. In July 1944, after the fall of Saipan, a major Japanese base in the Mariana Islands, the Japanese leaders realized that Japan had lost the war. Tojo was forced to resign, weakening the hold of the military oligarchy. In November 1944 the United States began a series of major air raids over Japan by B-29 Superfortress bombers based on Saipan. In early 1945 an air base even closer to Japan (about 1,200 km/750 mi) was acquired with the conquest, after a fierce battle, of Iwo Jima. During the same period Allied forces under the British admiral Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, defeated the Japanese armies in South East Asia. In the next four months, from May to August, bombing attacks devastated Japanese cities, communications, industry, and what was left of the navy. These attacks culminated on August 6, 1945, in the dropping of the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Two days later, on August 8, the USSR declared war on Japan, and on August 9 a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Soviet forces invaded Dongbei, northern Korea, and Karafuto. The Allied powers had agreed during the Potsdam Conference that only unconditional surrender would be acceptable from the Japanese government. Overcoming the paralysis of the government, Emperor Hirohito insisted on surrender. On August 14 Japan accepted the Allied terms, and Hirohito broadcast to the nation for the first time, despite a last-minute attempt by militarists to sabotage the broadcast. The formal surrender was signed aboard the American battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2.
K6 Dissolution of Empire
The US Army was designated, by the Allied powers, as the army of occupation in the Japanese home islands. Japan was stripped of its empire. Inner Mongolia, Dongbei, Taiwan, and Hainan were returned to China. The USSR, by virtue of occupation, held on to the Kuril Islands and Karafuto (which again became known as Sakhalin) and Outer Mongolia; Port Arthur and the South Manchurian Railway were placed under the joint control of the USSR and China. All the former Japanese mandated islands in the South Pacific were occupied by the United States under a United Nations (UN) trusteeship.
On August 11, 1945, after the Japanese offered to surrender, Douglas MacArthur was appointed Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) occupying Japan. Representatives of China, the USSR, and Great Britain were named to an Allied Council for Japan, sitting in Tokyo, to assist MacArthur. Broad questions of occupation policy became the province of the Far Eastern Commission, sitting in Washington, D.C., representing the United States, Great Britain, the USSR, Australia, Canada, China, France, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the Philippines. A number of Japanese wartime leaders were tried for war crimes by an 11-nation tribunal that convened in Tokyo on May 3, 1946, and closed on November 12, 1948.
L The Later Showa Era (1945-1989)
The American occupation of the Japanese islands was in no way resisted. The objectives of the occupation policy were declared to be, basically, the democratization of the Japanese government and the re-establishment of a peacetime industrial economy sufficient for the Japanese population. MacArthur was directed to exercise his authority through the Emperor and existing government machinery as far as possible. Among other Allied objectives was the dissolution of the great industrial and banking trusts, the assets of which were seized in 1946 and later liquidated through SCAP. A programme of land reform, designed to give tenant farmers an opportunity to purchase the land they worked, was in operation by 1947, and an education programme along democratic lines was organized. Women were given the franchise in the first post-war general election in April 1946, and 38 women were elected to the Japanese Diet. Subsequently, the Diet agreed to an American-inspired redraft of a new constitution, which became effective in May 1947.
The rehabilitation of the Japanese economy was more difficult than the reorganization of the government. The scarcity of food had to be offset by imports from the Allied powers, and from the United States in particular. Severe bombing during the war had almost nullified Japanese industrial capacity. By the beginning of 1949 aid to Japan was costing the United States more than US$1 million a day.
Beginning in May 1949, work stoppages took place in various Japanese industries, notably coal-mining. The government accused the Communist Party, which had polled 3 million votes in a recent national election, of instigating the strikes for political purposes, and MacArthur concurred in this view. Subsequently the government launched a large-scale investigation of Communist activities. MacArthur’s labour policies were sharply criticized in June 1949 by the Soviet member of the Allied Control Council. In his reply, MacArthur accused the USSR of fomenting disorder in Japan through the Communist Party and of “callous indifference” in repatriating Japanese prisoners of war. For the next year communism and repatriation were dominant issues in national politics. The Soviet Union announced in April 1950 that, excluding approximately 10,000 war criminals, all prisoners (94,973) had been returned to Japan; according to Japanese records more than 300,000 prisoners were still in the custody of the USSR.
