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148-582: Chashitsu ( 茶室 , "tea room") in Japanese tradition is an architectural space designed to be used for tea ceremony ( chanoyu ) gatherings. The architectural style that developed for chashitsu is referred to as the sukiya style ( sukiya-zukuri ), and the term sukiya ( 数奇屋 ) may be used as a synonym for chashitsu . Related Japanese terms are chaseki ( 茶席 ), broadly meaning "place for tea", and implying any sort of space where people are seated to participate in tea ceremony, and chabana , "tea flowers",

296-494: A low unemployment rate of around 2.6%. Its poverty rate is the second highest among the G7 countries, and exceeds 15.7% of the population. Japan has the highest ratio of public debt to GDP among advanced economies, with a national debt estimated at 248% relative to GDP as of 2022 . The Japanese yen is the world's third-largest reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro. Japan

444-676: A security alliance . The United States is a major market for Japanese exports and a major source of Japanese imports, and is committed to defending the country, with military bases in Japan. In 2016, Japan announced the Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision, which frames its regional policies. Japan is also a member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue ("the Quad"), a multilateral security dialogue reformed in 2017 aiming to limit Chinese influence in

592-517: A tokonoma and a sunken hearth for preparing tea in the winter. The term chashitsu came into use after the start of the Edo period ( c.  1600 ). In earlier times, various terms were used for spaces used for tea ceremony, such as chanoyu zashiki ( 茶湯座敷 , "sitting room for chanoyu "), sukiya (place for poetically inclined aesthetic pursuits [ fūryū , 風流 ]) such as chanoyu ), and kakoi ( 囲 , "partitioned-off space"). An account stated that it

740-570: A common enemy of Kenshin and Ujiyasu, but Shingen died of illness in 1573. After Takeda Shingen's death, he fell out with Oda Nobunaga and destroyed the Noto Hatakeyama clan, which was close to Nobunaga, at the Siege of Nanao in 1577, pacifying Noto Province . He then defeated Oda Nobunaga's forces at the Battle of Tedorigawa . However, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1578 at the young age of 49. When

888-652: A country's commitment to environmental sustainability. Japan is the world's fifth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide . As the host and signatory of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol , Japan is under treaty obligation to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and to take other steps to curb climate change. In 2020, the government of Japan announced a target of carbon-neutrality by 2050. Environmental issues include urban air pollution ( NOx , suspended particulate matter , and toxics ), waste management , water eutrophication , nature conservation , climate change , chemical management and international co-operation for conservation. Japan

1036-443: A differentiation which affects the style of ceremony that can be conducted, the specific type of equipment and decoration that can be used, the placement of various architectural features and the hearth, and the number of guests that can be accommodated. Chashitsu which are larger than 4.5 mats are called hiroma ("big room"), while those that are smaller are called koma ("small room"). Hiroma often are shoin style rooms, and for

1184-414: A floor area as small as 1.75 tatami mats (one full tatami mat for the guests plus a tatami mat called a daime ( 台目 ), about 3/4 the length of a full tatami mat, for the portable brazier ( furo ) or sunken hearth ( ro ) to be situated and the host to sit and prepare the tea); or as large as 10 tatami mats or more; 4.5 mats is generally considered the ideal in modern tea rooms. A tea room will usually contain

1332-539: A kingdom in central Japan in 660 BC, beginning a continuous imperial line . Japan first appears in written history in the Chinese Book of Han , completed in 111 AD. Buddhism was introduced to Japan from Baekje (a Korean kingdom) in 552, but the development of Japanese Buddhism was primarily influenced by China. Despite early resistance, Buddhism was promoted by the ruling class, including figures like Prince Shōtoku , and gained widespread acceptance beginning in

1480-479: A large cooperative sector, with three of the world's ten largest cooperatives, including the largest consumer cooperative and the largest agricultural cooperative as of 2018 . It ranks highly for competitiveness and economic freedom . Japan ranked sixth in the Global Competitiveness Report in 2019. It attracted 31.9 million international tourists in 2019, and was ranked eleventh in

1628-583: A large, well-equipped mizuya resembling a modern kitchen; a large waiting room for guests; a welcoming area where guests are greeted and can remove and store their shoes; separate toilets for men and women; a changing room; a storage room; and possibly several anterooms as well as a garden with a roji path, an outdoor waiting area for guests and one or more privies . Tea rooms are purpose-built spaces for holding tea gatherings. They may be located within larger tea houses, or within private homes or other structures not intended for tea ceremony. A tea room may have

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1776-479: A major catalyst for further administrative reforms. These reforms culminated with the promulgation of the Taihō Code , which consolidated existing statutes and established the structure of the central and subordinate local governments. These legal reforms created the ritsuryō state, a system of Chinese-style centralized government that remained in place for half a millennium. The Nara period (710–784) marked

1924-461: A name for themselves as warriors and thus becoming samurai. In turn, events sometimes allowed common samurai to rise to the rank of sengoku daimyo ; these included Hōjō Sōun (the first to do so), and Uesugi Kenshin , a Shugodai ( 守護代 , deputy Shugo ) who attained power by weakening and eventually replacing his lord. The most spectacular example of a sengoku -era rise is often considered to be that of Toyotomi Hideyoshi , who rose from

2072-543: A new constitution emphasizing liberal democratic practices. The Allied occupation ended with the Treaty of San Francisco in 1952, and Japan was granted membership in the United Nations in 1956. A period of record growth propelled Japan to become the second-largest economy in the world; this ended in the mid-1990s after the popping of an asset price bubble , beginning the " Lost Decade ". In 2011, Japan suffered one of

2220-462: A new system of taxation. The true aim of the reforms was to bring about greater centralization and to enhance the power of the imperial court, which was also based on the governmental structure of China. Envoys and students were dispatched to China to learn about Chinese writing, politics, art, and religion. The Jinshin War of 672, a bloody conflict between Prince Ōama and his nephew Prince Ōtomo , became

2368-478: A peasant background to successively become a samurai, sengoku daimyo , and kampaku (Imperial Regent). Modern Japan recognizes Oda Nobunaga , Toyotomi Hideyoshi , and Tokugawa Ieyasu as the three "Great Unifiers" ( 三英傑／さんえいけつ ) for their restoration of Japan's central government . During this period, although the Emperor of Japan was officially the ruler of the state and every lord swore loyalty to him, he

2516-614: A population of nearly 124 million as of 2024, and is the eleventh-most populous country . Its capital and largest city is Tokyo ; the Greater Tokyo Area is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with more than 38 million inhabitants as of 2016. Japan is divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions . About three-quarters of the country's terrain is mountainous and heavily forested, concentrating its agriculture and highly urbanized population along its eastern coastal plains . The country sits on

2664-460: A significant shift to urbanization. The early 20th century saw a period of Taishō democracy (1912–1926) overshadowed by increasing expansionism and militarization . World War I allowed Japan, which joined the side of the victorious Allies , to capture German possessions in the Pacific and China in 1920 . The 1920s saw a political shift towards statism , a period of lawlessness following

