In playing cards , a suit is one of the categories into which the cards of a deck are divided. Most often, each card bears one of several pips (symbols) showing to which suit it belongs; the suit may alternatively or additionally be indicated by the color printed on the card. The rank for each card is determined by the number of pips on it, except on face cards . Ranking indicates which cards within a suit are better, higher or more valuable than others, whereas there is no order between the suits unless defined in the rules of a specific card game . In most decks, there is exactly one card of any given rank in any given suit. A deck may include special cards that belong to no suit, often called jokers .
134-623: While English-speaking countries traditionally use cards with the French suits of Clubs , Spades , Hearts and Diamonds , many other countries have their own traditional suits. Much of central Europe uses German suited cards with suits of Acorns , Leaves , Hearts and Bells ; Spain and parts of Italy and South America use Spanish suited cards with their suits of Swords , Batons , Cups and Coins ; German Switzerland uses Swiss suited cards with Acorns, Shields , yellow Roses and Bells; and many parts of Italy use Italian suited cards which have
268-494: 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
402-676: 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
536-652: 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
670-414: A deck in which each card has a rank and a suit (usually represented by a color), and for each suit there is exactly one card having each rank, though in many cases the deck has various special cards as well. Decks for some games are divided into suits, but otherwise bear little relation to traditional games. An example would be the board game Taj Mahal , in which each card has one of four background colors,
804-462: A disrupted ranking and cards with varying privileges which may range from full to none and which may depend on the order they are played to the trick. For example, chosen Sevens may be unbeatable when led, but otherwise worthless. In Swedish Bräus some cards are even unplayable. In games where the number of chosen suits is less than four, the others are called unchosen suits and usually rank in their natural order. Whist-style rules generally preclude
938-539: 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
1072-479: 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
1206-479: 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
1340-543: 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
1474-462: 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
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#17328526724941608-614: 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
1742-460: 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
1876-508: A sword and the Jack of Spades a cane. The backs usually have ornate, often floral, designs. They were made by ASS Altenburger (as "Baronesse"), by VEB Altenburger (as "Rokoko") and Coeur in the past. The earliest examples had no corner indices; they appeared from about 1906 onwards. Since 1914, Piatnik have produced a derivative pattern for several of their patience packs that are referred to as Rococo playing cards. Japan Japan
2010-523: 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;
2144-430: 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
2278-469: Is a cavalier ( knight ) ranking between the queen and the jack. Aside from these aspects, decks can include a wide variety of regional and national patterns, which often have different deck sizes . In comparison to Spanish , Italian , German , and Swiss playing cards , French cards are the most widespread due to the geopolitical, commercial, and cultural influence of France, the United Kingdom, and
2412-691: 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
2546-505: Is a compromise deck devised to allow players from East Germany (who used German suits) and West Germany (who adopted the French suits) to be comfortable with the same deck when playing tournament Skat after the German reunification . This is a list of suit systems devised by early Swiss-German cardmakers mentioned by Michael Dummett : Other suit systems: A large number of games are based around
2680-729: 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
2814-408: Is basically an export version not subject to France's domestic stamp tax. Hence they lack the usual French court card names such as Alexander, Judith and Lancelot. Other differences from the portrait officiel are that: the jack of clubs has a triangular shield bearing the coat of arms of the former Spanish Netherlands (this is the main distinguishing feature); blue is usually replaced with green in
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#17328526724942948-507: 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