Allied negotiations during 1950 regarding a Japanese peace treaty were marked by basic differences between the United States and the Soviet Union on several issues, especially whether China should participate in the drafting of the document. In May the American statesman John Foster Dulles, adviser to the US Secretary of State, was named to prepare the terms of the treaty. More than a year of consultations and negotiations with and among the Allied powers, Japan, and the Far Eastern nations that had fought against Japan culminated, on July 12, 1951, in the publication of the draft treaty. The USSR maintained that the document was conducive to the resurgence of Japanese militarism. The US government invited 55 countries to attend the peace conference. Nationalist China (Taiwan) and the People’s Republic of China were not invited.
The peace conference opened in San Francisco in early September. Of the nations invited, India, Burma, and Yugoslavia refused to attend. During the conference discussion was limited to the previously prepared treaty text, a procedure that nullified Soviet attempts to reopen negotiations on its various provisions. The treaty was signed by 49 countries, including Japan; the USSR, Czechoslovakia, and Poland refused to do so.
L1 The Peace Treaty, 1951
By the terms of the treaty Japan renounced all claims to Korea, Taiwan, the Kurils, Sakhalin, and former mandated islands, and relinquished any special rights and interests in China and Korea; the right of Japan to defend itself and enter into collective security arrangements was recognized; and Japan accepted in principle the validity of reparations claims, to be paid in goods and services in view of the country’s insufficient financial resources.
At the same time, the United States and Japan signed a bilateral agreement providing for the maintenance of US military bases and armed forces in and around Japan to protect the disarmed country from aggression or from large-scale internal disturbances.
Meanwhile, MacArthur had been relieved of his post as SCAP in April 1951. Lieutenant-General Matthew Bunker Ridgway, then commander of the UN forces in Korea, succeeded him. The United States terminated economic aid to Japan at the end of June, but the detrimental effect of this action on the Japanese economy was largely offset by American military procurement orders for the Korean War, then raging. The country’s economic problems stemmed mainly from the wartime loss of overseas markets, especially the Chinese mainland. Recognizing the importance of the Chinese market, the United States in October granted Japan the right to carry on limited trade with mainland China.
On April 28, 1952, the Japanese peace treaty became effective, and full sovereignty was restored to Japan. By the terms of the Japanese-American treaty of 1951, US troops remained in Japan as security forces. The Japanese government concluded treaties of peace or renewed diplomatic relations during 1952 with Taiwan, Burma, India, and Yugoslavia.
The question of rearmament was widely debated throughout 1952. The government was reluctant to commit itself in favour of rebuilding the country’s defences, mainly because of economic difficulties and legal obstacles (in the Japanese constitution of 1947 war is renounced “forever”).
After heated debate the Diet in July 1952 approved a bill to suppress subversive activities of organized groups, including the Communists. The Communist Party itself was not outlawed, however. In general elections on October 1, the first since the end of the occupation, Yoshida Shigeru, leader of the Liberal Party, who had headed the Cabinet since 1949, was again named premier.
L2 Post-War Foreign Relations: United States
In March 1953, Premier Yoshida, after losing a vote of confidence on proposals for increased centralization of the school system and the police force, scheduled new elections. The electorate went to the polls in April and again returned the Liberals to power. Yoshida was then renamed premier.
During 1953 the US government, seeking further to safeguard the country against possible Communist aggression, actively encouraged Japan to rearm. In August the two countries signed a military-aid treaty that contained provision for the manufacture of Japanese arms according to American specifications. In a joint statement in September, Premier Yoshida and Shigemitsu Mamoru, Progressive Party leader, officially recommended that Japan rearm for self-defence. Negotiations with the US government led to the signing of a mutual-defence pact by the two nations in March 1954.
Premier Yoshida’s policy of close collaboration with the United States was subjected to strong criticism by dissidents within the Liberal Party during the second half of 1954. In late November the insurgent Liberals formed the Japan Democratic Party. Premier Yoshida, who was removed as head of the Liberal Party a few days later, resigned the premiership in early December after failing to muster a majority in the Diet. Subsequently, by virtue of Socialist Party support, the Democratic Party leader Hatoyama Ichiro was elected premier. He promised, in exchange for Socialist support, to dissolve the Diet in January 1955 and hold national elections.
The Democratic Party failed to win a majority in the Diet in the election held in February 1955, but with Liberal support Hatoyama was returned to the premiership. The Democratic Party and the Liberal Party merged in November of that year, giving the government an absolute majority in the Diet and inaugurating the power monopoly of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
L3 Post-War Foreign Relations: USSR
In October 1956 the Soviet Union and Japan agreed to end the technical state of war that had existed between the two countries since August 1945. The agreement provided for the re-establishment of normal diplomatic relations, for the repatriation of Japanese prisoners of war still remaining in the USSR, for the effectuation of fishing treaties negotiated earlier in the year, for Soviet support of Japanese entry into the UN, and for the return to Japan of certain small islands off its northern coasts on the conclusion of a formal Soviet-Japanese peace treaty. On December 18 the UN General Assembly voted unanimously to admit Japan to the United Nations. Two days later Ishibashi Tanzan, the Minister of International Trade and Industry, succeeded Hatoyama as premier. While maintaining close relations with the United States, Ishibashi sought to expand trade with the USSR and China as a means of reducing unemployment.