2812-615: A struggle for the succession of the Hosokawa clan, which was divided into the Hosokawa Sumimoto faction and the Hosokawa Takakuni faction, and started a war called Ryō Hosokawa War ( 両細川の乱 ) , which was won by Hosokawa Takakuni. Hosokawa Takakuni installed Ashikaga Yoshiharu as the 12th shogun. Meanwhile, Hosokawa Harumoto , son of Hosokawa Sumimoto, who had lost the war, collaborated with Miyoshi Motonaga to defeat Takakuni at

2960-427: A system of terraces is used to farm in small areas. This results in one of the world's highest levels of crop yields per unit area, with an agricultural self-sufficiency rate of about 50% as of 2018 . Japan's small agricultural sector is highly subsidized and protected . There has been a growing concern about farming as farmers are aging with a difficult time finding successors. Sengoku period This period

3108-651: A time in which the central government had almost no practical power, the country was in chaos, and wars and uprisings were commonplace. Seeking to reclaim Japan, samurai were busy acquiring and defending territories, promoting trade and overseeing the output of farms, mills and mines as de facto rulers, and many of the poor were eager to seek the salvation of the afterlife as taught by Buddhism . Tea houses were built mostly by Zen monks or by daimyōs , samurai , and merchants who practiced tea ceremony. They sought simplicity and tranquility – central tenets of Zen philosophy. The acknowledgment of simplicity and plainness, which

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3256-457: A wave of unbridled conflict would spread across Japan and consume the states in an age of war. Furthermore, weariness of war, socioeconomic unrest and poor treatment by aristocrats provoked the wrath of the peasant class. Farmers, craftsmen, merchants and even villages would organize uprisings (known as "ikki") against the ruling class. An extraordinary example is the Kaga Rebellion , in which

3404-523: Is reclaimed land ( umetatechi ). Lake Biwa is an ancient lake and the country's largest freshwater lake. Japan is substantially prone to earthquakes , tsunami and volcanic eruptions because of its location along the Pacific Ring of Fire. It has the 17th highest natural disaster risk as measured in the 2016 World Risk Index. Japan has 111 active volcanoes. Destructive earthquakes, often resulting in tsunami, occur several times each century;

3552-430: Is 377,975.24 km (145,937.06 sq mi). Japan has the sixth-longest coastline in the world at 29,751 km (18,486 mi). Because of its far-flung outlying islands, Japan's exclusive economic zone is the eighth-largest in the world, covering 4,470,000 km (1,730,000 sq mi). The Japanese archipelago is 67% forests and 14% agricultural . The primarily rugged and mountainous terrain

3700-642: Is a unitary state and constitutional monarchy in which the power of the Emperor is limited to a ceremonial role . Executive power is instead wielded by the Prime Minister of Japan and his Cabinet , whose sovereignty is vested in the Japanese people. Naruhito is the Emperor of Japan, having succeeded his father Akihito upon his accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne in 2019. Japan's legislative organ

3848-438: Is a central motivation of the tea house, continued to remain as a distinct Japanese tradition in the later periods. The Golden Tea Room ( 黄金の茶室 , Ōgon no chashitsu ) was a portable gilded chashitsu constructed during the 16th century Azuchi–Momoyama period for the Japanese regent Lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi 's tea ceremonies. The original room is lost, but a number of reconstructions have been made. The Golden Tea Room

3996-729: Is an island country in East Asia . It is located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asian mainland , and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands— Hokkaido , Honshu , Shikoku , and Kyushu —and thousands of smaller islands , covering 377,975 square kilometres (145,937 sq mi). Japan has

4144-440: Is covered with a plain tatami and is not visible in the warm months, when a portable brazier ( 風炉 furo ) is used instead. There will be a tokonoma (scroll alcove) holding a scroll of calligraphy or brush painting, and perhaps a small, simple, flower arrangement called a chabana ( 茶花 ), but no other decoration. Chashitsu are broadly classified according to whether they have a floor area larger or smaller than 4.5 tatami,

4292-507: Is divided into 47 prefectures, each overseen by an elected governor and legislature. In the following table, the prefectures are grouped by region : 7.  Fukushima 14.  Kanagawa 23.  Aichi 30.  Wakayama 35.  Yamaguchi 39.  Kōchi 47.  Okinawa A member state of the United Nations since 1956, Japan is one of the G4 countries seeking reform of

4440-687: Is governed by the Ministry of Defense , and primarily consists of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force , the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force , and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force . The deployment of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan marked the first overseas use of Japan's military since World War II. The Government of Japan has been making changes to its security policy which include the establishment of

4588-487: Is not heavy, but the islands usually develop deep snowbanks in the winter. In the Sea of Japan region on Honshu's west coast, northwest winter winds bring heavy snowfall during winter. In the summer, the region sometimes experiences extremely hot temperatures because of the Foehn . The Central Highland has a typical inland humid continental climate, with large temperature differences between summer and winter. The mountains of

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4736-439: Is restricted for habitation. Thus the habitable zones, mainly in the coastal areas, have very high population densities: Japan is the 40th most densely populated country even without considering that local concentration. Honshu has the highest population density at 450 persons/km (1200/sq mi) as of 2010 , while Hokkaido has the lowest density of 64.5 persons/km as of 2016 . As of 2014 , approximately 0.5% of Japan's total area

4884-475: Is the National Diet , a bicameral parliament . It consists of a lower House of Representatives with 465 seats, elected by popular vote every four years or when dissolved, and an upper House of Councillors with 245 seats, whose popularly-elected members serve six-year terms. There is universal suffrage for adults over 18 years of age, with a secret ballot for all elected offices. The prime minister as

5032-576: Is the oldest unamended constitution in the world. Statutory law originates in the legislature, and the constitution requires that the emperor promulgate legislation passed by the Diet without giving him the power to oppose legislation. The main body of Japanese statutory law is called the Six Codes . Japan's court system is divided into four basic tiers: the Supreme Court and three levels of lower courts. Japan

5180-465: Is typically used in everyday speech and reflects shifts in Japanese phonology during the Edo period . The characters 日本 mean "sun origin", which is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun". The name "Japan" is based on Min or Wu Chinese pronunciations of 日本 and was introduced to European languages through early trade. In the 13th century, Marco Polo recorded

5328-552: Is usually considered the starting point of the Sengoku period. There are several events which could be considered the end of it: Nobunaga's entry to Kyoto (1568) or abolition of the Muromachi shogunate (1573) or entry into Azuchi Castle (1576), Hideyoshi's promulgation of the Sōbujirei ( ja ) law prohibiting war (1587), the siege of Odawara (1590) , the Battle of Sekigahara (1600),

5476-557: Is very heavy, especially during the rainy season. The main rainy season begins in early May in Okinawa, and the rain front gradually moves north. In late summer and early autumn, typhoons often bring heavy rain. According to the Environment Ministry, heavy rainfall and increasing temperatures have caused problems in the agricultural industry and elsewhere. The highest temperature ever measured in Japan, 41.1 °C (106.0 °F),

5624-479: Is written using the kanji 日本 and is pronounced Nihon or Nippon . Before 日本 was adopted in the early 8th century, the country was known in China as Wa ( 倭 , changed in Japan around 757 to 和 ) and in Japan by the endonym Yamato . Nippon , the original Sino-Japanese reading of the characters, is favored for official uses, including on Japanese banknotes and postage stamps. Nihon