3082-518: Is evidence of playing cards there from at least the 1450s and French suits were invented sometime after 1470. This would then explain why the English renamed French suits to the Latin ones with which they were familiar. Hence the clovers were called clubs and pikes were named after the swords ( spade ). The English started producing their own cards a century later. In 1628, the importation of foreign playing cards
3216-687: 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
3350-487: 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
3484-745: Is one card, the Fool or Excuse , which may be part of the trump suit depending on the game or region. These cards do not have pips or face cards like the other suits. Most tarot decks used for games come with French suits but Italian suits are still used in Piedmont, Bologna, and pockets of Switzerland. A few Sicilian towns use the Portuguese-suited Tarocco Siciliano , the only deck of its kind left in Europe. The esoteric use of Tarot packs emerged in France in
3618-527: Is recognised by card players. In divinatory, esoteric and occult tarot , the Minor Arcana, and the suits by extension, are believed to represent relatively mundane features of life. The court cards may represent the people whom one meets. Each suit also has distinctive characteristics and connotations commonly held to be as follows: In a large and popular category of trick-taking games , one suit may be designated in each deal to be trump and all cards of
3752-523: Is represented by one card, giving for example 4 suits × 13 ranks = 52 cards , each card in a Set deck has four classifications each into one of three categories, giving a total of 3 × 3 × 3 × 3 = 81 cards. Any one of these four classifications could be considered a suit , but this is not really enlightening in terms of the structure of the game. Card suit symbols occur in places outside card playing: In computer and other digital media , suit symbols can be represented with character encoding , notably in
3886-439: 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
4020-526: Is similar to the Genoese packs but its face cards have a horizontal instead of diagonal dividing line and the aces are found in a decorative garland. They also come in the same number of cards as Genoese ones. The Piedmontese pattern was once used in neighboring Savoy as both were previously united until France annexed the latter in 1860. A 78-card tarot version of the Piedmontese pattern, complete with knights,
4154-475: 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
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4288-662: Is the Italian-suited Tarocco Piemontese , used in Tarot card games . A Parisian variant appeared in Bavaria in the mid-18th century where the king of diamonds wore a turban . This originates from the German-suited Old Bavarian pattern . The king of spades, who represents David in the older decks, does not hold a harp. This group is closely associated with animal tarots . The Russian pattern created during
4422-576: 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
4556-560: 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
4690-614: Is used in Patience decks by many companies worldwide. The court cards are dressed in rococo period costumes and wear powdered wigs. The Kings are crowned and carry state regalia or, in the case of the King of Hearts, a pair of spectacles. The Queens, also crowned, sport jewellery; the Queen of Spades coquettishly brandishes a folding fan and the Queen of Diamonds a peacock feather fan. The Jacks are young gentlemen with tricorn hats. The Jack of Hearts carries
4824-520: Is used in Germany's Black Forest to play Cego . The courts are based on a Frankfurt version of a Bavarian derivative. It is sold with 54 cards; the 5 to 10 of the red suits and the 1 to 6 of the black suits are removed. Real and fictional animals are displayed on the trump suit. Trumps have a pink panel in each end with an Arabic numeral to show its rank. The Industrie und Glück ("Diligence and Fortune") tarock deck of Central Europe uses Roman numerals for
4958-493: Is used most often for fishing-type games and the Komatsufuda and Kabufuda decks that are used for gambling. In hanafuda, the role of rank and suit in organizing cards became switched, so the deck has 12 suits, each representing a month of the year, and each suit has 4 cards, most often two normal, one Ribbon and one Special (though August, November and December each differ uniquely from this convention). In komatsufuda and kabufuda,
5092-557: 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),
5226-479: 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
5360-850: 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
5494-416: 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
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5628-459: 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
5762-530: 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
5896-512: 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
6030-529: 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
6164-575: 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"),
