nation draft Japan
An island nation that has reinvented itself again and again, from samurai rule to industrial empire to pacifist democracy, while holding on to a deep sense of courtesy, harmony and the beauty of passing things.
Mount Fuji · Suicasmo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Understanding a Japanese person in 5 minutes
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Harmony and reading the air
Many Japanese value wa (harmony) and avoiding meiwaku, causing trouble for others. People are expected to "read the air" (kuuki wo yomu), sensing what is unsaid, and to distinguish between honne, one's true feelings, and tatemae, the face shown in public. This is not insincerity so much as a way of keeping a crowded society smooth, and many young Japanese feel its pressure as well as its comfort.
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
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Taking from outside, making it Japanese
Japan has repeatedly borrowed and transformed: Chinese writing, Buddhism and law in the sixth to eighth centuries; Western science, constitutions and railways in the Meiji era; American democracy and consumer culture after 1945. Each time something distinctly Japanese emerged. Many Japanese are proud of this ability to adapt without losing themselves.
- A History of Japan (2nd edition) — Conrad Totman, Blackwell (2005)
- The Making of Modern Japan — Marius B. Jansen, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2000)
- Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II — John W. Dower, W. W. Norton (1999)
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Two religions, lightly worn
Most Japanese say they are not religious, yet they visit Shinto shrines at New Year and for life events, and turn to Buddhist temples for funerals and ancestors. A common joke is "born Shinto, married Christian, die Buddhist". Religion here is more about practice, seasons and belonging than belief or doctrine, and a sense of the sacred in nature runs through it.
- Religion in Contemporary Japan — Ian Reader, Macmillan (1991)
- Shinto: A History — Helen Hardacre, Oxford University Press (2017)
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War, defeat and peace
The Second World War is the great divide in Japanese history. About 3.1 million Japanese died; two cities were destroyed by atomic bombs; the country was occupied. Postwar Japan rebuilt itself as a pacifist democracy whose constitution renounces war. How Japan remembers the suffering it caused, especially in China and Korea, remains its most sensitive international question.
- Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II — John W. Dower, W. W. Norton (1999)
- War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945–2005 — Franziska Seraphim, Harvard University Asia Center (2006)
- The Constitution of Japan — Government of Japan, Prime Minister's Office of Japan (1946)
- Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum: Damage of the atomic bombing — Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, City of Hiroshima
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Craft, care and doing things properly
From tea ceremony to bullet trains running to the second, many Japanese take pride in monozukuri, the art of making things well, and in omotenashi, wholehearted hospitality. Attention to detail, cleanliness and seasonal beauty, from cherry blossoms to autumn leaves, shapes daily life. The flip side can be intense pressure to get everything right.
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan — Ivan Morris, Alfred A. Knopf (1964)
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Rich, safe and getting older
Japan went from ruin to the world's second-largest economy by 1968 and is still one of the richest, safest societies on earth. But since the bubble burst in 1990–91, wages have stagnated, and the population is shrinking: births fell to a record low of 686,061 in 2024, and nearly three in ten people are 65 or older.
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
- Vital Statistics of Japan, 2024 (preliminary annual estimates) — Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Government of Japan (2025)
- Population Estimates (as of October 1, 2024) — Statistics Bureau of Japan, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2025)
The story
Yamato & Nara: the first state
538 – 793 Shinto roots and the coming of Buddhism
Buddhism arrives from Korea and takes root alongside the older worship of kami, the spirits of nature and ancestors, creating Japan's characteristic blend of two religious traditions.
- Shinto: A History — Helen Hardacre, Oxford University Press (2017)
- A History of Japan (2nd edition) — Conrad Totman, Blackwell (2005)
- Religion in Contemporary Japan — Ian Reader, Macmillan (1991)
Read more
- Shinto: A History — Helen Hardacre, Oxford University Press (2017)
- A History of Japan (2nd edition) — Conrad Totman, Blackwell (2005)
- Religion in Contemporary Japan — Ian Reader, Macmillan (1991)
Most Japanese do not call themselves religious, yet they visit Shinto shrines at New Year and for a baby's blessing, and Buddhist temples for funerals and to honour ancestors at Obon. The ease of living with both, and the sense of the sacred in nature, goes back to this meeting of traditions.