5772-850: The shōgun led to the Boshin War and the establishment of a centralized state nominally unified under the emperor (the Meiji Restoration ). Adopting Western political, judicial, and military institutions, the Cabinet organized the Privy Council , introduced the Meiji Constitution (November 29, 1890), and assembled the Imperial Diet . During the Meiji period (1868–1912), the Empire of Japan emerged as

5920-416: The 1923 Tokyo earthquake killed over 140,000 people. More recent major quakes are the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, which triggered a large tsunami. The climate of Japan is predominantly temperate but varies greatly from north to south. The northernmost region, Hokkaido, has a humid continental climate with long, cold winters and very warm to cool summers. Precipitation

6068-459: The Asuka period (592–710). In 645, the government led by Prince Naka no Ōe and Fujiwara no Kamatari devised and implemented the far-reaching Taika Reforms . The Reform began with land reform, based on Confucian ideas and philosophies from China . It nationalized all land in Japan, to be distributed equally among cultivators, and ordered the compilation of a household registry as the basis for

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6216-482: The Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. He was appointed shōgun by Emperor Go-Yōzei in 1603 and established the Tokugawa shogunate at Edo (modern Tokyo). The shogunate enacted measures including buke shohatto , as a code of conduct to control the autonomous daimyō , and in 1639 the isolationist sakoku ("closed country") policy that spanned the two and a half centuries of tenuous political unity known as

6364-512: The Chūgoku and Shikoku regions shelter the Seto Inland Sea from seasonal winds, bringing mild weather year-round. The Pacific coast features a humid subtropical climate that experiences milder winters with occasional snowfall and hot, humid summers because of the southeast seasonal wind. The Ryukyu and Nanpō Islands have a subtropical climate , with warm winters and hot summers. Precipitation

6512-579: The Early Mandarin Chinese pronunciation of the characters 日本國 as Cipangu . The old Malay name for Japan, Japang or Japun , was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect and encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia , who brought the word to Europe in the early 16th century. The first version of the name in English appears in a book published in 1577, which spelled

6660-575: The Edo period (1603–1868). Modern Japan's economic growth began in this period, resulting in roads and water transportation routes, as well as financial instruments such as futures contracts , banking and insurance of the Osaka rice brokers . The study of Western sciences ( rangaku ) continued through contact with the Dutch enclave in Nagasaki . The Edo period gave rise to kokugaku ("national studies"),

6808-635: The Hatakeyama clan who served as Kanrei , and in 1547 defeated the 12th shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiharu and Hosokawa Ujitusna , son of Hosokawa Takakuni, in the Battle of Shari-ji ( 舎利寺の戦い ) . This further reduced the power of the Ashikaga Shogunate. Miyoshi Nagayoshi was told by a retainer of the Hosokawa family that Miyoshi Masanaga had played a dark role in his father's death, and he petitioned his lord Hosokawa Harumoto to overthrow Masanaga, but this petition

6956-665: The Honnō-ji Incident of 1582. At the same time, the Mōri clan overthrew the Ouchi clan in the Chūgoku region , and the Shimazu and Otomo clans became major powers in Kyushu . In this way, regional unification was promoted. Though a peasant by birth, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had risen through the ranks of ashigaru ( 足軽 , foot soldier) , samurai, and sengoku daimyo under Nobunaga to become

7104-720: The Indo-Pacific region, along with the United States, Australia, and India. Japan is engaged in several territorial disputes with its neighbors. Japan contests Russia's control of the Southern Kuril Islands , which were occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945. South Korea's control of the Liancourt Rocks is acknowledged but not accepted as they are claimed by Japan. Japan has strained relations with China and Taiwan over

7252-510: The Kinai , the most politically important region in Japan, Oda Nobunaga allied with Tokugawa Ieyasu to increase his power. Nobunaga defeated Imagawa Yoshimoto at the Battle of Okehazama in 1560 and moved to Kyoto in 1568 to support the 15th shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki . Nobunaga defeated Miyoshi Yoshitsugu in 1569, laid siege to Mount Hiei in 1571, defeated Asakura Yoshikage at the Siege of Ichijōdani Castle in 1573, defeated Asai Nagamasa at

7400-479: The Kiyosu Conference , and Hideyoshi began his path to becoming Nobunaga's successor. In 1582, Hideyoshi defeated Shibata Katsuie and Oda Nobutaka , who had been enemies over Nobunaga's succession, at the Battle of Shizugatake , and in 1583 he began construction of Osaka Castle . In 1584, he fought bitterly against the allied forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Oda Nobuo at the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute , but

7548-719: The Kurils . The Allies (led by the United States) repatriated millions of Japanese settlers from their former colonies and military camps throughout Asia, largely eliminating the Japanese Empire and its influence over the territories it conquered. The Allies convened the International Military Tribunal for the Far East to prosecute Japanese leaders except the Emperor for Japanese war crimes . In 1947, Japan adopted

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7696-489: The Muromachi period (1336 to 1573), and took form in the tea houses that townspeople built at their residences and which affected the appearance of thatched huts in mountain villages. Before this, tea ceremony was generally enjoyed in rooms built in the shoin-zukuri architectural style, a style frequently employed in tea rooms built today. Tea houses first appeared in the Sengoku period (mid-15th century to early 17th century),

7844-634: The National Security Council , the adoption of the National Security Strategy, and the development of the National Defense Program Guidelines. In May 2014, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan wanted to shed the passiveness it has maintained since the end of World War II and take more responsibility for regional security. In December 2022, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida further confirmed this trend, instructing

7992-550: The Pacific War and two atomic bombings , Japan surrendered in 1945 and came under Allied occupation . After the war, the country underwent rapid economic growth , although its economy has stagnated since 1990 . Japan is a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature, the National Diet . A great power and the only Asian member of the G7 , Japan has constitutionally renounced its right to declare war , but maintains one of

8140-406: The Sea of Okhotsk to the East China Sea . The country's five main islands, from north to south, are Hokkaido , Honshu , Shikoku , Kyushu and Okinawa . The Ryukyu Islands , which include Okinawa, are a chain to the south of Kyushu. The Nanpō Islands are south and east of the main islands of Japan. Together they are often known as the Japanese archipelago . As of 2019 , Japan's territory

8288-534: The Security Council . Japan is a member of the G7 , APEC , and " ASEAN Plus Three ", and is a participant in the East Asia Summit . It is the world's fifth-largest donor of official development assistance , donating US$ 9.2 billion in 2014. In 2024, Japan had the fourth-largest diplomatic network in the world. Japan has close economic and military relations with the United States, with which it maintains

8436-693: The Senkaku Islands and the status of Okinotorishima . Japan is the third highest-ranked Asian country in the 2024 Global Peace Index . It spent 1.1% of its total GDP on its defence budget in 2022, and maintained the tenth-largest military budget in the world in 2022. The country's military (the Japan Self-Defense Forces) is restricted by Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution , which renounces Japan's right to declare war or use military force in international disputes. The military