6298-619: The German and Swiss suit-systems. The French suits are a derivative of the German suits but are generally considered a separate system. The earliest card games were trick-taking games and the invention of suits increased the level of strategy and depth in these games. A card of one suit cannot beat a card from another regardless of its rank. The concept of suits predates playing cards and can be found in Chinese dice and domino games such as Tien Gow . Chinese money-suited cards are believed to be
6432-870: The ISO and Unicode standards, or with Web standard ( SGML 's named entity syntax ): Unicode is the most frequently used encoding standard, and suits are in the Miscellaneous Symbols Block (2600–26FF) of the Unicode. In some card games the card suits have a dominance order, for example: club (lowest) - diamond - heart - spade (highest). That led to in spades being used to mean more than expected, in abundance, very much . Other expressions drawn from bridge and similar games include strong suit (any area of personal strength) and to follow suit (to imitate another's actions). French suit French-suited playing cards or French-suited cards are cards that use
6566-720: 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
6700-719: 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
6834-634: 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
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#17328526724946968-453: 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
7102-450: The Rhineland pattern. The kings have very thick beards. They have fallen out of popularity in Germany but are very common in Poland, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the Baltic states . They come in decks of 24 (no 2s to 8s), 32 (no 2s to 6s), or 52 cards, the latter of which may have up to three jokers in some countries. In 1895, Dondorf produced a deck on behalf of Adolph Wulff of Denmark. The king of diamonds holds an orb while
7236-406: 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
7370-418: 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
7504-504: 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
7638-510: The Vendée with the latter two using the archaic Aluette cards. In the 19th century, corner indices and rounded corners were added and cards became reversible, relieving players from having to flip face cards right-side up. The index for aces and face cards usually follow the local language but most decks of the Paris pattern use the numeral "1" for aces. The French suited pack has spawned many regional variations known as standard patterns based on their artwork and deck size. The Paris pattern
7772-401: 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
7906-411: 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
8040-490: 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
8174-462: 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
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#17328526724948308-530: 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,
8442-471: The Dutch pattern. This is the second most common pattern in the world after the English pattern. Belgian packs come in either 32 or 52 cards as they do in France. It was named the Belgian-Genoese pattern because of its popularity in both places and is the national pattern of Belgium. Genoese type cards are identical to Belgian ones and often lack corner indices. They come in 36 (lacking 2s to 5s), 40 (lacking 8s to 10s) or 52-card packs. The Piedmontese pattern
8576-404: The French suits of trèfles (clovers or clubs ♣ ), carreaux (tiles or diamonds ♦ ), cœurs (hearts ♥ ), and piques (pikes or spades ♠ ). Each suit contains three or four face/court cards . In a standard 52-card deck these are the valet ( knave or jack ), the dame ( lady or queen ), and the roi ( king ). In addition, in Tarot packs , there
8710-501: The French suits, give each suit a different color to make the suits more distinct from each other. In bridge , such decks are known as no- revoke decks, and the most common colors are black spades, red hearts, blue diamonds and green clubs, although in the past the diamond suit usually appeared in a golden yellow-orange. A pack occasionally used in Germany uses green spades (comparable to leaves), red hearts, yellow diamonds (comparable to bells) and black clubs (comparable to acorns). This
8844-530: The German suits around 1480. French suits correspond closely with German suits with the exception of the tiles with the bells but there is one early French deck that had crescents instead of tiles. The English names for the French suits of clubs and spades may simply have been carried over from the older Latin suits. Beginning around 1440 in northern Italy, some decks started to include an extra suit of (usually) 21 numbered cards known as trionfi or trumps , to play tarot card games . Always included in tarot decks
8978-439: The Latin suits. One early deck had five suits, the Latin ones with an extra suit of shields. The Swiss-Germans developed their own suits of shields, roses, acorns, and bells around 1450. Instead of roses and shields, the Germans settled with hearts and leaves around 1460. The French derived their suits of trèfles (clovers or clubs ♣ ), carreaux (tiles or diamonds ♦ ), cœurs (hearts ♥ ), and piques (pikes or spades ♠ ) from