Long before Japan had writing, people on the islands worshipped kami: spirits present in mountains, waterfalls, ancient trees, ancestors and natural forces. Japan's oldest chronicles, the Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720), tell how the sun goddess Amaterasu's descendant became the first emperor, Jinmu, traditionally dated to 660 BCE.
Heian court
794 – 1184 The Heian court and the birth of Japanese literature
The capital moves to Heian-kyō (Kyoto), where an aristocratic court develops the kana script and a refined culture that produces The Tale of Genji.
- The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan — Ivan Morris, Alfred A. Knopf (1964)
- The Tale of Genji (translation) — Murasaki Shikibu, trans. Royall Tyler, Viking (2001)
- A History of Japan (2nd edition) — Conrad Totman, Blackwell (2005)
Read more
- The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan — Ivan Morris, Alfred A. Knopf (1964)
- The Tale of Genji (translation) — Murasaki Shikibu, trans. Royall Tyler, Viking (2001)
- A History of Japan (2nd edition) — Conrad Totman, Blackwell (2005)
The Heian aesthetic of seasons, subtlety and the beauty of transience, *mono no aware*, still runs through Japanese art, poetry and everyday sensibility, from cherry-blossom viewing to the way emotion is understated. Kyoto, imperial capital for over a thousand years, remains the heart of "traditional" Japan.
In 794 Emperor Kanmu moved the capital to Heian-kyō, "capital of peace and tranquillity", now Kyoto. It remained the imperial seat until 1868. For the next four centuries power lay largely with the Fujiwara family, who married their daughters to emperors and ruled as regents.
Samurai rule & warring states
1185 – 1599 The samurai and the rise of the shogunate
Warrior clans take real power from the court; Minamoto no Yoritomo founds the first shogunate, and centuries of warrior rule culminate in the civil wars of the Sengoku era.
- Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan — Karl F. Friday, Routledge (2004)
- The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan — Eiko Ikegami, Harvard University Press (1995)
- A History of Japan (2nd edition) — Conrad Totman, Blackwell (2005)
Read more
- Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan — Karl F. Friday, Routledge (2004)
- The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan — Eiko Ikegami, Harvard University Press (1995)
- A History of Japan (2nd edition) — Conrad Totman, Blackwell (2005)
The samurai are Japan's best-known export image, and ideals linked to them, loyalty, discipline, self-control, are still invoked in business and sport. Historians stress that "bushidō" as a code was largely codified much later, in peacetime and in the Meiji era.
By the twelfth century, provincial warriors, the bushi or samurai ("those who serve"), had become indispensable to the court. In the Genpei War (1180–85) the Minamoto clan destroyed their rivals the Taira, and Minamoto no Yoritomo set up a military government at Kamakura. In 1192 he received the title shōgun.
Tokugawa peace (Edo)
1600 – 1867 The Tokugawa peace and 'sakoku'
After victory at Sekigahara, the Tokugawa shoguns impose two and a half centuries of peace, strict social order and tightly controlled foreign contact.
- Tokugawa Ieyasu: Shogun — Conrad Totman, Heian International (1983)
- State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu — Ronald P. Toby, Princeton University Press (1984)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- The Making of Modern Japan — Marius B. Jansen, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2000)
Read more
- Tokugawa Ieyasu: Shogun — Conrad Totman, Heian International (1983)
- State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu — Ronald P. Toby, Princeton University Press (1984)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- The Making of Modern Japan — Marius B. Jansen, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2000)
Much of what the world sees as "traditional Japan", kabuki, ukiyo-e prints, sushi, haiku, castle towns, comes from the Edo period. So does a lingering sense, debated by historians, of Japan as an island nation that chooses carefully what to take from outside.