8584-420: The Shimazu clan in a Kyūshū campaign and pacified Kyūshū . In 1590, he defeated the Later Hōjō clan in the Siege of Odawara and pacified the Kantō region. In the same year, he forced the clans of the Tōhoku region to swear allegiance to him and finally achieved the unification of Japan. Date Masamune was a one-eyed warlord, a famous sengoku daimyo who is often said to have had the potential to unite

8732-442: The Shugo to receive half of all taxes from the areas they controlled. The Shugo shared their newfound wealth with the local samurai, creating a hierarchical relationship between the Shugo and the samurai, and the first early daimyo ( 大名 , feudal lords) , called shugo daimyo ( 守護大名 ) , appeared. In 1428, Ashikaga Yoshimochi , the fourth shogun, was ill and the question of his succession arose. Ashikaga Yoshikazu ,

8880-414: The Siege of Odani Castle in the same year, and expelled Ashikaga Yoshiaki from Kyoto in 1573, thus destroying the Ashikaga shogunate. He overpowered the Nagashima ikko ikki in 1574, defeated Takeda Katsuyori at the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, and defeated Ishiyama Hongan-ji in the Ishiyama Hongan-ji War in 1580. However, he was betrayed by his vassal Akechi Mitsuhide , who drove him to suicide in

9028-495: The Takeda and the Imagawa , who had ruled under the authority of both the Kamakura and Muromachi bakufu , were able to expand their spheres of influence. There were many, however, whose positions eroded and were eventually usurped by more capable underlings. This phenomenon of social meritocracy, in which capable subordinates rejected the status quo and forcefully overthrew an emancipated aristocracy, became known as gekokujō ( 下克上 ) , which means "low conquers high". One of

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9176-410: The Toki by the Saitō , and the Shiba clan by the Oda clan , which was in turn replaced by its underling, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a son of a peasant with no family name. Well-organized religious groups also gained political power at this time by uniting farmers in resistance and rebellion against the rule of the daimyōs . The monks of the Buddhist True Pure Land sect formed numerous Ikkō-ikki ,

9324-401: The end of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial power in 1868. In the Meiji period , the Empire of Japan pursued rapid industrialization and modernization , as well as militarism and overseas colonization . In 1937, Japan invaded China , and in 1941 attacked the United States and European colonial powers, entering World War II as an Axis power . After suffering defeat in

9472-411: The head of government has the power to appoint and dismiss Ministers of State , and is appointed by the emperor after being designated from among the members of the Diet. Shigeru Ishiba is Japan's prime minister; he took office after winning the 2024 Liberal Democratic Party leadership election . The broadly conservative Liberal Democratic Party has been the dominant party in the country since

9620-399: The sadōguchi , which allows access to the mizuya . Windows are generally small and covered with shōji , which allows natural light to filter in. The windows are not intended to provide a view to the outside, which would detract from the participants' concentration. There is a sunken hearth ( 炉 ro ) located in the tatami adjacent to the host's tatami, for use in the cold months; this hearth

9768-490: The samurai . In 1185, following the defeat of the Taira clan by the Minamoto clan in the Genpei War , samurai Minamoto no Yoritomo established a military government at Kamakura . After Yoritomo's death, the Hōjō clan came to power as regents for the shōgun . The Zen school of Buddhism was introduced from China in the Kamakura period (1185–1333) and became popular among the samurai class. The Kamakura shogunate repelled Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281 but

9916-400: The sengoku daimyo Miyoshi Nagayoshi and his forces, and was finally killed in an attack by the forces of Miyoshi Yoshitsugu and Matsunaga Hisahide . Ashikaga Yoshiteru was known as a great swordsman and was a student of Tsukahara Bokuden , who was known as one of the strongest swordsmen. According to Yagyū Munenori , a swordsmanship instructor in the Tokugawa Shogunate, Ashikaga Yoshiteru

10064-409: The Ōnin War (1467–1477) between the Eastern Army, led by Hosokawa Katsumoto and including Hatakeyama Masanaga , Shiba Yoshitoshi, and Ashikaga Yoshimi, and the Western Army, led by Yamana Sōzen and including Hatakeyama Yoshinari, Shiba Yoshikado, and Ashikaga Yoshihisa.　In 1469, the war spread to the provinces, but in 1473, Hosokawa Katsumoto and Yamana Sōzen, the leaders of both armies, died. In 1477,

10212-465: The 10th shogun Ashikaga Yoshitane from Kyoto and installed Ashikaga Yoshizumi as the 11th shogun. Around this time, civil wars began to occur frequently throughout the country, and Buddhist temples in various regions grew as armed forces. Ashikaga Yoshihisa , who had become the ninth shogun during the Onin War, died at the age of 25, and Ashikaga Yoshitane became the 10th shogun. However, in 1493, Hosokawa Masamoto raised an army while shogun Yoshitane

10360-462: The 1923 Great Tokyo Earthquake , the passing of laws against political dissent , and a series of attempted coups . This process accelerated during the 1930s, spawning several radical nationalist groups that shared a hostility to liberal democracy and a dedication to expansion in Asia. In 1931, Japan invaded China and occupied Manchuria , which led to the establishment of puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932; following international condemnation of

10508-530: The 1950s, often called the 1955 System . Historically influenced by Chinese law , the Japanese legal system developed independently during the Edo period through texts such as Kujikata Osadamegaki . Since the late 19th century, the judicial system has been largely based on the civil law of Europe, notably Germany. In 1896, Japan established a civil code based on the German Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch , which remains in effect with post–World War II modifications. The Constitution of Japan , adopted in 1947,

10656-463: The 5th shogun, died of illness at the age of 19, so the 6th shogun was chosen from among Yoshimochi's four brothers, and to ensure fairness, a lottery was held. The sixth shogun was Ashikaga Yoshinori . But he was not educated to be a shogun, and his temperamental and despotic behavior caused resentment. Akamatsu Mitsusuke assassinated him during the Kakitsu Rebellion . This led to instability in

10804-561: The Aki-Takeda clan at the Siege of Koriyama in 1541. Motonaga adopted his sons into the Kikkawa clan and Kobayakawa clans to expand the power of the Mōri clan, and the three clans cooperated with each other. In 1554, Motonaga became independent of the Ōuchi clan, and after inciting the Ōuchi clan to internal divisions through political maneuvering, he defeated Sue Harukata , who had been in control of

10952-637: The Ashikaga shogunate system. The shogunate gradually lost influence and control over the daimyo . The beginning of the Sengoku Period is considered to be the Kyōtoku incident , Ōnin War , or Meiō incident . The Kyōtoku Incident was a major war in the Kanto region that lasted from 1454 to 1482. The war began when Ashikaga Shigeuji of Kantō kubō ( 関東公方 ) , the office of the Ashikaga shogunate in charge of

11100-505: The Battle of Katsuragawa ( 桂川の戦い ) in 1527 and expel him from Kyoto. The authority of the Kanrei was thus destroyed, and with almost no support for Hosokawa Takakuni, he was forced to move from place to place. He gained the sengoku daimyo Uragami Muramune as an ally and fought Hosokawa Harumoto in a war called Daimotsu kuzure ( 大物崩れ ) in 1531, but was defeated. Hosokawa Harumoto seized power, but he alienated Miyoshi Motonaga, who

