Japanese Readings Notes

Article 1 Geography - Japan is a collection of 4 main islands that lies at the north-eastern margin of Asia - Hokkaido - Honshu - Kyushu - Shikoku - And about 1000 smaller ones# - Climate ranges from temperate to subtropical - June is officially the rainy season - Summer is hot and humid - Japan is mostly mountainous with a few large plains, almost no major rivers to speak of - Many volcanoes (dormant like Mt Fuji, active like Sakurajima) - Prone to earthquakes - Japan has very little wildlife dangerous to man - The most dangerous creature you might run across is the mukade, an evil looking centipede that leaves a nasty wet if it bites you Seasons - Four seasons - Many japanese people believe that only Japan has 4 seasons - Winters are heavily influenced by Siberian cold fronts so brutal - Summers are all right if you can spend all your days in t-shirts and shorts - Cherry flowers blossom in spring - Autumn: Kouyou (red leaves) - Samui desu ne? (it’s cold, isn’t it?) - Atsui desu ne? (it’s hot, isn’t it?) Political Geography - Japan is divided into 43 prefectures called ken - Some administrative divisions are not technically classified as prefectures e.g. Tokyo-to, Osaka-to, Kyoto-fu and Hokkaido - Each prefecture is then divided into cities ( shi ) or countries ( gun ). - Within smaller countries or smaller cities there are further divisions of towns ( chou or machi ) - Larger cities are first divided into wards ( ku ) and then into smaller subdivisions - Addresses are written in reverse i.e. postal code first, prefecture, city, subdivision, neighborhood, block, building, flat number, addressee’s name - Only one time zone and no daylight saving time History Early culture - Some believe that japanese are distantly related to the Mongoloid people of Central Asia, while others say that the Japanese have connections to either people of South-east Asia or Polynesia

- Earliest of Japan’s ancient people were the Joumon, a nomadic race with roots dating back to the Middle Stone Age (10,000 - 3000 BC) - Joumon were followed by Yayoi (300 BC - 300 AD) - Stone and metal age people - Practiced rice cultivation, advanced pottery techniques and the manufacture of iron and bronze implements Learning from China - Buddhist religion, chinese technology and Chinese calendar - Kanji - Cuisine, arts, and sorrowful history shared by the two countries Civil wars - Following the Heian period (AD 794 - 1185) - In 1185, warrior leader Minamoto no Yoritomo ignored Emperor Go-Toba and established his own military government in Kamakura. - He was recognised as the Shougun - In 1333, noble families and courts changed sides in a constant struggle for advantage, clashes between classes as peasants rose up against the oppressive lords - In 1274, Mongol leader Kublai Khan attempted an invasion of Japan; many Mongol ships were destroyed and the invaders drowned - Seven years later, Mongols attempted a second invasion and again a ‘divine wind’ ( kamikaze ) destroyed the fleet - The arrival of Europeans (Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch) to Kyushu. - Trading began, most notable at Nagasaki - They brought firearm and Christian religion - Japanese rejected the religion but kept the weapon - Shougun Tokugawa Ieyasu saw the religion as a threat to his power and had it forcefully suppressed - Japan entered a near-total isolation known as the Tokugawa Shogunate Tokugawa Japan - Edo period - Real power ebbed away from the Japanese military rulers and towards the commercial classes - Expansion in the visual, literary and dramatic arts and increased urbanisation - Tight control by the shogun kept Japan politically frozen - In 1853, US commodore Matthew C Perry, under instructions from President Millard Fillmore, arrived in Edo Bay in his famous ‘black ships’ to open Japan up to trade - Tokugawa Shogunate tottered for the next 15 years - Young emperor Meiji Meiji Restoration - Leaders decided that Japan had to emulate the Western powers - Feudalism was abolished and national military was created - Railroads were built and a constitution was written - Japan won against China on the battlefield in the 1890s but lost at the negotiating table

- Russo-Japanese war (1904 - 1905) - Japan won - War began when Japan launched a surprise attack on the Russian base at Port Arthur) - Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910 Taisho Democracy - 1920s and early 1930s - Career opportunities started to open up for women - Young people began marrying as they wished - Western fashions and modes of entertainment began to filter down into lives of people - Series of prime ministers and other liberal leaders were assassinated World War II - In 1931, Japan attacked China - Established a puppet state in Manchuria called Manchuukuo - In 1937, war with China escalated after Japanese troops clashed with a Chinese garrison at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. - In 1941, Japan launched a series of attacks upon Manilla, Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, Guam, Wake and Pearl Harbour in Hawaii - All were successful - Secured Philippines - The Allies counter-attacked - By 1945, the Allies were bombing Japan on a daily basis - Surrender was considered by the Japanese civilian authorities, not the military leaders - On 15th August, 1945, Emperor Hirohito asked the nation to ‘bear the unbearable’ and accept defeat Occupation - Even before the Allies stepped foot in Japan, a completely unarmed General MacArthur had settled into quarters in Tokyo. - The Occupation of Japan - MacArthur broke the pre-war industrial combines, instituted a major land reform, and personally wrote Japan’s post-war constitution - Famous article 9 which forever renounces Japan’s right to wage war Economic Phoenix - By the 1960s, Japan’s cameras, cars and motorcycles were starting to seize market share abroad. - By the 1970s, Japan was being proclaimed as Number One - The stock market, unburdened with paying dividends to shareholders, soared until in 1989, it touched a stock average of 38,915.87. Japan was Number One! - In October 2002, the Nikkei stock average slipped below 8,200. Nearly 80% of the country’s wealth had evaporated Japan in Malaise - The yen appreciated until 1995, it briefly touched 80 yen for one US dollar - University graduates were jobless and dependent on their families - Household incomes dropped, families turned to loan sharks

- Crime rates increased and the number of suicides spiked Government and Politics - Today, Japan is a parliamentary democracy - The parliament (Diet) has two chambers. - Upper chamber is the House of Councillors or Sangi-in - Lower chamber is the House of Representatives or Shuugi-in - Lower is stronger - Elections must be held for each house at intervals of no more than four years. - Head of the government is the Prime Minister - He appoints the heads of various ministries that make up his cabinet - The most powerful member in each cabinet is the minister’s deputy Politics - Primary ruling political party for most of the post-war period has been Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) - LDP ruled Japan for 38 years (1955 - 1993) - Socialist Party - Communist Party - LDP lost elections for the lower house in 1993 - Hosokawa Morihiro was elected as the prime minister The Imperial Family - Longest surviving dynasty of all the world’s royal leaders - During the shogunate, the emperor was more or less the prisoner in Kyoto. - Presently, although considered the head of state, emperor has no connection with the government workings since 1946 - Current emperor is Akihito; reign is known as Heisei. - His wife Michiko was the first empress to not be born to aristocracy - Family’s periodic outings are arranged by the Imperial Household Agency - Akihito’s eldest son, Naruhito is married to Princess Masako, an employee of Japan’s foreign ministry - They were married in 1943 - Naruhito, his younger brother. All other possible inheritors are female# Religion - Native religion of Japan is Shintou - Finds spirits abounding in nature - No philosophy behind it - Allows followers a way of currying favor with various gods to receive good luck - 6th century, Mahayana Buddhism arrived - Grew prestige and divided into sects - In the present age, the most well-known forms of Japanese Buddhism are Souka Gakkai ( quasi-political religious group) and Zen Buddhism. - If there are torii (large two-legged arch) at the entrance of the shrine, it’s a Shintou shrine