A volcanic archipelago on the eastern edge
of the Eurasian continent. A land of stunning natural beauty enhanced
by centuries of unique art. Having a history completely unlike any other
nation - it has maintained a unique and distinctive culture to the present day. This is the country that rose from the ashes
of defeat in war to become a global economic superpower, being a global leader in automotive
and electronics. This is the land of samurai and judo, sushi
and bonsai, manga and Godzilla. This is the land of the rising sun. This, is Japan. Japan is an archipelago lying off the eastern temperate coast of Asia and is a country that is the home of the people of the same name – the Japanese.

They call their own country Nihon or
Nippon, which literally means “sun’s origin”, referring to the fact that it is the first
significant place in Asia to receive the sunrise each day. The word has been in use to describe the country
since around 700AD. The English word for this country – Japan
– is believed to come through a corruption of Nippon via Portuguese, Malay or Mandarin Chinese. The Japanese archipelago has been inhabited by humans at least as far back as 16,000 years, by hunter gatherers known as the Jomon. But around 300BC, the Yayoi people began to
move into the islands from the mainland, bringing with them the ancestor of today’s Japanese
language as well as Chinese influences in art and architecture. The first mention of Japan in written records
was in the Chinese Book of Han in 111AD, and the later Chinese Records of the Three Kingdoms
mention Yamato as being the most powerful

Of a number of states on the archipelago. Buddhism arrived around the 6th Century from
the Korean peninsula, and was mixed with the traditional Shinto religion of the island. A gradual centralisation of power took place
between the 6th and 8th centuries in the Asuka period, but the first truly recognisable Japanese
state began in the Nara period of the 8th century, with the first emperor ruling from
a Chinese-styled court. The capital moved to Kyoto in 794, where it
would remain until almost the present day. Introverted into the politicking of the imperial
court, the emperor’s power declined over the following centuries, and regional clans
filled the vacuum. Civil war erupted in the 12th Century, with
the Minamoto clan coming out on top, and their head becoming the first Shogun, a military
ruler with true power, with the emperor merely a figurehead.

Japan would more or less be under military
rule for the next seven centuries. During these next centuries, power shifted
back and forth between the regional clans, and their armies of samurai, and the Shogun. These clans united to beat off two attempted
Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281, but by 1467 the Shogun’s power was broken, and
the country descended into violent civil war, with more than a dozen clans ruled by feudal
warlords known as Daimyo fighting it out over the next century, in what became known as
the Sengoku period, the stories of which have gone into legend, to be retold time and again. This period was further complicated by the
first arrival of Europeans, principally the Portuguese, but later the Dutch and English,
who brought with them Christianity… and guns. This period was finally concluded in the year
1600, at the battle of Segikahara where the

Warlord Tokugawa Ieyasu was triumphant, and
all other rival clans defeated. While the powerless emperor remained in Kyoto,
the Shogun Tokugawa moved his court to Edo, later renamed Tokyo, and his successors held
absolute power for the next two and a half centuries. Christianity was viewed as a threat to the
Shogun’s power, and was outlawed under penalty of death. To go further, all external influences would
be prevented as Japan closed itself off from the outside world – Japanese were forbidden
to travel abroad. No foreigners were permitted to enter Japan,
with only a sole Dutch outpost being permitted. No other country in world history has enacted
such a wide-reaching policy of isolation for so long. Despite the isolation, Japan flourished economically
and artistically, and its population expanded considerable, reaching thirty million by the
year 1700, with Edo being the largest city

In the world by 1721. At this time also, private schools flourished
and it is thought that Japan may have been the most literate country in the world at
that time. By the mid-1800s however, the power of the
Shogun was waning, as a result of growing unrest from government ineptitude and economic
stagnation. But it took a foreign power to act as the
catalyst for change. In 1852, a fleet of United States warships
led by Commodore Perry was given a mission by the President to force Japan to open up
to trade. The following year, this fleet arrived in
Edo Bay, and used displays of its superior military might and technology to intimidate
the Japanese authorities, who eventually had to concede in allow foreigners to visit and
trade with the country. This change destabilised the Shogunate, and
after a brief civil war, was deposed in 1868,

With the emperor restored to power, in what
became known as the Meiji restoration, named after the emperor’s dynastic name. It was at this time that the capital was moved
from Kyoto to Edo, and that city renamed to Tokyo, meaning “Kyoto of the East”. In the following decades, the fastest modernisation
of any country in history took place, with Japan developing from an almost feudal society
into an industrialised nation. Westerners were brought in in their thousands
to advise and supervise in the construction of railways and factories, and the traditional
dress of the rulers and armies of Shogunate was replaced by European-style uniforms. Despite this westernisation, however, the
Japanese held firm to their traditional mix of Buddhist and Shinto culture and traditions. It was during this period that the last and
most northerly of the main islands of the

Archipelago, Hokkaido, began to be colonised. Throughout all the preceding centuries, the
island was inhabited by the ethnically distinct Ainu people, and there had been little interest
in it by the Shogunate and the main clans due to its harsh winter climate. But this changed with the growth of Japan
into a modern nation, as its lands were seen as a means of feeding the growing population,
as well as ensuring that a firm presence there would resist the threat of a Russian takeover. Between 1850 and 1950, the population on the
island exploded from just 70,000 to over 4 million. The native Ainu people were assimilated into
the larger population, their distinctive culture all but extinguished. There had never been a democratic tradition
in Japan, and so although an elected House