11248-632: The Kanto region, killed Uesugi Noritada of Kantō kanrei ( 関東管領 ) , Kantō kubō's assistant. The various forces in the Kanto region divided and fought between the Kubō and Kanrei sides, with the Ashikaga shogunate supporting the Kanrei side. Ashikaga Yoshimasa , the 8th shogun, tried to strengthen the power of the shogun, but his close associates did not follow his instructions, leading to political chaos and increasing social unrest. Since he had no sons, he tried to install his younger brother Ashikaga Yoshimi as

11396-843: The Kantō and Tōhoku regions left to unify Japan, enacted a law called the Sōbujirei ( 惣無事令 ) in 1587, which prohibited sengoku daimyo from waging war against each other, and Masamune's conquest of the Tōhoku region was a serious violation of this law. After destroying the Later Hōjō clan at the Siege of Odawara, Hideyoshi wanted to destroy the Date clan and other sengoku daimyo in the Tōhoku region who were reluctant to show their deference. Hideyoshi had his subordinate Maeda Toshiie question Masamune, who had arrived late to give

11544-520: The Kyoto area. However, one by one, his sons died in war or from disease, and the Miyoshi clan began to decline rapidly. By the time of the 13th shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru , the shogun already had few direct fiefs and direct military forces, and his sphere of influence was limited to a few lands around Kyoto, losing both economic and military power. As a result, Ashikaga Yoshiteru was often chased out of Kyoto by

11692-510: The Miyoshi clan. However, after the assassination of the 13th Shogun, the trio fell out with another Miyoshi follower, Matsunaga Hisashige, over the 14th Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshihide , and war broke out. The latter three also came into conflict with Yoshitsugu. The Miyoshi regime virtually collapsed when Oda Nobunaga entered Kyoto in 1568. Miyoshi Yoshitugu and Matsunaga Hisahide submitted to Nobunaga, but were later killed by Nobunaga's forces. The trio

11840-738: The National Police Agency is administered by the National Public Safety Commission . The Special Assault Team comprises national-level counter-terrorism tactical units that cooperate with territorial-level Anti-Firearms Squads and Counter-NBC Terrorism Squads . The Japan Coast Guard guards territorial waters surrounding Japan and uses surveillance and control countermeasures against smuggling, marine environmental crime , poaching, piracy, spy ships, unauthorized foreign fishing vessels, and illegal immigration. The Firearm and Sword Possession Control Law strictly regulates

11988-571: The Pacific Ring of Fire , making its islands prone to destructive earthquakes and tsunamis . The first known habitation of the archipelago dates to the Upper Paleolithic , with the beginning Japanese Paleolithic dating to c.  36,000 BC . Between the fourth and sixth centuries, its kingdoms were united under an emperor in Nara , and later Heian-kyō . From the 12th century, actual power

12136-615: The Pacific . Throughout areas occupied by Japan during the war, numerous abuses were committed against local inhabitants, with many forced into sexual slavery . After Allied victories during the next four years, which culminated in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender . The war cost Japan millions of lives and its colonies , including de jure parts of Japan such as Korea , Taiwan , Karafuto , and

12284-566: The Portuguese brought the matchlock gun to Japan in 1543, it was improved and mass-produced in Japan, and a gun called the tanegashima began to be used in wars. With the introduction of guns, a standing army of ashigaru ( 足軽 , foot soldier) became essential to victory in war, making it impossible for small local lords to remain independent, and lands were consolidated under sengoku daimyo with vast territories, and battles between sengoku daimyo became more intense. During this period,

12432-417: The United States (9.9 percent), and Australia (9.8 percent). Japan's main imports are machinery and equipment, fossil fuels, foodstuffs, chemicals, and raw materials for its industries. The Japanese variant of capitalism has many distinct features: keiretsu enterprises are influential, and lifetime employment and seniority-based career advancement are common in the Japanese work environment . Japan has

12580-625: The West" as a battle in which a small force defeated a large army. Motonari became head of the Mōri clan in 1523 at the age of 27. The Amago and Ōuchi clans were sharing power in the Chūgoku region at the time, and he switched the Mōri clan's allegiance from the Amago to the Ōuchi clan in 1525. Motonari destroyed the Takahashi clan by 1535 and ruled Aki province , Iwami province , and Bingo province , and destroyed

12728-645: The age of 75. In 1546, Hōjō Ujiyasu defeated Uesugi Tomosada at the Siege of Kawagoe Castle , and the Later Hōjō clan established its power in the Kantō region . Uesugi Kenshin (Nagao Kagetora) was a sengoku daimyo based in Echigo Province who fought various sengoku daimyo and increased his power through aggressive invasions. After unifying Echigo in 1551, he invaded the Kantō region several times from 1552 to 1569 and fought against Hōjō Ujiyasu. He also invaded

12876-472: The beginning and end dates of the following Azuchi-Momoyama period. The Azuchi-Momoyama period refers to the period when Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were in power. They and Tokugawa Ieyasu are the three unifiers of Japan. The name "Azuchi-Momoyama" comes from the fact that Nobunaga's castle, Azuchi Castle , was located in Azuchi, Shiga , and Fushimi Castle , where Hideyoshi lived after his retirement,

13024-439: The beginning of the Sengoku period. Hosokawa Masamoto remained a bachelor for the rest of his life and adopted three people as his heirs. Following the advice of his vassals, Masamoto named Hosokawa Sumimoto as his successor instead of Hosokawa Sumiyuki , who had been adopted first. As a result, Masamoto was killed by Sumiyuki in 1507. This incident is called Eishō no sakuran ( 永正の錯乱 , Eishō delirium) . This triggered

13172-421: The canon. The extent of teamaster Rikyū's involvement in the design of the room is not known, however he was in attendance on a number of occasions when tea was being served to guests in the room. The ideal free-standing tea house is surrounded by a small garden having a path leading to the tea room. This garden is called roji ( 露地 , "dewy ground") and is divided into two parts by a gate called chumon . Along

13320-472: The capital, settling on Heian-kyō (modern-day Kyoto ) in 794. This marked the beginning of the Heian period (794–1185), during which a distinctly indigenous Japanese culture emerged. Murasaki Shikibu 's The Tale of Genji and the lyrics of Japan's national anthem " Kimigayo " were written during this time. Japan's feudal era was characterized by the emergence and dominance of a ruling class of warriors,

13468-538: The civilian ownership of guns, swords, and other weaponry. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime , among the member states of the UN that report statistics as of 2018 , the incidence rates of violent crimes such as murder, abduction, sexual violence, and robbery are very low in Japan. Japanese society traditionally places a strong emphasis on collective harmony and conformity , which has led to

13616-674: The country if only he had been born 20 years earlier. He became the head of the Date clan in 1584, two years after the death of Oda Nobunaga, destroyed the Nihonmatsu clan and other clans, and then in 1589, at the Battle of Suriagehara , defeated the Ashina clan to conquer the Aizu province , and continued to expand his territory to conquer most of the Tōhoku region . On the other hand, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had only