Tokugawa Ieyasu won the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and became shogun in 1603, ruling from Edo, today's Tokyo. His heirs governed for 265 years through a balance of power with some 260 daimyō, who had to spend alternate years in Edo and leave their families there as virtual hostages.
Japan "closed the country" (sakoku), banning Christianity and foreign travel, and lived in near-total isolation until Commodore Perry forced it open in 1853.
Ronald Toby and others show Japan was never fully closed: it kept regulated relations with the Dutch and Chinese at Nagasaki, Korea via Tsushima, the Ryukyu kingdom via Satsuma, and the Ainu via Matsumae.
Perry's Black Ships and the Meiji Restoration
American warships force Japan to open; within fifteen years the shogunate falls, and a new government ruling in the emperor's name transforms Japan into a modern industrial state.
- The Making of Modern Japan — Marius B. Jansen, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2000)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912 — Donald Keene, Columbia University Press (2002)
- Japan's Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period — Carol Gluck, Princeton University Press (1985)
Read more
- The Making of Modern Japan — Marius B. Jansen, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2000)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912 — Donald Keene, Columbia University Press (2002)
- Japan's Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period — Carol Gluck, Princeton University Press (1985)
The Meiji era is remembered as Japan's great success story: a country that avoided colonisation by modernising at astonishing speed. Its institutions, from schools and railways to the national army and the modern emperor system, made modern Japan, and its legacy of rapid catch-up and "Japanese spirit, Western technology" still shapes how Japanese think about their place in the world.
In July 1853 four American warships under Commodore Matthew Perry steamed into Edo Bay. The Japanese called them the "black ships". Perry demanded that Japan open its ports, and the next year the shogunate signed the Treaty of Kanagawa.
Visionary young samurai from Satsuma and Chōshū overthrew a decaying shogunate, restored the emperor, and through the Charter Oath, the 1889 constitution and universal education built a modern nation that won equality with the West.
The "restoration" was a coup by a small oligarchy that built an authoritarian state around an emperor cult.
The Meiji model impressed Chinese reformers, and thousands of Chinese students went to Japan to learn from it, but it also produced the empire that invaded Korea and China.
Meiji & empire
1868 – 1930 The First Sino-Japanese War
Japan's modernised army and navy crush Qing China in a war over Korea, taking Taiwan and announcing Japan as Asia's new power.
- The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy — S. C. M. Paine, Cambridge University Press (2003)
- The Making of Modern Japan — Marius B. Jansen, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2000)
- The Search for Modern China — Jonathan D. Spence, W. W. Norton (1990)
- The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895–1910 — Peter Duus, University of California Press (1995)
Read more
- The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy — S. C. M. Paine, Cambridge University Press (2003)
- The Making of Modern Japan — Marius B. Jansen, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2000)
- The Search for Modern China — Jonathan D. Spence, W. W. Norton (1990)
- The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895–1910 — Peter Duus, University of California Press (1995)
For Japan, victory proved that the Meiji reforms had worked and started its empire, beginning with Taiwan. For many Japanese it is a distant episode; for neighbours it is where Japanese expansion began, which is one reason the two countries remember the twentieth century so differently.
The war began over Korea, a Qing tributary that both China and Japan wanted to control. When a rebellion broke out there in 1894, both sent troops, and fighting started in July.
A war of aggression that stripped China of Taiwan and its influence in Korea and imposed a crushing indemnity, and a humiliating sign of how far the Qing had fallen behind.
Many Japanese, including Fukuzawa Yukichi, hailed it as a war of "civilisation against barbarism" that freed Korea from Chinese dominance and showed that Japan stood with the modern powers.
A war between two outside powers over Korea's fate, fought after the Joseon court asked for Qing help against its own rebelling peasants.
Empire: victory over Russia and the annexation of Korea
Japan defeats Russia, the first modern victory of an Asian power over a European one, and then annexes Korea as a colony.