9112-598: 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
9246-469: The Netherlands itself. Its most distinguishing feature are scenic aces. Also found in Flanders , they come in decks of 32 (no twos to sixes) or 52 cards. The Trente et Quarante pattern is named after the game it is associated with. Unlike other patterns, it is usually found only in casinos. Although of German origin, this pattern is now produced only in Italy. They consist of 52 cards and no indices. Around 1870, Dondorf of Frankfurt produced
9380-611: The North-German pattern's Hamburg parent but their most distinguishing characteristic is that instead of having corner indices, white Arabic numerals are found within the pips closest to the corner. French-Swiss cards comes only in decks of 36 with no ranks from two to five. The Modern Portuguese pattern is a Parisian derivative from Germany. When it arrived in Portugal, the kings and jacks in hearts and diamonds swapped suits. The composition consists of 52 cards or until recently 40 cards. The latter had an unusual ranking (ace, king, jack, queen, eight, six–two). The jack ranking higher than
9514-411: 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
9648-615: 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
9782-417: 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
9916-520: The United States but more commonly found in Australia and New Zealand contains 11s, 12s, and red 13s to play the six-handed version of the Euchre variant 500 . In the late nineteenth century, they were also used for variants of draw poker and royal cassino . Decks marketed for Canasta often have card point values printed on the cards. Lyon was a major card exporter to German-speaking countries from
10050-585: The United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. Other reasons for their popularity were the simplicity of the suit insignia, which simplifies mass production, and the popularity of whist and contract bridge . The English pattern of French-suited cards is so widespread that it is also known as the International or Anglo-American pattern. Playing cards arrived in Europe from Mamluk Egypt around 1370 and were already reported in France in 1377. The French suit insignia
10184-472: 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,
10318-538: 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
10452-433: The clubs represented polo sticks; Europeans changed that suit, as polo was an obscure sport to them. The Latin suits are coins, clubs, cups, and swords. They are the earliest suit-system in Europe, and were adopted from the cards imported from Mamluk Egypt and Moorish Granada in the 1370s. There are four types of Latin suits: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and an extinct archaic type. The systems can be distinguished by
10586-531: The crowns of the kings truncated by the frames of the cards and no discernible dividing line. The court figures are highly ornamented. Today's version by Piatnik is based on an 1885 Type A design by Neumayer. Type C was the earliest of three Vienna pattern types that were around at the turn of the 19th century. It originated in Sopron and Saxony and went on to become the standard pattern in Bohemia before giving way in
10720-459: The day. They are usually in decks of 32 cards with the twos to sixes missing since skat , Germany's most popular card game, does not require a full deck. Decks of 36 cards (with the sixes) are for jass and tapp , a game played in Baden-Württemberg . Decks of 52 cards usually include three jokers but Zwickern decks have six jokers. The French-Swiss pattern shares the same descent from
10854-482: The designs of the suits became much more abstract. The latter much moreso to the point where the suit does not matter (only rank) and the face cards indistinguishable; thus becoming a single-suited deck with ranks 1-10 and the designs quadruplicated. Unsun karuta did not face the same restrictions and instead developed an additional suit and additional ranks. During the 15th-century, manufacturers in German speaking lands experimented with various new suit systems to replace
10988-465: The early 19th-century is based on a Baltic version of a Bavarian derivative. The current appearance was finalized by Adolf Charlemagne . It usually contains 52 or 36 cards, the latter lacking ranks 2 to 5. The stripped deck is used to play Durak . They can be found in many countries that were once part of the Russian Empire or Soviet Union . Adler-Cego is the last remaining animal tarot and
11122-573: The early 20th-century, the firm Öberg & Son invented a new pattern unrelated to the old ones. This pattern has spread to neighboring Finland. The clothing for the figures in the court cards are color coordinated; green for spades, red for hearts, purple for clubs, and blue for diamonds. They are used in the standard 52-card format. Card makers from Rouen began exporting to England around 1480. According to David Parlett , Latin-suited cards must have already been circulating in England since there