13764-497: The domain or proclaim independence as a separate domain. Thus began the Sengoku period, a period of civil war in which the daimyo of various regions fought to expand their own power. Daimyo who became more powerful as the shogunate's control weakened were called sengoku daimyo ( 戦国大名 ) , and they often came from shugo daimyo , Shugodai , and kokujin or kunibito ( 国人 , local masters) . In other words, sengoku daimyo differed from shugo daimyo in that sengoku daimyo

13912-555: The earliest instances of this was Hōjō Sōun , who rose from relatively humble origins and eventually seized power in Izu Province in 1493. Building on the accomplishments of Sōun, the Hōjō clan remained a major power in the Kantō region until its subjugation by Toyotomi Hideyoshi late in the Sengoku period. Other notable examples include the supplanting of the Hosokawa clan by the Miyoshi ,

14060-617: The emergence of a Japanese state centered on the Imperial Court in Heijō-kyō (modern Nara ). The period is characterized by the appearance of a nascent literary culture with the completion of the Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720), as well as the development of Buddhist-inspired artwork and architecture . A smallpox epidemic in 735–737 is believed to have killed as much as one-third of Japan's population. In 784, Emperor Kanmu moved

14208-539: The establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603), the siege of Osaka (1615), or the suppression of the Shimabara Rebellion (1638). The old, well-known definition is that the Onin War initiated the Sengoku period in 1467; and that it ended in 1568, when Oda Nobunaga entered Kyoto in support of Ashikaga Yoshiaki . However, even if 1568 is the end date of the Sengoku period, there are also various theories about

14356-710: The first time, initiating direct commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West. Oda Nobunaga used European technology and firearms to conquer many other daimyō ; his consolidation of power began what was known as the Azuchi–Momoyama period . After the death of Nobunaga in 1582, his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi , unified the nation in the early 1590s and launched two unsuccessful invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597 . Tokugawa Ieyasu served as regent for Hideyoshi's son Toyotomi Hideyori and used his position to gain political and military support. When open war broke out, Ieyasu defeated rival clans in

14504-473: The foundations of the city as the center of the present-day Tōhoku region. In 1613, he sent Hasekura Tsunenaga as an ambassador to Europe, where he was granted an audience with the Pope Paul V . The upheaval resulted in the further weakening of central authority, and throughout Japan, regional lords, called daimyōs , rose to fill the vacuum. In the course of this power shift, well-established clans such as

14652-434: The gardens or grounds of private homes. Other common sites are the grounds of temples, museums, and parks. The smallest tea house will have two rooms: the main room where the host and guests gather and tea is served, and a mizuya , where the host prepares the sweets and equipment . The entire structure may have a total floor area of only three tatami mats. Very large tea houses may have several tea rooms of different sizes;

14800-415: The government and industrial corporations; as a result, environmental pollution was widespread in the 1950s and 1960s. Responding to rising concerns, the government introduced environmental protection laws in 1970. The oil crisis in 1973 also encouraged the efficient use of energy because of Japan's lack of natural resources. Japan ranks 20th in the 2018 Environmental Performance Index , which measures

14948-607: The government to increase spending by 65% until 2027. Recent tensions, particularly with North Korea and China, have reignited the debate over the status of the JSDF and its relation to Japanese society. Domestic security in Japan is provided mainly by the prefectural police departments , under the oversight of the National Police Agency . As the central coordinating body for the Prefectural Police Departments,

15096-453: The lands, leaving the management of the lands to his retainers. This made it possible to efficiently change territories according to the performance of the vassals, thus eliminating land disputes. In addition, he made it possible to form a standing army by assigning military service to each region according to rice production. He encouraged the economic activities of the common people. In this way, he rapidly increased his power. In and around

15244-518: The largest earthquakes in its recorded history - the Tōhoku earthquake - triggering the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster . On May 1, 2019, after the historic abdication of Emperor Akihito , his son Naruhito became Emperor, beginning the Reiwa era. Japan comprises 14,125 islands extending along the Pacific coast of Asia. It stretches over 3000 km (1900 mi) northeast–southwest from

15392-496: The local ikki had staged a large-scale revolt with the support of the True Pure Land sect (thereby establishing the term ikkō ikki ) and assumed control of the entire province of Kaga . It is suggested by both scholars and authors that " these succession disputes still might not have led to war were it not for the shōgun's lack of leadership ." The Kyōtoku incident in 1454, Ōnin War in 1467, or Meiō incident in 1493

15540-402: The military confrontations between separate states, there was also domestic fallout. In contempt of the shogunate, the daimyo who were subjected to remain in Kyoto instead returned to their provinces . Consequentially, some of these daimyo found that their designated retainers or shugodai , representatives of their states appointed in a daimyo's absence, rose in power either to seize control of

15688-473: The most capable general of them all. When he learned that his lord Nobunaga had been effectively killed by Akechi Mitsuhide, he immediately made peace with the Mōri clan, who were in the midst of a battle, and turned his army back faster than anyone could have predicted, defeating Akechi Mitsuhide at the Battle of Yamazaki . Hideyoshi avenged his lord's death only 11 days after Nobunaga's death. The men who had been Nobunaga's chief vassals discussed future policy at

15836-603: The most developed state in Asia and as an industrialized world power that pursued military conflict to expand its sphere of influence. After victories in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), Japan gained control of Taiwan, Korea and the southern half of Sakhalin , and annexed Korea in 1910. The Japanese population doubled from 35 million in 1873 to 70 million by 1935, with

15984-405: The most part are not limited to use for chanoyu. Other factors that affect the tea room are architectural constraints such as the location of windows, entrances, the sunken hearth and the tokonoma, particularly when the tea room is not located within a purpose-built structure. The other factors that influence the construction of the chashitsu as a space in the iemoto are the iconography of

16132-537: The name as Giapan in a translation of a 1565 Portuguese letter. Modern humans arrived in Japan around 38,000 years ago (~36,000 BC), marking the beginning of the Japanese Paleolithic . This was followed from around 14,500 BC (the start of the Jōmon period ) by a Mesolithic to Neolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer culture characterized by pit dwelling and rudimentary agriculture. Clay vessels from

16280-478: The ninth shogun, but when his wife Hino Tomiko gave birth to Ashikaga Yoshihisa , a conflict arose among the shugo daimyo as to whether Yoshimi or Yoshihisa would be the next shogun. The Hatakeyama and Shiba clans were also divided into two opposing factions over succession within their own clans, and Hosokawa Katsumoto and Yamana Sōzen , who were father-in-law and son-in-law, were politically at odds with each other. In 1467, these conflicts finally led to

16428-554: The northern islands. Japan has over 90,000 species of wildlife as of 2019 , including the brown bear , the Japanese macaque , the Japanese raccoon dog , the small Japanese field mouse , and the Japanese giant salamander . There are 53 Ramsar wetland sites in Japan. Five sites have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for their outstanding natural value. In the period of rapid economic growth after World War II, environmental policies were downplayed by

16576-947: The occupation , it resigned from the League of Nations in 1933. In 1936, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany ; the 1940 Tripartite Pact made it one of the Axis powers . The Empire of Japan invaded other parts of China in 1937, precipitating the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). In 1940, the Empire invaded French Indochina , after which the United States placed an oil embargo on Japan. On December 7–8, 1941, Japanese forces carried out surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor , as well as on British forces in Malaya , Singapore , and Hong Kong , among others, beginning World War II in