In February 1957, Premier Ishibashi resigned from his post because of poor health. The Diet elected his former Foreign Minister, Kishi Nobusuke, to succeed him. In the same month agreements were signed ending the state of war with Czechoslovakia and Poland. Japan agreed in November to pay US$230 million to Indonesia as World War II reparations. In addition, the Indonesian trade debt of US$177 million to Japan was cancelled.
Japan became a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in January 1958. The House of Representatives was dissolved by Premier Kishi in April, and elections were held the following month.
L4 Domestic Politics
In October 1958 the Socialist Party ordered a strike of its members in both chambers of the Diet to protest against a government bill providing for increased power for the police. By the beginning of November, about 4 million workers were also on a protest strike; subsequently, Premier Kishi agreed to withdraw the bill. Elections in June 1959 for half the seats in the House of Councillors proved a victory for the LDP. Shortly afterwards, the government was completely reorganized.
In November 1959 more than 500 people were injured when violent anti-US riots, involving hundreds of thousands of people, broke out in Tokyo during a discussion in the Diet of a new security pact with the United States. The treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., in January 1960, and at the same time it was announced that President Dwight D. Eisenhower would visit Japan in June. By mid-June, however, anti-US feelings in Japan had grown to the extent that the visit was cancelled because of fears for Eisenhower’s safety.
Premier Kishi resigned on July 15 and was succeeded by Ikeda Hayato, the new president of the LDP. In elections to the House of Representatives in October, the LDP won a major victory, and Ikeda formed a new Cabinet in December.
In 1963 the governing LDP sought to amend a constitutional provision banning maintenance of military forces and other war potential in Japan. The amendment, necessary to legalize further increases in the Japanese armed forces, needed approval of a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives. Lacking such a majority, Premier Ikeda dissolved the diet and scheduled elections for November 21. His party’s majority was reduced by 13 seats.
L5 Economic Growth
The Japanese economy continued to lead the world in its growth rate for 1964. In its drive to expand trade, the Japanese government made an agreement with China that each would establish unofficial trade liaison offices in the other’s capital city. The usual five-year limit on Soviet credit was exceeded when Japan arranged the sale of a fertilizer plant to the USSR with payment extended over eight years. Premier Ikeda, who had been re-elected president of the LDP in July, was incapacitated by illness in September and resigned as premier in late October. He was succeeded by former Minister of State Sato Eisaku (brother of Kishi Nobusuke), also a Liberal Democrat. The 18th Olympic Games were held in Tokyo in October. Japan had prepared for the event by investing heavily in city improvements, including new roads, transport systems, and buildings such as the Olympic Stadium by Tange Kenzo.
In March 1965 the South Korean Foreign Minister became the first Korean government official to meet with the Japanese government since World War II. During his visit the Japanese and South Korean governments reached far-ranging agreement on mutual relations. In the late 1960s Japan experienced widespread and sometimes violent demonstrations by radical students protesting Japanese support of US foreign policy. Japanese-United States relations were strained in 1971 by the failure of the United States to consult with Japan on China policy and the devaluation of the dollar, but the breach was partly healed by the return of Okinawa to Japan in 1972.
Japan in the 1960s surpassed every nation of western Europe in terms of gross national product and ranked next to the United States as a world industrial power. The Japan World Exposition, staged at Osaka in 1970, demonstrated the nation’s restored position in world affairs. By 1971 Japan was the third-largest exporter in the world, next to the United States and West Germany (now part of the united Federal Republic of Germany), and the fifth-largest importer.
L6 Cabinet Turnover
Although the LDP continued to hold the reins of government throughout the 1970s, the party’s Cabinets frequently changed, as factional infighting substituted for alternation of governing parties. In 1972 Tanaka Kakuei, who succeeded Premier Sato in July, agreed on measures to alleviate the American trade imbalance. He also visited China and agreed to resume diplomatic relations with that country immediately; official ties with Taiwan were then severed. In November 1974 Tanaka resigned in favour of Miki Takeo. Miki’s government had to endure the world economic recession that followed the Arab oil embargo of 1973; Japan’s economy, heavily dependent on oil and other raw materials, showed zero growth during the fiscal year 1974 to 1975.