Of Representatives was part of the new constitution,
only 2% of Japanese could vote, and ultimately, all nominal power was held by the emperor. The military began to gain power and influence
throughout the government, believing that the only way to ensure Japan’s survival
in this age of Western Colonialism was to use its new industrial power to seize colonies
of its own, gaining Taiwan in 1894 and, emboldened by the defeat of the Russian fleet in 1905,
occupying Korea in 1910. This process of military control accelerated
rapidly in the late 1920s and early 1930s, inspired by fascism from Europe, with moderates
and dissidents murdered. In 1931, the large northern Chinese province
of Manchuria was occupied, and in 1937 Japan began a full-scale invasion of China, the
latter weakened by its own civil war which had been raging since the disposal of the
Chinese emperor in 1911. Such actions brought condemnation from the
United States and the United Kingdom, who

Saw the growth of Japanese regional power
as a threat to their own colonies and influence in the region. Japan responded by allying itself to fascist
powers in Europe – Germany and Italy – in 1940, further worsening relations with the
US and Britain. With the Japanese invasion of French Indochina
– what is today Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos – Western trade embargos culminated in an
oil embargo, and without oil, Japan would not be able to continue its industrialised
warfare, and had to act. Realising it could not win a long war with
the United States, Japan aimed to knock them out of the Pacific with a devastating blow,
and so on December 7, 1941, launched the surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet stationed in
Pearl Harbor in Hawai’i as a pretext to a declaration of war. At the same time, Japanese forces invaded
British South East Asia, and within weeks,

Singapore had fallen, in what is regarded
as the worst defeat in British military history. The Philippines and the Dutch East Indies,
what is now Indonesia, were also occupied in rapid succession. It seemed that Japanese military power was
unstoppable. And so it is that we enter what I consider
to be the darkest part in Japanese history. For the peoples of those subject nations,
and the allied soldiers captured as prisoners of war, life under Japanese rule was nothing
short of hell. Through a twisting of the traditional bushido
samurai code, defeated armies and peoples were viewed as sub-human by the ruling military
and their armies were ordered to treat them brutally. Allied PoW’s were starved, put into forced
labour, tortured and executed, while subject peoples in China, Korea, the Philippines and
elsewhere were subject to massacres, mass-rape

And forced prostitution. By this same twisted code, the Japanese soldiers
were taught that to be taken alive by the enemy was worse than death, and so as the
allies finally began to turn the tide of war in late 1942, the slow process of expelling
the Japanese from their occupied territories was met with ferocious resistance, with soldiers
fighting to the death rather than be captured, and in the ultimate symbol of nationalistic
sacrifice, pilots of the Japanese navy turned themselves into guided missiles in suicidal
kamikaze attacks on US ships. The battle of the Pacific, one of the most
brutal and savage in any of history, reached an ultimate, and truly apocalyptic crescendo
in mid-1945. In the face of such suicidal resistance, it
was estimated that a full-scale invasion of the Japanese main islands would result in
half a million deaths of US servicemen, and a decision was made by US President Truman,
to use the ultimate weapon against the enemy.

On August 6 and 9th of 1945 two atomic bombs
were dropped on the south-western cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Between them almost a quarter of a million
people were killed, mostly civilians. It is the only time in history where atomic
or nuclear weapons have been used in war. After such a devastating shock, Japan had
no choice but to think the unthinkable, and it surrendered unconditionally. The country was in ruins – the two atomic
bombs just the final blow after months of conventional bombing that had devastated all
major cities. For the first time in its long history, Japan
was occupied by a foreign power – the United States. The leadership of the Japanese military under
Tojo, were tried and executed as war criminals, but the allies decided to let the Japanese
keep their Emperor, Hirohito, to prevent total

Humiliation of the nation and any potential
unrest in the general population. In the following years of occupation, up until
1952, major reforms were made to ensure that democracy and an orientation to peaceful methods
would survive into the future, and this has borne out in the seven decades since, with
the country not having fought a war, but instead focusing on economic growth and power. Mirroring, in a way, the incredible transformation
from feudal to industrial power in the late 1800s, Japan pulled off another economic miracle,
rising from the ashes of World War II to becoming the world’s second largest economy by the
late 1960s. The economy grew each year on average by 10%
from 1956 until 1973 and by 1968, only the United States had a higher economic output. Due largely to trends in overall demographics,
however, the economic boom came to an end in 1989 with a stock market and property-price
crash, and throughout the 1990s there was

Virtually no growth in what became known as
the lost decade. Since 2000 growth has recovered, albeit slowly. The reasons for this failure to recover are
the subject of much debate among global economists. Japan is a unitary state, meaning that the
central government has supreme authority, as opposed to federal systems like the United
States. The country is divided into 47 counties, called
Prefectures, and some of the larger prefectures, such as Hokkaido, are divided into sub-prefectures. At the base of the state administration are
municipalities, numbering over 1,700 in total. Some of the larger cities like Tokyo and Osaka
have their own exceptional governmental structures. Since the new constitution was created in
1947, the Emperor has no formal powers, and so Japan is now a constitutional monarchy,
governed by an executive of a prime minister and cabinet elected from the parliament, known
as the National Diet.