- The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895–1910 — Peter Duus, University of California Press (1995)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- The Making of Modern Japan — Marius B. Jansen, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2000)
Read more
- The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895–1910 — Peter Duus, University of California Press (1995)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- The Making of Modern Japan — Marius B. Jansen, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2000)
Victory over Russia was celebrated across Asia and made Japan a great power. The colonisation of Korea (1910–45), including forced labour, the suppression of Korean language and names, and the "comfort women" system, remains the core of a painful relationship with South Korea, and part of why apologies and history textbooks are so politically charged.
Rivalry with Russia over Manchuria and Korea led to war in February 1904. After a costly siege of Port Arthur and a huge land battle at Mukden, Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō destroyed the Russian Baltic Fleet at Tsushima in May 1905.
Japanese colonial rule
Japan annexes Korea and rules it for thirty-five years, modernising the economy for its own ends while suppressing Korean identity and, in wartime, mobilising Koreans as labourers, soldiers and "comfort women".
- Japanese Assimilation Policies in Colonial Korea, 1910–1945 — Mark E. Caprio, University of Washington Press (2009)
- Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey: A Short History — Michael E. Robinson, University of Hawai'i Press (2007)
- The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan — C. Sarah Soh, University of Chicago Press (2008)
- Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II — Yoshimi Yoshiaki, Columbia University Press (2000)
- Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History — Bruce Cumings, W. W. Norton (1997)
Read more
- Japanese Assimilation Policies in Colonial Korea, 1910–1945 — Mark E. Caprio, University of Washington Press (2009)
- Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey: A Short History — Michael E. Robinson, University of Hawai'i Press (2007)
- The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan — C. Sarah Soh, University of Chicago Press (2008)
- Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II — Yoshimi Yoshiaki, Columbia University Press (2000)
- Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History — Bruce Cumings, W. W. Norton (1997)
Many Japanese feel they have apologised repeatedly and that the 1965 treaty settled the past, and grow weary when the issue returns. Others, including many historians and citizens' groups in Japan, have worked to document colonial abuses. The gap between these views shapes every Japan–Korea summit.
Japan made Korea a protectorate after defeating Russia in 1905 and formally annexed it on 29 August 1910. The last emperor, Sunjong, lost his throne, and the country was ruled by a Japanese governor-general, always an army or navy officer, from Seoul.
The annexation was forced on Korea and illegal.
The annexation treaty was legally concluded. Japan built railways, schools and industry in Korea.
Most historians agree that Japanese rule was coercive and discriminatory and that the comfort women system involved widespread coercion.
War
1931 – 1945 The War of Resistance against Japan and the Nanjing Massacre
Japan seizes Manchuria and in 1937 launches full-scale war on China; in Nanjing its troops carry out weeks of mass killing and rape, and by 1945 the war has killed some 14 million or more Chinese.
- Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937–1945 — Rana Mitter, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2013)
- The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography — Joshua A. Fogel (ed.), University of California Press (2000)
- The Making of the "Rape of Nanking": History and Memory in Japan, China, and the United States — Takashi Yoshida, Oxford University Press (2006)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China — Jay Taylor, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2009)
Read more
- Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937–1945 — Rana Mitter, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2013)
- The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography — Joshua A. Fogel (ed.), University of California Press (2000)
- The Making of the "Rape of Nanking": History and Memory in Japan, China, and the United States — Takashi Yoshida, Oxford University Press (2006)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China — Jay Taylor, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2009)
For many Japanese the war in China is a less vivid memory than the Pacific War and the atomic bombs, and schools cover it briefly. How to remember it, and whether Japan has apologised enough, is a fault line in Japanese politics and the biggest obstacle to trust with China.
Japan's war in China began with the Mukden Incident of 18 September 1931, when Japanese officers blew up a stretch of railway near Shenyang and blamed Chinese saboteurs. Japan's Kwantung Army then seized all of Manchuria and set up the puppet state of Manchukuo, with the last Qing emperor, Puyi, as its figurehead.
