Japan is an island country in East Asia, in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by the Sea of Japan to the West, and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. Part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, Japan spans an archipelago of 6852 islands that covers 377,975 square kilometers (145,937 sq mi); the five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is the capital and largest city; other major cities include Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto.
Japan is currently the 11th-most populous country globally, as well as one of the most densely populated and urbanized. About three-fourths of the country's terrain is mountainous, concentrating its current population of 126.2 million on narrow coastal plains. Japan is divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area globally, with more than 37.4 million residents.
Since the Upper Paleolithic period (30,000 BC), Japan has been inhabited, though the first mentions of the archipelago appear in Chinese chronicles from the 1st century AD. Between the 4th and 9th centuries, the kingdoms of Japan became unified under an emperor and his imperial court based in Heian-kyō. Beginning in the 12th century, however, political power was held by a series of military dictators (shōgun) and feudal lords (daimyō), and enforced by a class of warrior nobility (samurai). After a century-long period of civil war, the country was reunified in 1603 under the Tokugawa shogunate, which enacted an isolationist foreign policy. In 1854, a United States fleet forced Japan to open trade to the West, which led to the end of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial power in 1868. In the Meiji period, the Empire of Japan adopted a Western-styled constitution and pursued a program of industrialization and modernization. In 1937, Japan invaded China; in 1941, it entered World War II as an Axis power. After suffering defeat in the Pacific War and two atomic bombings, Japan surrendered in 1945 and came under a seven-year Allied occupation, during which it adopted a new constitution. Since 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature, the National Diet.
Japan is a great power and a member of numerous international organizations, including the United Nations (since 1956), the OECD, and the Group of Seven. Although it has renounced its right to declare war, the country maintains Self-Defense Forces that are currently ranked as the world's 4th-most powerful military. After World War II, Japan experienced high economic growth, becoming the 2nd-largest economy in the world by 1990 before being surpassed by China in 2010. Despite stagnant growth since the Lost Decade, the country's economy remains currently the 3rd-largest by nominal GDP and the 4th-largest by PPP. A leader in the automotive and electronics industries, Japan has made significant contributions to science and technology. Ranked the 2nd-highest country on the Human Development Index in Asia after Singapore, Japan has the world's 2nd-highest life expectancy, though it is experiencing a decline in population. Culture of Japan is well-known around the world, including its art, cuisine, music, and popular culture, which encompasses prominent animation and video game industries.
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