The Diet is bicameral, meaning it is composed
of two houses, a 465-seat lower House of Representatives elected by universal suffrage every four years,
and a 245-seat upper House of Councillors elected again by all Japanese citizens over
the age of 18, serving six-year terms. The conservative Liberal Democratic Party
has been in power for all but 9 of the years since 1955, and dominate Japanese politics,
making some international commentators describe Japan as a flawed democracy. The current emperor is Naruhito, son of Akihito
who abdicated in 2019, and grandson of Hirohito, who had lived through all the turbulence of
the nationalist takeover of Japan, the most violent of all wars, its defeat and subsequent
occupation by the United States, and its rise economically afterwards. Ultimately these emperors trace their lineage
back to the 7th Century BC according to legend, although the first historically verifiable
emperor dates to the 6th Century AD.

Either way, Japan is regarded as the world’s
oldest surviving monarchy. Japan is an archipelago of over 6,800 islands
occupying the north western Pacific. All but four of these islands are comparatively
small and outlying and it is on the four main islands where the vast majority of the population
live. A fifth, Okinawa, in the far south half-way
to Taiwan, is a notable exception to this rule. The main four are, from north to south, Hokkaido,
Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. It is possible to travel across all four main
islands by train, and from tip to tip would take you 29 hours, thanks to the remarkable
bullet trains that run all the way from Sapporo in the north to Kagoshima in the south. A car journey would take you 37 hours by comparison,
and involves a ferry crossing from Hokkaido to Honshu in the north. Japan’s total land area is around four hundred
thousand square kilometres [377,975.24 km2

(145,937.06 sq mi)], making it the 4th largest
island nation in the world, and 61st overall. It has the sixth longest coastline of any
nation. Its highest point is Mount Fuji at 3776m,
a dormant volcano that last erupted in 1708, and owing to its near-perfect profile, a national
symbol, and the most photographed natural feature on Earth. Japan is bordered by the Pacific Ocean all
along its south-eastern flank. To the north-west it faces the Korean peninsula,
the Sea of Japan, and extreme south-east of Russia around their port of Vladivostok. To the north is Sakhalin and the Kuril islands,
also a part of Russia, but with the closest four being claimed by Japan. To the south runs the long chain of the Ryukyu
islands that face China across the East China Sea.

Japan spans about 20 degrees of latitude,
from 24 degrees north at the bottom of the Ryukyu chain to 45 north at the tip of Hokkaido. Consequently, it sees great variation in climate. The far southern islands are subtropical,
bordering on tropical. As we head north along the Ryukyu chain and
onto the main islands, the Humid Subtropical (Cfa) climate of hot summers and cool winters,
with year round precipitation dominates all but mountain areas and is regarded as the
principle climate of Japan. It’s only until we move into the north of
Honshu island where the winters start to become cold and consistently snowy, and where we
find a hot summer continental (Dfa) climate. Finally, in the far north, these hot summers
give way to only warm ones and in combination with cold winters, the island of Hokkaido
is therefore dominated by the warm summer continental climate (Dfb).

The Humid Subtropical and Continental climates
are characterised by four distinct seasons, and being present in Japan, have become a
part of their culture and art history. The snows and chill of winter contrast with
the full green leaf and sweltering heat of summer, while autumn bursts into vivid colour,
thanks to so many maples being present on the islands. But it’s the spring that is celebrated the
most, specifically the flowering of the cherry tree, the blossom that the Japanese call sakura. The blossom lasts no more than a week or so
in one location, but the wave of blossom travels up the country from south to north over March
and April. During this festival, known as hanami, family
and friends celebrate with food and drink together beneath the trees in a tradition
that goes back centuries. The north-west coast of Japan has a peculiarity
of being one of the snowiest

Places in the world. This is owing to a rare combination of cold
winds blowing over water onto the land – in this case the dry cold winds that consistently
blow out from central Siberia each winter. As they roll over the Sea of Japan, they gather
moisture, then deposit it heavily onto cities like Sapporo and Niigata. This unusual effect is the winter part of
the Eastern Asian Monsoon, the world’s largest weather system, which effects all islands
in Japan. In summer, winds move in the opposite direction,
from the Pacific Ocean toward the Eurasian mainland, laden with moisture. As most of the populated cities are on the
SE side of the islands, these cities experience higher rainfall in summer than winter as a
result. Owing to its heavily mountainous geography,
two thirds of the land is not suitable for

Either agriculture or urban development, and
so much of the country has retained the natural biome of temperate broadleaf forest. In the far north, this forest gives way to
coniferous boreal forest, while in the far southern islands, a form of tropical rainforest
is present. That mountainous geography has a single cause,
one that is perhaps Japan’s biggest curse, tectonics. Japan lies adjacent to fault lines that separate
the giant Pacific plate with others on the eastern edge of Asia. This has produced volcanoes, such as Mount
Fuji just mentioned, but more importantly, earthquakes, and especially the tsunami that
can sometimes be produced when these occur over water. In fact, the word tsunami is one we have borrowed
from Japanese, so much that these destructive