11256-617: 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
11390-757: 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
11524-451: The fool , a suit of trumps depicting flowers, and corner indices, was printed in 1902 for Savoyard players. It was discontinued some time after 1910 but reproductions have been in print since 1984. The Chambéry rules that come with the deck are similar to Piedmontese tarot games but the ace ranked between the jack and the 10 like in Triomphe . Another playing card deck named after Piedmont
11658-422: The game of Spoil Five . In some games, such as blackjack , suits are ignored. In other games, such as Canasta , only the color (red or black) is relevant. In yet others, such as bridge, each of the suit pairings are distinguished. In contract bridge , there are three ways to divide four suits into pairs: by color , by rank and by shape resulting in six possible suit combinations. Some decks, while using
11792-415: 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
11926-607: 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,
12060-566: 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
12194-491: The last with corner indices and three jokers. The Lombard or Milanese pattern come in 40-card decks that is missing the 8s, 9s, and 10s and lack corner indices. The Lombard decks exported to Swiss Italian regions contain corner indices and also labels the ranks of the face cards. It is probably derived from the Lyonnais pattern and its offshoot, the extinct Provence pattern. The Tuscan or Florentine pattern, dating from
12328-678: The late 16th through the 18th centuries. While the Lyonnais pattern died out in most places, it survived in Austria and the Czech Republic and its modern incarnation is the Vienna pattern. Five types are recorded by the International Playing Card Society , all of them double-headed. Type A, also called the 'Large Crown' version of the pattern, emerged in the early 1800s and was based on the double-headed, Lyons export pattern, but with
12462-458: The late 18th century, since when special packs intended for divination have been produced. These typically have the suits cups, pentacles (based on the suit of coins), wands (based on the suit of batons), and swords. The trump cards and Fool of traditional card playing packs were named the Major Arcana ; the remaining cards, often embellished with occult images, were the Minor Arcana. Neither term
12596-453: The lower cards beating the higher. In Ganjifa, progressive suits were called "strong" while inverted suits were called "weak". In Latin decks, the traditional division is between the long suits of swords and clubs and the round suits of cups and coins. This pairing can be seen in Ombre and Tarot card games . German and Swiss suits lack pairing but French suits maintained them and this can be seen in
12730-506: The lower ones beat the higher ones. In the Indo-Persian game of Ganjifa , half the suits were also inverted, including a suit of coins. This was also true for the European games of Tarot and Ombre . The inverting of suits had no purpose in terms of play but was an artifact from the earliest games. These Turko-Arabic cards, called Kanjifa , used the suits coins, clubs, cups, and swords, but
12864-441: The mid-19th century to Type D, also called the 'Small Crown' version of the Vienna pattern, since the crowns of the kings are visible in their entirety within the card frame. Type E appeared in the 1860s and, again, the crowns are partially cut off by the frames of the cards. It appears to have died out in the 1960s. Today the Vienna pattern in Austria comes in pack of 24 (lacking the 2s to 8s), 32 (lacking 2s to 6s), or 52 cards,
12998-519: The mid-19th century, is the only French-suited deck that is not reversible in the present. Cards measure 58 × 88 mm but the Toscane Grandi by Modiano are 67 × 101 mm large. It has the same composition of cards as the Lombard pattern. There was another pattern called "Tuscan" but it has ceased printing since the 1980s. Dondorf of Frankfurt produced this pattern around 1900 and, today, it
13132-603: 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
13266-537: 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
13400-442: The necessity of determining which of two cards of different suits has higher rank, because a card played on a card of a different suit either automatically wins or automatically loses depending on whether the new card is a trump. However, some card games also need to define relative suit rank. An example of this is in auction games such as bridge , where if one player wishes to bid to make some number of heart tricks and another to make
13534-554: 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