In 1975, the LDP was torn by factional strife and failed to pass most of its major bills in the Diet. The party was further shaken in 1976 by revelations that the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, a US firm, had paid at least US$10 million in bribes and fees to Japanese politicians and industrialists since the 1950s. Miki called elections for December, in which the LDP lost its majority in the lower house for the first time. Miki resigned, and Fukuda Takeo was elected premier. He was replaced by Ohira Masayoshi, another Liberal Democrat, in December 1978. After Ohira died at the height of the 1980 election campaign, Suzuki Zenko was chosen by the LDP to succeed him. Beset by factionalism within his own party, Suzuki unexpectedly resigned in November 1982. He was replaced as premier and party leader by Nakasone Yasuhiro. The LDP, which suffered a setback in 1983 Diet elections, won its greatest landslide in 1986; to replace Nakasone, Takeshita Noboru was chosen in November 1987.
Japan in the early 1980s faced urban overcrowding, environmental pollution, and unproductive agriculture, but had the highest rate of economic growth and the lowest inflation rate among leading industrial nations. Economic growth began to slow in the mid-1980s, in part because the yen’s strength against the US dollar had a dampening effect on exports.
M The Heisei Era (1989- )
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| Kobe Earth Quake |
Against a background of continuing tension with the United States over Japan’s trade surplus, confidence in the government continued to decline as the Japanese public became increasingly frustrated with the stagnant Japanese economy and corruption in the government. In June 1993 several Liberal Democrats, led by Hata Tsutomu and Ozawa Ichiro, defected to form the Japan Renewal Party (JRP), enabling minority parties in the Diet to band together and force new parliamentary elections. In the July elections the LDP lost their majority, ending their 38-year dominance of the Japanese government. A fragile seven-party coalition was formed; the LDP became the main opposition party. Morihiro Hosokawa, a former Liberal Democrat and leader of the Japan New Party, was elected to head the government. His electoral reform plans, aimed at dismantling Japan’s system of money politics and redrawing electoral boundaries, were enacted in January 1994, albeit diluted as a result of Social Democratic Party defections.
Dogged by allegations that he accepted an illegal loan in 1982 and beset by the strains of keeping the backward-looking Social Democrats in the coalition, Hosokawa stepped down in early April 1994. Later that month, the seven-party coalition chose Hata to be premier. Soon afterwards, the Social Democrats withdrew from the coalition, fearing efforts by coalition partners to marginalize them, leaving Hata without a majority in the lower house of the Diet. He subsequently resigned in late June. Social Democratic Party leader Murayama Tomiichi was elected premier a few days later in a coalition agreement with the old Socialist Party’s former enemies the LDP, becoming the first left-wing figure to lead Japan since 1948. Reformist opposition parties regrouped as the New Frontier Party (NFP), under Kaifu Toshiki’s leadership and Ozawa Ichiro’s stewardship.
On January 17, 1995, the city of Kobe was devastated by an earthquake which killed some 5,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless. On March 20 Tokyo’s subway system was hit by chemical weapons including the nerve gas sarin in a terrorist attack that killed 12 and affected thousands. The fringe religious cult Aum Shinri Kyo was soon identified as the culprit, and was broken up by concerted police operations. The Murayama coalition government suffered an embarrassing setback in local elections in April, when a general swing against mainstream candidates included the elevation of a television personality and a former comedian to the key governorships of Tokyo and Osaka; while the NFP gained important provincial governorships. Rampant currency speculation drove up the value of the yen to record levels, threatening economic recovery and unleashing severe price deflation.
In August 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, Murayama made a statement expressing a “heartfelt apology” for Japanese wartime aggression. In September the second fiscal stimulus package of the year was introduced to boost the economy. The rape of a Japanese schoolgirl in Okinawa by three American servicemen in October 1995 caused a wave of anti-American demonstrations there and ignited a campaign against the renewal of leases for US military bases. In December 1995 Ozawa Ichiro became leader of the opposition NFP. Murayama announced his resignation in January 1996, and was replaced as prime minister in the coalition government by Hashimoto Ryutaro, leader of the LDP, marking the return of LDP dominance. In March 1996 a government plan to rescue insolvent housing loan companies using public money was finally passed after a long opposition blockade. In April Asahara Shoko, leader of the Aum Shinri Kyo cult, went on trial.