16724-459: The order to participate in the Siege of Odawara, but after hearing Masamune's bold attitude, he decided to meet with Masamune. Masamune showed his reverence by appearing before Hideyoshi in a pure white death robe, ready to be executed. Hideyoshi placed his staff on Masamune's neck and said, "If you had come a little later, you would have been beheaded," and Masamune pledged his reverence to Hideyoshi. He did not lose his life, only some of his territory

16872-420: The organized use of large numbers of tanegashima (guns) was essential to winning the war. In order for the daimyo to win the war, they had to secure a large number of gunsmiths and arms dealers, import large quantities of lead , the raw material for bullets, and nitre , the raw material for gunpowder, conduct routine marksmanship training, and secure large quantities of materials for building war positions. It

17020-433: The past and the memory of particular individuals. Not all tea rooms can be made to conform to the ideal seen in the image. It is usual for chashitsu to be given a name after their owners or benefactors. Names usually include the character for " hut ", "hall", or "arbour", and reflect the spirit of rustic simplicity of the tea ceremony and the teachings of Zen Buddhism. Characteristic names include: Japan Japan

17168-503: The path is a waiting bench for guests and a privy. Aside from its own garden, the chashitsu is arranged – along with other pavilions such as the zashiki , oku no zashiki , and hanare zashiki – around a larger primary garden. There is a stone water-basin near the tea house, where the guests rinse their hands and mouths before entering the tea room through a low, square door called nijiriguchi , or "crawling-in entrance", which requires bending low to pass through and symbolically separates

17316-516: The period are among the oldest surviving examples of pottery. The Japonic -speaking Yayoi people entered the archipelago from the Korean Peninsula, intermingling with the Jōmon ; the Yayoi period saw the introduction of practices including wet-rice farming , a new style of pottery , and metallurgy from China and Korea. According to legend, Emperor Jimmu (descendant of Amaterasu ) founded

17464-411: The small, simple, quiet inside from the crowded, overwhelming outside world. The nijiriguchi leads directly into the tea room. The tea room has a low ceiling and no furniture: the guests and host sit seiza -style on the floor. All materials used are intentionally simple and rustic. Besides the guests' entrance, there may be several more entrances; at minimum there is an entrance for the host known as

17612-555: The study of Japan by the Japanese. The United States Navy sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry to force the opening of Japan to the outside world. Arriving at Uraga with four " Black Ships " in July 1853, the Perry Expedition resulted in the March 1854 Convention of Kanagawa . Subsequent similar treaties with other Western countries brought economic and political crises. The resignation of

17760-607: The style of flower arrangement associated with the tea ceremony. Typical features of chashitsu are shōji windows and sliding doors made of wooden lattice covered in a translucent Japanese paper ; tatami mat floors; a tokonoma alcove; and simple, subdued colours and style. The most typical floor size of a chashitsu is 4.5 tatami mats (7.4 m; 80 sq ft). In Japanese, free-standing structures specifically designed for exclusive tea ceremony use, as well as individual rooms intended for tea ceremony, are both referred to as chashitsu . The term may be used to indicate

17908-578: The suppression of individual rights . Japan's constitution prohibits racial and religious discrimination, and the country is a signatory to numerous international human rights treaties. However, it lacks any laws against discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity and does not have a national human rights institution. Japan has faced criticism for its gender inequality , not allowing same-sex marriages , use of racial profiling by police, and allowing capital punishment . Other human rights issues include

18056-408: The tea room itself where the guests are received, or that room and its attached facilities, even extending to the roji garden path leading to it. In English, a distinction is often made between free-standing structures for tea, referred to as tea houses , and rooms used for tea ceremony incorporated within other structures. Tea houses are usually small, simple wooden buildings. They are located in

18204-717: The territory of Takeda Shingen , who ruled Kai and Shinano Provinces from 1553 to 1573, and fought in the Battle of Kawanakajima five times between 1553 and 1564. In 1559, Kenshin had an audience with Emperor Ōgimachi and the 13th Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru. When Imagawa Yoshimoto was killed by Oda Nobunaga 's forces at the Battle of Okehazama in 1560, the Alliance Kai-Sagami-Suruga formed in 1554 between Takeda Shingen in Kai, Hojo Ujiyasu in Sagami , and Imagawa Yoshimoto in Suruga

18352-440: The traditional master-servant relationship between a lord and his vassals, with many instances of vassals rebelling against their lords, internal dynastic conflict over lordships within noble families (in which vassals would take sides), and the installation of figurehead lords by cadet branches of noble families. The period was also marked by the loosening of samurai culture, with people born into other social strata sometimes making

18500-403: The treatment of marginalized groups, such as ethnic minorities , refugees and asylum seekers . Japan has the world's fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP , after that of the United States, China and Germany; and the fifth-largest economy by PPP-adjusted GDP . As of 2021 , Japan's labor force is the world's eighth-largest , consisting of over 68.6 million workers. As of 2022 , Japan has

18648-442: The war ended when the western lords, including Hatakeyama Yoshinari and Ōuchi Masahiro , withdrew their armies from Kyoto. The war devastated two-thirds of Kyoto, destroying many aristocratic and samurai residences, Shinto shrines , and Buddhist temples, and undermining the authority of the Ashikaga shoguns, greatly reducing their control over the various regions. The war caused disarray which rippled across Japan. In addition to

18796-416: The world in 2019 for inbound tourism . The 2021 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report ranked Japan first in the world out of 117 countries. Its international tourism receipts in 2019 amounted to $ 46.1 billion. The Japanese agricultural sector accounts for about 1.2% of the country's total GDP as of 2018 . Only 11.5% of Japan's land is suitable for cultivation. Because of this lack of arable land,

18944-569: The world's strongest militaries . A developed country with one of the world's largest economies by nominal GDP , Japan is a global leader in science and technology and the automotive , robotics , and electronics industries . It has one of the world's highest life expectancies , though it is undergoing a population decline . Japan's culture is well known around the world, including its art , cuisine , film , music , and popular culture , which includes prominent comics , animation , and video game industries. The name for Japan in Japanese

19092-403: The Ōuchi clan, at the Battle of Itsukushima in 1555, and defeated Ōuchi Yoshinaga in 1557, destroying the Ōuchi clan and pacifying Nagato and Suou provinces. Motonari destroyed the Amago clan at the Siege of Gassantoda Castle in 1567, and then pacified Izumo , Oki , and Hōki provinces , thus pacifying the Chūgoku region, and later extended his power to parts of Shikoku . He died in 1571 at

19240-450: Was Oda Nobunaga who did this most successfully. He built Azuchi Castle at a strategic distribution point, brought several gunsmithing centers under his control, and established friendly relations with the Portuguese and merchants in Sakai , which had become an international port. He examined the rice yields of the lands under his control and did not allow his retainers to take private ownership of