A war of aggression and atrocity: Nanjing, the "comfort women", the biological warfare of Unit 731, the "Three Alls" campaign.
Successive governments have acknowledged "aggression" and expressed "deep remorse" and apology, notably in the 1995 Murayama statement, and most Japanese historians accept that a massacre took place at Nanjing.
A vocal minority of politicians and writers minimise or deny the massacre, call the war one of self-defence or of liberating Asia from Western colonialism, and reject the Tokyo trials as victors' justice.
There is no serious doubt about mass killing and rape.
The Pacific War and defeat
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and sweeps across Southeast Asia, then is driven back island by island; its cities are firebombed and some 3 million Japanese die before the emperor announces surrender.
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II — John W. Dower, W. W. Norton (1999)
- Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan — Herbert P. Bix, HarperCollins (2000)
- Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan — Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2005)
Read more
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II — John W. Dower, W. W. Norton (1999)
- Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan — Herbert P. Bix, HarperCollins (2000)
- Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan — Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2005)
The war is the great dividing line of modern Japanese history: everything is "prewar" or "postwar". Memories of firebombing, hunger and loss shaped a deep popular pacifism. At the same time, how to remember the dead, the soldiers, and the suffering Japan inflicted on others is still contested.
By 1941 Japan had been at war in China for four years and controlled its coast. When Japanese troops moved into French Indochina, the United States, Britain and the Netherlands froze Japanese assets and cut off oil. Japan's leaders, led by Prime Minister Tōjō Hideki, chose war over withdrawal from China.
Many families remember the war chiefly as their own suffering: sons who never came back, cities burned, hunger and the atomic bombs.
Japan fought for self-preservation against Western encirclement and to free Asia from colonial rule. The Yūshūkan museum at Yasukuni presents a version of this view.
Japan's war was aggression, and focusing on Japanese victimhood obscures the millions it killed across China, Korea and Southeast Asia, from Nanjing to Manila, and the forced labourers and "comfort women" it exploited.
Filipinos remember the war as an invasion they resisted alongside the Americans, from Bataan to the guerrillas, and as a time of atrocity, above all the massacres of the Battle of Manila.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing an estimated 140,000 and 74,000 people by the end of 1945.
- Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum: Damage of the atomic bombing — Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, City of Hiroshima
- Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan — Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2005)
- Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II — John W. Dower, W. W. Norton (1999)
Read more
- Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum: Damage of the atomic bombing — Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, City of Hiroshima
- Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan — Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2005)
- Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II — John W. Dower, W. W. Norton (1999)
Japan is the only country to have suffered atomic attack, and that experience underpins its commitment to nuclear disarmament, its three non-nuclear principles, and a strong popular pacifism. Survivors, the hibakusha, are honoured as witnesses; their organisation Nihon Hidankyo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2024.
m. on 6 August 1945 the American B-29 Enola Gay dropped a uranium bomb over Hiroshima, a city of roughly 350,000 people. It exploded about 600 metres above the centre, creating a fireball and blast that flattened most of the city. On 9 August a plutonium bomb fell on Nagasaki, whose hills limited the damage somewhat.
An atrocity against civilians that must never be repeated anywhere.
The bombs ended the war quickly and saved the lives of many Americans and Japanese who would have died in an invasion of Japan.
Historians disagree on whether surrender could have come without the bombs, how much the Soviet declaration of war mattered (Tsuyoshi Hasegawa argues it was decisive), and whether postwar projections of invasion casualties were inflated.
Focusing on Japan as a victim of the bombs can obscure why the war happened.
Occupation and the postwar constitution
Under US occupation, Japan adopts a new constitution that makes the emperor a symbol, gives women the vote and, in Article 9, renounces war.
- Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II — John W. Dower, W. W. Norton (1999)
- The Constitution of Japan — Government of Japan, Prime Minister's Office of Japan (1946)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
Read more
- Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II — John W. Dower, W. W. Norton (1999)
- The Constitution of Japan — Government of Japan, Prime Minister's Office of Japan (1946)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
The constitution has never been amended. Whether to revise Article 9, and how far the Self-Defense Forces should go, is the longest-running debate in Japanese politics. Many Japanese see the pacifist constitution as the core of their postwar identity; conservatives call it an imposed document.
General Douglas MacArthur's occupation set out to demilitarise and democratise Japan. Women voted for the first time in 1946. Land reform broke up landlord estates, the giant zaibatsu conglomerates were partly dismantled, labour unions were legalised, and wartime leaders were tried at the Tokyo tribunal (1946–48), where seven were hanged. The emperor was not tried, a decision still debated.
Whatever its origins, Japanese people embraced it; Article 9 has kept Japan out of war for eight decades and should be protected.
The constitution was drafted by American officials in about a week and imposed on a defeated country.
Postwar recovery & boom
1946 – 1990 The economic miracle, the bubble and the 'lost decades'
From the ruins of war Japan becomes the world's second-largest economy, symbolised by the 1964 Olympics and bullet train, before a spectacular asset bubble bursts in 1990–91.
- MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925–1975 — Chalmers Johnson, Stanford University Press (1982)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
- Japan as Number One: Lessons for America — Ezra F. Vogel, Harvard University Press (1979)
Read more
- MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925–1975 — Chalmers Johnson, Stanford University Press (1982)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
- Japan as Number One: Lessons for America — Ezra F. Vogel, Harvard University Press (1979)
Older Japanese remember a country of rising incomes, lifetime employment and national confidence. Younger generations have grown up with stagnant wages, insecure jobs and deflation. That gap shapes attitudes to work, marriage and the future.
Japan's economy grew at around 10 percent a year from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. Factors included high savings, an educated workforce, US procurement during the Korean War, access to American markets, and industrial policy coordinated by bureaucrats at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which Chalmers Johnson made famous.
War memory, apologies and Yasukuni
Textbook disputes, apology statements and prime ministers' visits to Yasukuni Shrine keep the Second World War a live and painful issue between Japan and its neighbours.
- War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945–2005 — Franziska Seraphim, Harvard University Asia Center (2006)
- Statement by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama: On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the war's end — Tomiichi Murayama, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (1995)
- Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the result of the study on the issue of comfort women — Yohei Kono, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (1993)
- Never Forget National Humiliation: Historical Memory in Chinese Politics and Foreign Relations — Zheng Wang, Columbia University Press (2012)
- The 20th Japan–China Joint Opinion Poll — The Genron NPO and China International Communications Group, The Genron NPO (2024)
Read more
- War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945–2005 — Franziska Seraphim, Harvard University Asia Center (2006)
- Statement by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama: On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the war's end — Tomiichi Murayama, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (1995)
- Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the result of the study on the issue of comfort women — Yohei Kono, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (1993)
- Never Forget National Humiliation: Historical Memory in Chinese Politics and Foreign Relations — Zheng Wang, Columbia University Press (2012)
- The 20th Japan–China Joint Opinion Poll — The Genron NPO and China International Communications Group, The Genron NPO (2024)
Most Japanese see themselves as a peaceful people who have apologised many times, and many are weary of the issue; a nationalist minority rejects the "masochistic" view of history. How to honour the war dead without honouring the war is still unresolved, and it shapes relations with China and South Korea.
5 million people who died fighting for Japan's emperor. In 1978 its priests secretly enshrined fourteen men convicted or charged as Class-A war criminals by the Tokyo tribunal, including wartime prime minister Tōjō Hideki. Emperor Hirohito stopped visiting after that, and no emperor has visited since.
Japan expressed "deep remorse and heartfelt apology" in the 1995 Murayama statement, reaffirmed by later governments, and has been a peaceful country for eighty years.