Forces have dominated their history, with
the most recent being the Tohoku earthquake of 2011. This magnitude 9 quake killed 16-20,000 people,
the vast majority of whom were drowned by the tsunami, and led to the nuclear disaster
at Fukushima, whose effects are still ongoing today. Japan has a population of 126 million, ranked
11th in the world, with 80% of them living on the largest island of Honshu. Almost a third of them – 38 million, live
in the Greater Tokyo Area, which is the most populous metropolitan area in the world. The second largest conurbation is that of
Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto, having 20 million people. Between them, these two conurbations account
for half of Japan’s population. Already one of the most densely populated
nations in the world, and with most of the

Land area mountainous, this population is
crammed into the cities that occupy the relatively rare coastal plains. The vast majority of Japan’s population
- over 98% - are ethnic Japanese, sometimes referred to as Yamato, making the country
one of the most ethnically homogenous in the world. At 83.5 years, Japan is ranked #2 in the world
for life expectancy, with the island of Okinawa having the highest proportion of centenarians
found anywhere in the world. With an increasingly aging population due
to a reduction in the birth rate in recent decades, it is expected to fall considerably
to 95 million by 2050, which will have significant effects on the economy, housing and so on. The Japanese language is spoken by virtually
all the inhabitants of the archipelago. Its origins are uncertain, but it is believed
to have come across from the mainland by the Yayoi people around two millennia ago.

It is the dominant member of the small Japonic
language group, with Ryukyuan being the other, spoken only by older people in the Ryukyu
islands, and now facing extinction. Japanese was greatly influenced by Chinese
in the 8th and 9th centuries, with as many as half the words today believed to have come
from this period of importation. The written language is one of the most complicated
in the world, being a combination of three different scripts – kanji, hiragana and
katakana. Kanji, derived from Chinese, uses thousands
of different pictograms to describe meaning, and is used for most content words. Hiragana and katakana represent spoken syllables,
and are used to perform grammatical linkages and borrowed foreign words respectively. Shinto and Buddhism are the country’s primary
religions. Shinto is exclusive to the archipelago, and
is based on the belief that kami, or spirits

Are present throughout nature as well as people. Buddhism arrived in Japan around a millennium
after its birth in India in the 6th Century BC. Japan’s flag is unmistakable, being a simple
red disc in the centre of a field of white, representing the rising sun. It has been in use formally since 1870, although
the use of a sun flag to represent the Japanese imperial court goes back as early as the 8th
century. Japan has no coat of arms, but the chrysanthemum
is considered a national emblem and represents the emperor. Japan’s economy is the third largest in
the world, after the United States and China, and ranks as number one in the world by the
Economic Complexity Index. It is dominated by an advanced manufacturing
sector that exports electronics, cars, motorcycles, robots and dozens of other types of finished
products or components built to a quality

And precision that is the envy of the world. Japan’s rise as an economic superpower – the
original “Tiger economy” - is a truly remarkable story when one considers it was
barely out of the feudal era a century and a half ago. The manufacturing techniques that originated
in Japan, such as Just-in-Time logistics, have been emulated today by most Western economies,
as well as other Tiger economies of the Far East such as Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and
finally China. Japan was the first country to develop high-speed
rail systems, with their world-famous Shinkansen or “bullet” trains first appearing in
1964, and continue today to link all the major cities across the four main islands. Japanese manufacturing brands are household
names globally. In the automotive sector these include Toyota,
the world’s largest by volume of production,

Nissan, Honda, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Mazda,
Yamaha, Kawasaki, Subaru, Isuzu and Daihatsu. Until the recent ramp up of Chinese production,
Japan was making more cars, trucks and motorcycles than any other country in the world, and is
still the world largest automotive exporter. In electronics, Japan dominated for decades,
although recent competition from South Korea, Taiwan and China has reduced their market
share. Nonetheless, its electronics industry is still
the world’s largest, and Japanese brands of televisions, cameras, video recorders,
camcorders, video game systems and laptops are legend. Past and present, they include Sony, Panasonic,
Canon, Nintendo, Yamaha, Epson, Toshiba, Hitachi, Sega, Nikon, Sharp, Konica-Minolta, Fujitsu,
Casio, JVC, Pioneer, Sanyo, Ricoh and NEC. These corporations were leaders in the development
and mass-market production of the transistor radio, the personal cassette player, digital
watches, video recorders and laptops.

Tokyo has the third largest stock exchange
in the world after the NYSE and NASDAQ, while the Japanese currency, the Yen, is the third
most widely traded currency in the world after the US Dollar and the Euro. The “lost decade” of the 1990s and early
2000s saw economic activity contract, and this is part of the reason why Japan has by
far the highest national debt of any developed nation, at an eye-watering 236% of GDP in
2017. With the aforementioned demographic issues
of a declining population, the economic future of the country remains unclear. Japanese culture is one of the most distinct
and globally recognised in the world. It is a complex fusion of both East Asian
and western influences, but at its centre is a rich body of customs and art that originated
within the archipelago. The Japanese unique take on calligraphy, illustration,
painting, flower arranging, garden design,

Poetry, theatre and clothing are admired globally,
and have led to many Japanese words finding their way into English, including, bonsai,
haiku, ikebana, kabuki, origami, geisha, kimono and karaoke. Japanese traditional warfare has been a magnet
for aficionados around the world for many years, with the costumes, traditions and weapons
of the samurai, particularly from the warring states period of the 16th century being instantly
recognisable. Its martial arts are world famous, and include
karate, sumo, aikido and kendo, with judo in particular being internationally popular,
and taught in schools around the world. And on a related subject, ninjas, anyone? More recent global influences have come from
Japan fusing its power in the electronics industry with its long tradition of art and
story-telling in the video games industry, being a major player in this market since
the 1970s.