19388-495: Was able to make a truce with Nobuo by making peace with him. In 1585, he defeated Chōsokabe Motochika in an Invasion of Shikoku and pacified Shikoku . In 1586, he became Kampaku ( 関白 , Imperial Regent) and Daijō-daijin ( 太政大臣 , Chancellor of the Realm) for the first time in history, although he was not a native-born aristocrat. In 1586, he also succeeded in getting Ieyasu to swear allegiance to him. In 1587, he defeated

19536-413: Was able to rule the region on his own, without being appointed by the shogun. Historians often consider the Ōnin War, a ten-year conflict wrought by political turmoil, to be the trigger for what would come to be known as the Sengoku period. This civil war would clearly reveal the Ashikaga shogunate's reduced authority over its shogunal administration, the provincial daimyo and Japan as a whole; thereby

19684-557: Was away in Kyoto and installed the 11th shogun, Ashikaga Yoshizumi, in a de facto coup known as the Meio incident ( 明応の政変 ) . Masamoto held the position of Kanrei ( 管領 ) , second only to the shogun in the Ashikaga shogunate, and the equivalent of Shikken ( 執権 ) in the Kamakura shogunate. This made the shogun a puppet of the Hosokawa clan , which served as the Kanrei . In recent years, it has been theorized that this incident marked

19832-508: Was broken. Kenshin used this as an opportunity to seize Hojo Ujiyasu's territories one by one, and cornered the Later Hōjō clan at the Siege of Odawara in 1561, but was unable to defeat them. On his return from the Siege of Odawara, he performed a ceremony at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangū and assumed the position of kantō kanrei . Kenshin made peace with Hōjō Ujiyasu, who ceded part of his territory to him in 1569, and made Takeda Shingen

19980-399: Was characterized by the overthrow of a superior power by a subordinate one. The Ashikaga shogunate , the de facto central government, declined and the sengoku daimyo ( 戦国大名 , feudal lord of Sengoku period) , a local power, rose to power. The people rebelled against the feudal lords in revolts known as Ikkō-ikki ( 一向一揆 , Ikkō-shū uprising) . The period saw a breakdown in

20128-462: Was confiscated. He was later interrogated by Hideyoshi on suspicion of inciting a peasant uprising and participating in the rebellion of Toyotomi Hidetsugu , but he defended himself with his usual courage and dignity and was not punished. He was on the side of Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara , and as the first lord of the Sendai domain during the Edo period , he developed Sendai and laid

20276-424: Was constructed to impress guests with the might and power of the regent. This was in contrast to the rustic aesthetics codified under his tea master Sen no Rikyū, although it is speculated that Rikyū might have helped in the design. The room's opulence was highly unusual and may have also been against wabi-sabi norms. At the same time, the simplicity of the overall design with its clean lines could be seen as within

20424-425: Was eventually overthrown by Emperor Go-Daigo . Go-Daigo was defeated by Ashikaga Takauji in 1336, beginning the Muromachi period (1336–1573). The succeeding Ashikaga shogunate failed to control the feudal warlords ( daimyō ) and a civil war began in 1467 , opening the century-long Sengoku period ("Warring States"). During the 16th century, Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries reached Japan for

20572-463: Was held by military dictators ( shōgun ) and feudal lords ( daimyō ), and enforced by warrior nobility ( samurai ). After rule by the Kamakura and Ashikaga shogunates and a century of warring states , Japan was unified in 1600 by the Tokugawa shogunate , which implemented an isolationist foreign policy . In 1853, a United States fleet forced Japan to open trade to the West , which led to

20720-503: Was his retainer but still held a strong position of power. Harumoto seduced the Ikkō-shū into a Ikkō-ikki against Motonaga, which resulted in Motonaga's death in 1532. Miyoshi Motonaga's son, Miyoshi Nagayoshi , fought against Hosokawa Harumoto, but chose to subordinate himself to Harumoto. As a follower of Harumoto, Miyoshi Nagayoshi defeated Kizawa Nagamasa , the most powerful member of

20868-622: Was largely a marginalized, ceremonial, and religious figure who delegated power to the shōgun , a noble who was roughly equivalent to a military dictator . From 1346 to 1358, during the Nanboku-cho period , the Ashikaga shogunate gradually expanded the authority of the Shugo ( 守護 ) , the local military and police officials established by the Kamakura shogunate , giving the Shugo jurisdiction over land disputes between gokenin ( 御家人 ) and allowing

21016-714: Was located in Momoyama. The beginning date could be either when Oda Nobunaga entered Kyoto in 1568 to support Ashikaga Yoshiaki, or when Nobunaga expelled Ashikaga Yoshiaki from Kyoto in 1573 and destroyed the Muromachi Shogunate, or when Nobunaga moved to Azuchi Castle in 1576. It ended either when Toyotomi Hideyoshi died in 1598, or at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, or with the opening of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603. Kaga ikki occurred in 1488, Hōjō Sōun conquered Izu province in 1491, and in 1492 Hosokawa Masamoto banished

21164-415: Was not accepted, and, in turn, Nagayoshi was almost eliminated by Harumoto. In response, Miyoshi Nagayoshi attacked and defeated Miyoshi Masanaga, expelled Hosokawa Harumoto, Ashikaga Yoshiharu, the 12th shogun, and his son Ashikaga Yoshiteru from Kyoto, and established control over the Kyoto area in 1549. After that, he fought several times against Ashikaga Yoshiteru, who became the 13th shogun, for control of

21312-433: Was one of the five best swordsmen of his time. According to several historical books, including Luís Fróis ' Historia de Japam , he fought hard with naginata and tachi during a raid, defeating many of his enemies, but eventually ran out of strength and was killed. The trio ( 三好三人衆 ) of Miyoshi Nagayasu , Miyoshi Soui , and Iwanari Tomomichi supported the young head of the clan, Miyoshi Yoshitsugu, in leading

21460-503: Was recorded on July 23, 2018, and repeated on August 17, 2020. Japan has nine forest ecoregions which reflect the climate and geography of the islands. They range from subtropical moist broadleaf forests in the Ryūkyū and Bonin Islands , to temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in the mild climate regions of the main islands, to temperate coniferous forests in the cold, winter portions of

21608-561: Was the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa who built the first chashitsu at his Higashiyama villa in Kyoto . It was described as a small room of four-and-a-half tatami and was separated from the main residence. According to Japanese historian Moriya Takeshi in his article "The Mountain Dwelling Within the City", the ideal of wabi -style tea ceremony ( wabi-cha ) had its roots in the urban society of

21756-431: Was the world's fifth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer in 2022. Its exports amounted to 18.2% of its total GDP in 2021. As of 2022 , Japan's main export markets were China (23.9 percent, including Hong Kong) and the United States (18.5 percent). Its main exports are motor vehicles, iron and steel products, semiconductors, and auto parts. Japan's main import markets as of 2022 were China (21.1 percent),

21904-416: Was weakened and the Miyoshi clan declined. Mōri Motonari was a sengoku daimyo who pacified the Chūgoku region and is famous for his parable of the "Three Arrows", which explains the importance of clan unity. In his first battle, the Battle of Arita-Nakaide in 1517, he defeated the overwhelming majority of the Aki-Takeda clan with a small force, which later became known as the " Battle of Okehazama in

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