13668-554: The object is to avoid taking tricks containing hearts. With typical rules for Hearts (rules vary slightly) the queen of spades and the two of clubs (sometimes also the jack of diamonds) have special effects, with the result that all four suits have different strategic value. Tarot decks have a dedicated trump suit. Games of the Karnöffel Group have between one and four chosen suits , sometimes called selected suits or, misleadingly, trump suits. The chosen suits are typified by having
13802-947: 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
13936-557: The oldest ancestor to the Latin suit system. The money-suit system is based on denominations of currency : Coins , Strings of Coins, Myriads of Strings (or of coins), and Tens of Myriads. Old Chinese coins had holes in the middle to allow them to be strung together. A string of coins could easily be misinterpreted as a stick to those unfamiliar with them. By then the Islamic world had spread into Central Asia and had contacted China, and had adopted playing cards. The Muslims renamed
14070-573: The other hand holding a sceptre. The North-German pattern was created in Stralsund from a Hamburg derivative. It is familiarly known as the Berlin pattern , although this name arose from a misunderstanding about the origin of the cards which were formerly labelled as Berliner Spielkarten based on a finishing process used by that company. The crownless queens' hairstyles reflect the Biedermeier fashions of
14204-530: The other kings hold scepters. Many of the court designs were altered or swapped for the Swedish market. Presently, this pattern is printed only by Piatnik of Austria for export to Finland, which is why it is also known as the Finnish pattern . It is an amalgam of the original Dondorf and revised Swedish designs with the court indices numbered from 11 to 13. It comes in 52-card decks with three jokers. The Bourgeois Tarot
14338-516: 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
14472-518: The pips of their long suits: swords and clubs. Despite a long history of trade with China, Japan was not introduced to playing cards until the arrival of the Portuguese in the 1540s. Early locally made cards, Karuta , were very similar to Portuguese decks. Increasing restrictions by the Tokugawa shogunate on gambling, card playing, and general foreign influence, resulted in the Hanafuda deck that today
14606-735: The portraits and the diagonal dividing line lacks the beads. When the Ottoman Empire relaxed the ban against playing cards, Belgian type cards flooded their territory and are now found throughout the Balkans, North Africa, and the Middle East. They are also commonly found in France's former colonies. Within Belgium, the Francophone Walloons are the primary users of this pattern, while the Flemish prefer
14740-423: The present will contain at least two jokers, sometimes more. In Germany, packs produced for the game of Zwicker have six jokers. The Paris pattern came to dominate in France around 1780 and became known as the portrait officiel . From the 19th century to 1945, the appearance of the cards used for domestic consumption was regulated by the French government. All cards were produced on watermarked paper made by
14874-515: The queen comes from the older Portuguese-suited games where a female knave was outranked by the knight . They also use French-language indices. The Dutch pattern originates from Germany and shares the same parent as the Modern Portuguese pattern but with different queens, and has been produced for the Netherlands by Belgian card makers since the 19th century. It has rarely been produced in
15008-489: The queen in non-tarot decks, the French kept them and dropped the knight as the middle face card. Face card design was heavily influenced by Spanish cards that used to circulate in France. One of the most obvious traits inherited from Spain are the standing kings; kings from Italian, Portuguese , or Germanic cards are seated. Spanish-suited cards are still used in France, mostly in Northern Catalonia , and Brittany and
15142-475: The rule being that all the cards played by a single player in a single round must be the same color. The selection of cards in the deck of each color is approximately the same and the player's choice of which color to use is guided by the contents of their particular hand. In the trick-taking card game Flaschenteufel (" The Bottle Imp "), all cards are part of a single sequence ranked from 1 to 37 but split into three suits depending on its rank. players must follow
15276-409: The same number of diamond tricks, there must be a mechanism to determine which takes precedence in the bidding order. There is no standard order for the four suits and so there are differing conventions among games that need a suit hierarchy. Examples of suit order are (from highest to lowest): The pairing of suits is a vestigial remnant of Ganjifa , a game where half the suits were in reverse order,
15410-519: The same suits but different patterns compared with Spanish suited cards. Asian countries such as China and Japan also have their own traditional suits. Tarot card packs have a set of distinct picture cards alongside the traditional four suits. Modern Western playing cards are generally divided into two or three general suit-systems. The older Latin suits are subdivided into the Italian and Spanish suit-systems. The younger Germanic suits are subdivided into