Japanese cartoons and comics - manga and anime
are the latest incarnations in a tradition of illustration that goes back centuries – and
now enjoy a huge audience globally in addition to the domestic market. Japanese cinema is as old as any in Europe
or North America, and had a golden age in the 1950s, with Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai
regarded in many polls as one of the finest films in cinema history. And, dare we mention… Godzilla – a prehistoric sea monster awakened
and empowered by nuclear radiation to become a global pop icon. And I haven’t even mentioned food. The Japanese have developed a distinctive
and refined cuisine across the centuries, with ramen noodles, fried tempura, teriyaki
meats and sushi being the most popular around

The world. Any country that can make raw fish not only
edible, but desirable, deserves particular credit. For a relatively small country - isolated
on the eastern fringe of the continental land mass of Eurasia – Japan’s global reach
is astonishing. As a gaijin who has studied this country,
its history and its art for the longest time, I still have to scratch my head when trying
to understand the fundamental essence of the country and its people. What is Japan? Who are the Japanese? There are few, if any, non-Western countries
that have so successfully taken the expansion of Western culture and fused it into their
own rich historical traditions and art.

And how does one reconcile the softness and
perfection of their manners with the savagery that has marked the darker episodes in their
history? I, for one, cannot. Japan is as much a mystery as it is a fascination,
and will likely continue to be so in the centuries to come. And that’s Japan. I hope you enjoyed this whirlwind tour of
that unique archipelago and its people. If you did, then please like and share this
video. Let me know your thoughts in the comments,
especially if you’re from this country, and if I missed out anything you feel is important. If you haven’t done so already, then please
click the Subscribe button so you don’t miss future episodes.

And if you’d like to support future development
of this channel, then please consider becoming a Patreon supporter. Thanks again for watching, and I’ll see
you in the next episode.

This is one country I barely have to introduce you to. Let's just get it over with. Sushi, geishas, karate! Temples, ramen, anime! Sumos, weird stuff, weird cosplay, poison fish, and I'm not even gonna ask about that... De wa, ikimashou!
では, 行きましょう! It's time to learn Geography NOW! Hey everybody, I'm your host Barbs. We have reached the Land of the Rising Sun, Asia's island powerhouse and home to a culture that I'm sure you've heard of. Let's just jump into it. Ah, Japan, you have such a story behind you.

First of all, Japan is located right off the east coast of the Asian continent between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan, stretching all the way from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north with the East China Sea to the south. The country is divided into 47 prefectures, each with incredibly beautiful minimalistic style flags. The prefectures are divided into four different categories: "ken", "to", "fu", and "do". The first level, "ken" (heh heh, "Ken") refers to the 43 plain prefectures. Then you have "to", which means something like "metropolis", and this category only applies to Tokyo City. "Fu" refers to the urban prefectures, which applies only to the cities of Osaka and Kyoto. And finally, "do", which is a unique category translating to something like "circuit" and that applies to all of Hokkaido in the north.

Speaking of which, Tokyo, Japan's capital, is the largest city in the world, with its greater metropolitan area including Kanto containing about 37 million people. That's more than the entire population of Canada. However, Tokyo is kinda like 23 smaller cities all smashed into one, divided into units called wards. And the closest thing to a capital one would probably be Chiyoda, where the Emperor, Prime Minister, and Supreme Court are located. After the Greater Toyko Kanto region, you have the next largest cities Osaka and Nagoya coming in at third. Keep in mind, about 90% of people in Japan live in cities, and the vast majority on Honshu and Kyushu The busiest airports, of course, being Tokyo's two twins: Haneda, which is actually in Tokyo, and Narita International, which is like an hour and a half drive away outside of Tokyo. Then you have Osaka's Kansai International

Heh heh, "KIX". and Fukoka International on Kyushu. Heh heh, fu- Gotta keep it clean, Keith! Speaking of which, Japan is made up of about 6,850 islands, but about 97% of the land is made up of four main islands: Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido. South of the main four, you have the Ryukyu Islands chain which extends just south of Kyushu, partially making up Okinawa Prefecture. You've probably heard of Okinawa – it's where Uma Thurman got that sword that she used to kill Lucy Liu. It's also where these two isla- *ahem* never mind... Nonetheless, Japan can still kind of be separated into ten historical main regions,