M1 LDP Revival, Economic Paralysis
In September 1996 Prime Minister Hashimoto Ryutaro called an early general election. The poll, held on October 20, returned the LDP as the largest single party, but left it short of an overall majority; the NFP was left as the largest opposition party, while the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), a new body formed of disaffected SDPJ members and others, came third. The SDPJ’s support slipped further, halving its seats to 15, while Sakigake was left with only 2. In November Hashimoto formed a minority LDP government, banking on informal support from the SDPJ and Sakigake, his former coalition partners.
In a key policy speech in January 1997, Hashimoto promised a wholesale revision of Japan’s social and economic system, including deregulation to promote growth and curbs on the power of government bureaucracy. In January the first payment was made from a semi-official fund set up to compensate Korean “comfort women”, forced to serve as prostitutes for Japanese soldiers during World War II. All major parties cooperated in passing a bill in April 1997 to enable continuing US occupation of military base sites on Okinawa after the expiry of their leases. In April, Hashimoto expressed approval of the freeing by Peruvian troops of hostages held by terrorists at the Japanese embassy in Peru since December 1996, though Japan had appealed against the use of force throughout the crisis.
In September 1997 the LDP recovered its majority in the lower house of the Diet for the first time in 1993, but still proved unable to remedy the country’s continuing economic downturn. The latest in a package of LDP emergency measures, unveiled in October 1997, met with overwhelmingly negative comment. In November, Sanyo Securites became the first Japanese brokerage house to collapse since 1945; it was promptly followed by Hokkaido Takushoku, the nations 10th largest commercial bank, and Yamaichi Securities Co., one of the “Big Four” Japanese securities houses. Another emergency package in December did little to improve matters. Also in December, Ozawa Ichiro dissolved the NFP, forming the Liberal Party in January 1998. Also in January, the Finance Minister resigned over revelations of supervising ministry officials accepting hospitality and other benefits from organizations they were overseeing; the Bank of Japan’s governor resigned in March for the same reason.
The 1998 Winter Olympic Games, held at Nagano in February, were one of the few conspicuous successes to lighten the murky political and economic climate. In March 1998, several smaller opposition parties agreed to integrate into the DPJ, while LDP policy paralysis remained the subject of criticism from US officials and international bodies. Hashimoto’s much-vaunted “Big Bang” deregulation of Japan’s financial system commenced in April 1998, but yielded little immediate benefit for the ailing economy, as did tax cuts rushed through by the LDP the same month.
With economic stagnation continuing, Prime Minister Hashimoto resigned in July 1998 to take responsibility for poor LDP performance in elections to the upper house of the Diet that month. He was replaced by Obuchi Keizo, formerly his Foreign Minister. In October 1998 the government passed legislation to support Japan's ailing banking system with over US$500 billion. In early 1999 the government introduced spending vouchers for certain classes of consumer in a bid to revitalize demand.
In January 1999, the ruling LDP formed a coalition with the Liberal Party in order to stabilize Obuchi Keizo's six-month-old administration. However this was insufficient to secure a majority in the House of Councillors, the upper house of the Diet, and in July, Obuchi enlarged the two-party ruling coalition by bringing in the New Komeito party. In September, Obuchi Keizo was overwhelmingly re-elected as president of the LDP, taking 68 per cent of the total votes cast and remaining prime minister of the country. That month, Japan suffered its biggest nuclear power accident at an uranium-processing plant in Tokaimura, making it the world's worst since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Economic stagnation continued throughout 1999.
Mount Usu, on the island of Hokkaido, erupted for the first time in more than 20 years in April 2000, causing thousands of people to be evacuated from their homes. Around the same time, the prime minister announced that the ruling three-party coalition would break up after he rejected demands for a series of reforms. In the wake of these pressures, Obuchi suffered a major stroke and slipped into a coma. Japan's leaders moved quickly to appoint a new government, when it seemed unlikely that Obuchi would be able to resume his duties. He was succeeded by Yoshiro Mori, formerly the secretary-general of the LDP.
The decline of the Japanese economy continued under Mori, whose personal popularity plummeted through a series of scandals involving his colourful career. In the June 2000 national elections, support for the governing coalition dropped significantly from 65 to 56 per cent. Yoshiro Mori remained prime minister however, and outlined his government’s aims to return Japan to economic prosperity and introduce much-needed government reform. Surviving a no-confidence vote in November, he was able to announce the complete restructuring of the Japanese government in January 2001. In a bid to revive the economy, in March the Bank of Japan announced the reduction of interest rates to zero per cent.
In April 2001 Junichiro Koizumi became Japan’s new prime minister after the previous administration was toppled. He intends to boost the economy with a series of radical reforms.
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