15544-415: The state to show payment of the stamp tax . The most common deck sold in France is the 32-card deck with the 2 to 6 removed and 1s as the index for aces. 52-card packs are also popular. The French have a unique habit of associating their face cards with historical or mythical personages which survives only in the portrait officiel . The Belgian-Genoese pattern is very similar to its Parisian parent and
15678-555: 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
15812-467: The suit led, but if they are void in that suit they may play a card of another suit and this can still win the trick if its rank is high enough . For this reason every card in the deck has a different number to prevent ties. A further strategic element is introduced since one suit contains mostly low-ranking cards and another, mostly high-ranking cards. Whereas cards in a traditional deck have two classifications—suit and rank—and each combination
15946-519: The suit of myriads as cups; this may have been due to seeing a Chinese character for "myriad" ( 万 ) upside-down. The Chinese numeral character for Ten ( 十 ) on the Tens of Myriads suit may have inspired the Muslim suit of swords. Another clue linking these Chinese, Muslim, and European cards are the ranking of certain suits. In many early Chinese games like Madiao , the suit of coins was in reverse order so that
16080-578: 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
16214-403: 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
16348-430: The trump suit rank above all non-trump cards, and automatically prevail over them, losing only to a higher trump if one is played to the same trick. Non-trump suits are called plain suits. Some games treat one or more suits as being special or different from the others. A simple example is Spades , which uses spades as a permanent trump suit. A less simple example is Hearts , which is a kind of point trick game in which
16482-583: The trumps. It is organized in the same manner as the Adler-Cego decks. Its trumps feature a newer pattern of more mundane scenes, such as depictions of rural life, than the traditional allegorical motifs found in Italian tarocchi decks. The turban wearing king is now in the suit of spades. French-suited cards are popular in Central Europe and compete very well against local German-suited playing cards . Hamburg
16616-416: 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,
16750-569: 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
16884-451: Was banned to protect local manufacturers. English cardmakers produced lower-quality cards than their continental counterparts leading to the loss of detail from the Rouennais pattern. The English pattern is the result of Charles Goodall and Son 's reworking of the old Rouen pattern during the 19th century. The majority of decks sold in this pattern is the 52-card deck . One deck invented in
17018-527: Was derived from German suits around 1480. Between the transition from the suit of bells to tiles there was a suit of crescents. One of the most distinguishing features of the French cards is the queen. Mamluk cards and their derivatives, the Latin-suited and German-suited cards , all have three male face cards. Queens began appearing in Italian tarot decks in the mid-15th century and some German decks replaced two kings with queens. While other decks abandoned
17152-668: Was designed by C.L. Wüst of Frankfurt in the mid-19th century. It is popular in Francophone Europe and Quebec and is also used in Denmark to play tarot games that require the full 78-card deck. Like the Industrie und Glück , the trumps depict genre scenes but modern editions use Arabic numerals instead of Roman ones. A 54-card version with different trump designs is used in Baden to play Cego . Swedes used to use Bavarian derived patterns. In
17286-476: 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
17420-455: Was heavily exported throughout continental Europe which is why most French-suited patterns share a similar appearance. The English pattern, based on the extinct Rouennais pattern, is the most well known pattern in the world. It is also called the International or Anglo-American pattern. Patterns do not factor in Jokers , which came about in the early 20th century. Almost all 52-card packs produced in
17554-463: 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
17688-638: Was once a major card-producing hub where makers began revising the Paris pattern to create the Hamburg pattern . Early examples were made by Suhr (1814–28) in Hamburg itself, while other manufacturers of the pattern were based elsewhere in the German Empire, in Austria, Belgium, France, Sweden and Switzerland. The Hamburg cards generated a family of similar patterns, all of which have the King of Spades holding David's harp, with
17822-503: 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
17956-431: 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),
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