Japan

Map
of Japan

General information:

Japan is a group of islands with a very large population of 127 341 088
people (July 2012). Japan is filled with huge cities known all over the world like the capital Tokyo and other
major cities like Osaka, Nagoya and Sapporo. Japan is made up of 6852 islands and has one of the tallest
mountains in the world, standing at 3776m tall, Mt. Fuji.

The language spoken in Japan is Japanese/Nihongo, Nihongo is what the Japanese call their language and the
word means sun origin. In some tourist areas like Tokyo Japanese people might speak English. The Japanese
alphabet is called hiragana and the language is very complicated.

Japan is the world leader of technology, especially in the capital, Tokyo where many hi tech companies are
based. Some well-known brands like Honda, Nintendo, Sony, Cannon, Toyota and Sharp are all Japanese
companies.


Sport:

There are lots of national sports in Japan like Sumo Wrestling, Karate, Ju-jitsu and
they also like Baseball even though it isnt a national sport. The Japanese are very
fond of fighting and some of their best fighters are very well known.
Ju-jitsu competition

History:

Around 8000 B. C. people from Asia migrated to Japan. Within the groups/tribes they formed different
cultures and religions. At around 200 B.C. invaders came from Asia and took over Japan easily with their
superior weapons. This happened again in 250 A.D. more invaders came and took over Japan. After
generations with the new comers and what they brought with them the two groups mixed and they invented
new tools involving bronze and iron.

The history of the Samurai is also part of the Japanese culture and history. A
Samurai is an ancient warrior. In their time they were basically police.
A very well-known Japanese story is about the 47 Ronin (a Ronin is a Samurai
whose master died). It was based on the true event in 1701 when 47 Ronins
revenged the death of their master and then were forced to kill themselves as
punishment even though they had done the right thing. The story became famous
in Japan and there have been many plays, movies and novels.


Japan fought in both WW1 and WW2 Japan were on the side of Germany. In WW2 Japan was the last country
to surrender. They only surrendered when America dropped 2 atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki -
forcing the government to surrender.

Climate and Geography:
Japan is very interesting when it comes to weather. The Coldest its ever been was -41
degrees and their highest is 40 degrees! Japan suffers from a lot of things like acid rain,
pollution from factories. They get lots of natural disasters. There are 118 volcanos in
Japan. Did you know that of Japan is either mountains or forest so it is hard to build
residential or business areas.










Mt Fuji
Tourism: Senso-ji
Japan is the 2
nd
fastest country growing in tourism. In 2013 189 000
Australians visited Japan. In Japan there are heaps of landmarks in japan
like Mt. Fuji, Tokyo and Senso-ji. Tokyo may be the capital of Japan but it
isnt as boring as you would think having the Japanese government in
Tokyo. Some tourist attractions in Tokyo are Tokyo tower standing at 333 meters high. If you are going you do
need a fair bit of money. In Japan their culture is very interesting, there are lots of famous temples in Japan
like the Senso-ji Temple. The best time to visit Japan is in their summer or spring.

Health and security:
Japan is a quite safe environment for adults and children. The last war in Japan ended in 1945. If youre sick
there is a very good health service. It is quite easy to get a good education. 99% of Japanese people over 15
can read and write, well at least in Japanese. The life expectancy in Japan is 84 years and 6 months, this means
that the health system in Japan is very good.

Importing and exporting:
Japan is huge in importing and exporting. They export cars, vehicle parts, circuits,
printers and other machinery are the main 5 things japan exports. Mostly to
China, USA and South Korea. Australia in at number 9. Importing is even bigger in
Japan because they have barely any room for farming. They order a lot of crude,
gas, petroleum, coal and computers. China, USA and Australia give them most of
these items.
Canon Printer


Bibliography

For more information please go to the following websites:

1. http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/content/kids/en_US/explore/countries/japan/

2. http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/

3. http://atlas.media.mit.edu/profile/country/jpn/

4. http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/fs/jap.pdf