Six of which divided amongst Honshu. Then you have the interesting less-highlighted Kuril Islands dispute with Russia in the north. Basically, Russia administers all of them but Japan claims these two islands closest to Hokkaido: Iturup (or Etoro-futo) and Kunashir (or Kunashiri), which is only less than ten miles away from Hokkaido. On a clear day, you can even see it from the coast, but it's like, "Nope! Russia." They even have a statue of Lenin. The Russians and Japanese have kind of had a long dispute over this area – at one point Japan even tried to take over all of Sakhalin in the 1800's. Then you have the Dokdo/Takeshima island dispute between them and South Korea. To this day South Korea has a patrol building built on the island and they fiercely guard it. And finally, you have Okinotori-shima,

Which is probably the loneliest place in Japan as a shallow reef in the middle of the ocean. It looks like it's trying so hard to become an island, complete with three helipads and a research station. There's no diplomatic dispute, but rather a dispute within the UN on whether or not it qualifies as "land" for an exclusive economic zone in the ocean. Whew, okay, all right, that kind of took forever. Getting around in Japan is incredibly easy, often touted as having the best public transportation system in the world. They have highways and trains everywhere, even one that cuts through an office building, as well as the Shinkansen bullet train system that can get you to virtually every corner of Honshu and Kyushu as well as the bottom tip of Hokkaido. But not Shikoku! If you want to go Shikoku, you have to take this slower, local Seto-Ohashi Line across the Seto Bridge.

Yeah, Shikoku is kind of like the runt of the litter in Japan. Basically, Japan is like one big massive machine constantly running and moving, with flashing neon lights, vending machines, and robots, and everything, EVERYTHING, even the garbage cans have cartoons, cartoons everywhere! Anyway! Some notable places of interest might include: Tokyo Skytree, the second tallest building in the world, Miyajima Pagoda, Matsumoto, Himeji, and Osaka Castles, the Fushimi Inari Shrine, the Great Buddha Hall, Nakagin Capsule Tower, the vine bridges of Iya Valley, the Ramen Museum, so many weird-themed restaurants and hot springs,

The self-mummified monks of sokushinbutsu, Henn-na Hotel, the Ninja Museum in Iga, Kan-mangafuji Lava Buddhas, the restricted-access Ise Grand Shrine, the most significant of all Shinto shrines, the Shirakawa-go Traditional Village armed with water cannons to protect itself from fires, abandoned theme parks like Greenland and Nara Dreamland, Kochia Hill with red cypress, and the national treasure, Itsu-Kushima Shrine, featured on numerous pieces of art, films, and even banknotes. Now despite the bustling metropolis regions and skyscrapers, Japan does an incredible job at maintaining its natural integrity. Find out how in... Now Japan's land is kind of like a gingerbread house: beautiful on the outside, but potentially dangerous on the inside.

First of all, Japan is a straddle volcanic archipelago located on the most precariously-situated section where four major tectonic plates converge: the Pacific, the Philippine, the Eurasian, and the North American Plates. Of course, this means that not only is Japan subject to earthquakes but also tsunamis (which by the way is a Japanese word – “津波”) caused from sub oceanic activities, such as the one recently in Fukushima caused by the epicenter in the Japan Trench off the Pacific. This also means that Japan is a volcanic area, with numerous volcanoes still active like Aogashima, a volcano within a volcano, and Mt. Aso, the largest volcanic caldera. This, in return, also blesses Japan with countless natural hot springs which they like to exploit and build bathhouses on called “onsen”, typically indicated with this symbol. All this plate activity and volcanoes means that about 70% of Japan is mountainous, with the highest peak Mt. Fuji overlooking Tokyo,

Which by the way is still technically an active volcano which erupted about 300 years ago. The rift between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate creates the Japanese Alps which bisects the country on Honshu. This isolated geologic warzone in return, though, kinda blesses Japan with an abundance of unique flora and fauna. Today, about 70% of Japan is forested, with nice natural water sources like the longest river, the Shinano, and the largest lake, Lake Biwa on Honshu. Endemic animals can be found, like Japanese hornets, macaque monkeys, tanukis, giant salamanders, Bob-tail cats, serow, red fox, red crown crane, the national dog the shiba inu, the national bird the green pheasant, and the national fish koi. Speaking of animals, Japan has quite a few feral animal islands and towns,

Such as Tashirojima the cat island, Okunoshima the rabbit island, the town of Miyajima for deer, Miyagi Zao for foxes, and of course Jigoku-dani where you can see those monkeys in hot springs. With limited space and only about 20% (highly subsidized) arable land, Japan has kinda had to think outside the box, so they said, “Hey! Why not go to the sea?” Today, Japan is disputably the most advanced aquaculture society on the planet. Not only do they have the largest merchant marine fleet in the world, but they also harvest everything from shellfish to seaweed in offshore ocean plots and fish farms. They love fish – they even have the largest fish market in the world, Tsukiji. Speaking of which, we all know about Japanese food – I feel like I don’t really have to give you a list of notable dishes like sushi, mochi, or ramen. However, Japan is known for making strange flavors of conventional snacks, drinks, and desserts, such as:

Yogurt Pepsi, spaghetti popsicles, horse and octopus ice cream, pancake juice, wasp crackers, and Kit-Kat has tried pretty much anything under the sun. Itadakimasu!
いただきます!
(Let's eat!) Speaking of which, Japan is the third-largest world economy by nominal GDP, mostly due to their various technology and automotive industries that have swept over the world by storm since the middle of the 20th Century. The largest automotive companies include Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Suzuki, and Subaru. As well as tech companies and their subsidiaries like Hitachi, Sony, Epson, Canon, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Panasonic, Nikon, and Nintendo. This does, however, cause a problem: Japan is classified as a high-throwaway society

In which lots of resources get unnecessarily used and tossed. Like, c'mon Japan! I know you have aesthetic standards but seriously, I don’t need one apple in vacuum-sealed plastic wrap! Nonetheless, Japan is often seen as one of, if not the, world leader in robotics and tech science, receiving more Nobel Prizes in science than any other Asian country. And it’s kind of impressive – I mean, with a high population and limited space, Japanese people know how to consolidate and innovate. Speaking of Japanese people… Now, Japanese people are like, you never know what they’re gonna come up with next. You know it’s probably going to be a little weird, but you’re still gonna be a little interested in it. First of all, the country has about 127 million people and is the 10th most populous country in the world (however, Mexico is getting really close to beating them). The country is incredibly homogenous, with over 98% of the populace identifying as ethnically Japanese

While the remainder is mostly made up of Koreans, Chinese, and very small Caucasian minorities of Americans and Europeans, and the indigenous Ryukyu and Ainu peoples. They use the Japanese yen as their currency, they surprisingly use the Type A American-style plug outlet, and they drive on the left side of the road. As mentioned like eight seconds ago, Japan has two main indigenous ethnic groups, each with their own languages. You have the Ainu, which predominantly inhabit Hokkaido and some of the Kuril Islands administered by Russia, known for their rustic, scruffy features, where men grew beards and women used to tattoo their lips and arms. Today there are less than 30,000 left, but some estimate that there could be up to 200,000 if you include the other Ainu that have assimilated into the rest of Japan and are kind of faintly aware of their own culture. Otherwise, you have the Ryukyu people or the “Okinawans”,

Which are kind of like the “Hawaiians” of Japan, known for their own distinct art and traditions and beliefs. Now, everybody in the world has had at least a little bit of exposure to some kind of Japanese culture, whether it be samurais, geishas, sumos, kabuki, shamisen music, kimonos, and excessively weird products and advertisements aimed at using nonconformity as a hook to engage viewers. But apart from all that flashy Japan stuff, let’s look at the basics first. Japan (no surprise) speaks Japanese which is actually not that hard to learn conversationally, but it’s a nightmare when it comes to writing. The Japanese language uses three alphabets: hiragana, katakana, and kanji (technically four if you include romaji, but that’s kinda like for lazy people). The first two, hiragana and katakana, are syllabaries made up of 46 corresponding base characters each. That means you have two ways to write each syllable.

Whereas kanji is basically the list of Chinese characters that they borrowed from China. Most students have to learn about 2000-3000 of these. That means that Chinese people can kind of get by in Japan just by reading the signs as most of the characters have identical meanings, just different pronunciations. It’s kind of hard to explain, but the reason why they use three alphabets is because each one kind of plays a role for certain words and contexts. They don’t use spaces in writing so each alphabet kind of acts as like word dividers, and katakana is used for technical and foreign words. Well, why don’t they just fix the problem by using spaces and discard the other two alphabets? Shut up, that’s why! If you didn’t grow up here and actually learn this stuff, you’re either obsessed with Japan or criminally insane. Sorry, I’m boring the crap out of you guys with language stuff – anyway!

Let’s talk about history. Now I’m sure many of you have seen that video by Bill Wurtz (whom I am totally not jealous of considering that he racked up more views and subscribers in two videos than I have in all these years of working on this channel), but in the quickest way I can summarize it: Yayoi Period, Kofun Period (Yamatos unite Japan), Asuka regime (Chinese culture comes in), Heian Period (aristocrats take over), Kamakura Period (aristocrats lose), Shogun Time!, province wars, Azuchi-Momoyama Period (things are stable), Meiji Restoration (industrialization), World War One (Japan’s economy sucks), coup d’états and assassination attempts against the Emperor,

Military rule, they try to make an Empire and in World War Two attack Pearl Harbor, Nagasaki and Hiroshima, afterwards treaty signed, military kind of dismantled and post-war economic miracle. Done! Japan definitely sticks out from every country on Earth, and it’s partially because of their belief system. Japan is the only country in the world that practices Shintoism, which obviously enough started in Japan. If you don’t know anything about Shintoism, basically it’s a very ritualistic belief system that reveres a multitude of “kami”, which translates to something along the lines of “gods” or “spirits” or “essence”. It’s hard to explain, but basically a kami can be manifested in almost anything and everything. There are kami for harvests, kami for war, kami for good luck, and so on. Today, about 80% of Japanese people practice Shinto to some extent, whether it be going to temples or shrines and lighting incense and praying. However, most of them

Will not say that they identify as “Shintoists” since there are no formal rituals to deem yourself a practitioner. Otherwise, about 35% might say that they identify as Buddhist and a small 3% are Christians. Today there are about 81,000 Shinto shrines and about 85,000 appointed Shinto priests all over the country. Technically, Shintoism is also important because it’s claimed that the Emperor is a direct descendant of Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun, which means that the Emperor has the highest authority in Shintoism, though today it’s more seen as like a moral tradition and patriotic practice rather than believing that the Emperor actually has divine status. Oh yeah, and Japan has an Imperial Family with Akihito holding the throne since 1989 and to this day Japan is the only country with an emperor. Some people will say that Shintoism is partially the reason why Japan also has a vibrant, complex industry of cartoons and anime, many of which were inspired by Shinto-driven legends and kami. They often rank as the top video game producing and playing country in the world – everybody knows Mario, Sonic, and Pikachu.

In a sense, Japanese people have always admittedly kind of been escapist, creating their own worlds and it might be due to their long history of diplomatic isolation. In another sense, though, honor and diligence culture is of huge importance; having a degree and respectable title is always flaunted. The problem, though, is that Japan has the largest aging population in the world in which over 26% of the country is 65 or older; in contrast, only about 12.4% are 1 to 14 years old. Sociologists have many theories as to why this is, but in addition to a high depression rate, there seems to be a lack of sexual interest amongst millennials. Especially for men – they even have a word for it: “soushoku-danshi”, or “herbivores”. On top of that, Japan has a very strict and conservative approach towards immigration and citizenship. So, ultimately, a smaller generation has to lift the burden of taking care of a population almost ten times their size. Many Japanese people are overworked – they even have a word for that: “karoshi”.

Some wonder how the future will look like. Hey son, can you help me cross the street? Oh…I would, but you never had a son, so I don’t exist – good luck! Now you can probably understand why the Japanese are so into building robots. There’s so much more we could talk about, like how Japan has a strong history in martial arts, folklore, and regional festivals, but this video is already getting long and I have to cut it down. Some notable people of Japanese descent might include people like: Emperor Hirohito, Fukuzawa Yukichi, Honda Tadakatsu, Kukai, Maeda Toshiie, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Murasaki Shikibu, Saigo Takamori, Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki, Soichiro Honda, Miyoshi Umeki,

Hibari Misora, Rinko Kikuchi, Osamu Dazai, Kei Nishikori, Ayumi Hamasaki, Takeshi Kitano, Masayoshi Son, Akria Toriyama, Sadako Ogata, Taiho Koki, Masako Katsura, Ichiro Suzuki, Hanae Mori, Ken Watanabe, Downtown Duo, Keisuke Honda, and Shinji Kagawa. Now due to their history, Japan has always been like a “lone wolf”, but over time they learned how to open up and let's find out how in the last segment, the… So Japan is a pretty big player on the world stage. As a member of the G20, G8, IMF, WHO, UN, EAS, Interpol, and, like, 400 other acronyms, they know diplomacy pretty well. They get along with Brazil, Peru, and the Philippines pretty well,

As each country contains many Japanese communities. In addition, lots of people from these countries either visit or work in Japan. Peru even had a Japanese president. As mentioned in the France episode, Japan kind of sees France as the epitome of European exoticism. After English, French is one of the most highly-desired languages to learn (although good luck, considering how every French word ends in a consonant). The Pacific island nations of Palau, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands still hold close ties, even though Japan kind of occupied them during the first half of the 20th Century. Japanese people love visiting and provide business and revenue for these countries. Their biggest frenemies are South Korea and China. These three are like the Asian trifecta, dominating most of the business and affairs in the East. Despite Japan having invaded and occupying these two for decades – my own grandmother was actually raised in Japanese-occupied Korea

And to this day she still speaks fluent Japanese – they’ve mostly moved on, plus the whole North Korea thing kind of makes South Korea and Japan closer. The youth of today love piggybacking off of each other’s’ cultures: Koreans and Japanese admit it, they can’t get enough of Japanese anime and video games, whereas the Japanese are obsessed with K-pop. And, you know, they kinda got kanji and Buddhism from China, so, uh, there’s that. In terms of their best friends, however, interestingly enough, most of the Japanese people I’ve talked to have said the USA and Taiwan. Even though they don’t officially recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state on paper, they totally act like they do and stand with them on pretty much any diplomatic measure. Taiwan was actually the longest-lasting occupied area under Japanese rule during the Empire years, and they have since then still kept close.

Even though the pains of World War Two will never be forgotten, it’s funny because almost immediately after that the US and Japan started skipping down the street hand-in-hand. The US kind of felt like a duty to make reparations since there were already communities of Japanese-Americans, especially in Hawaii and California – my hometown Los Angeles has a Little Tokyo – so they invested tons of money in Japan after the war and in the 50’s Japan started booming in every industry. Culture cues were adopted on both sides: McDonald’s opened up in Tokyo, 7-Eleven opened up in the US, they love burgers and Chris Evans, and we have nerds living in their mom’s basements rewatching every season of Naruto Shippuden with ill-fitting cosplay outfits. In conclusion, the Land of the Rising Sun has always kind of figured that the best way for them to open up to the world was to create their own worlds with wild imaginations driven by technology, yet still beautifully preserving the ancient vibrant values of their ancestors.

Oh and by the way, this episode was brought to you by Bob Saget’s Bearsharktopus Coffee Shoes! Watashi wa KOOHII to kutsu ga hoshii
私はコーヒーと靴がほしい
(I want coffee and shoes) Let's super harassment sandwich! Stay tuned: Jordan is coming up next.

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