Apologies ring hollow when leaders worship at a shrine that enshrines convicted Class-A war criminals, when textbooks downplay atrocities, and when politicians question the comfort women issue or the Nanjing Massacre.
After the bubble
1991 – today Shrinking and ageing Japan
Japan's population peaks around 2008 and begins to shrink; births fall to record lows and nearly three in ten people are 65 or older.
- Vital Statistics of Japan, 2024 (preliminary annual estimates) — Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Government of Japan (2025)
- Population Estimates (as of October 1, 2024) — Statistics Bureau of Japan, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2025)
- Population Projections for Japan (2023 revision): 2021 to 2070 — National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, IPSS (2023)
- 2023 Housing and Land Survey: preliminary results — Statistics Bureau of Japan, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2024)
Read more
- Vital Statistics of Japan, 2024 (preliminary annual estimates) — Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Government of Japan (2025)
- Population Estimates (as of October 1, 2024) — Statistics Bureau of Japan, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2025)
- Population Projections for Japan (2023 revision): 2021 to 2070 — National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, IPSS (2023)
- 2023 Housing and Land Survey: preliminary results — Statistics Bureau of Japan, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2024)
Demographic decline touches every part of life: empty rural villages and abandoned houses, schools closing, labour shortages, a strained pension system, and quiet debates about immigration, work culture and the pressures on women. It is one of Japan's defining challenges.
8 million. 15. About 29 percent of people are 65 or older, the highest share of any major country.
The 2011 earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima
A magnitude 9.0 earthquake triggers a tsunami that kills about 18,000 people and causes three reactor meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi.
- 3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan — Richard J. Samuels, Cornell University Press (2013)
- Great East Japan Earthquake: Progress to date — Reconstruction Agency, Government of Japan (2024)
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
Read more
- 3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan — Richard J. Samuels, Cornell University Press (2013)
- Great East Japan Earthquake: Progress to date — Reconstruction Agency, Government of Japan (2024)
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
"3.11" is a shared national trauma. It left lasting distrust of the nuclear industry and the authorities, displaced communities, many never to return, and a renewed emphasis on *kizuna*, the bonds between people. The release of treated water from the plant since 2023 remains a dispute with China.
m. 0 earthquake struck off the coast of Tōhoku in northeastern Japan, the most powerful ever recorded in the country. Within an hour tsunami waves, in places more than 30 metres high, swept over coastal towns.
Core values & worldview
If you want to understand a Japanese person, start with how much thought goes into getting along. Japan is a crowded island nation, and many of its social habits, apologising often, not imposing, paying attention to others’ comfort, are ways of keeping that crowding graceful. Concepts like wa (harmony), meiwaku (being a nuisance, to be avoided) and kuuki wo yomu (“reading the air”) come up again and again when Japanese people describe their own culture.
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
Group and role. Many people think of themselves first as members of a group, family, school, company, team, and of what that role requires. Seniority matters, which is why language shifts with politeness levels (keigo) depending on who you are speaking to.
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
Sincerity through form. Bowing, careful gift wrapping, formal greetings: to outsiders, these can look like empty ritual. To many Japanese, doing things the proper way is itself a form of respect and care.
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
Beauty in impermanence. The Heian idea of mono no aware, a gentle sadness at the passing of things, still shapes how many people feel about cherry blossoms, autumn leaves and endings. So does wabi-sabi, an appreciation of the simple, imperfect and weathered.
- The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan — Ivan Morris, Alfred A. Knopf (1964)
- The Tale of Genji (translation) — Murasaki Shikibu, trans. Royall Tyler, Viking (2001)
Peace. After 1945, pacifism became a core part of national identity for many Japanese. Memories of firebombing, hunger and the atomic bombs, passed down in families and schools, run deep, even as views on defence have shifted with tension in the region.
- Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II — John W. Dower, W. W. Norton (1999)
- War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945–2005 — Franziska Seraphim, Harvard University Asia Center (2006)
Daily life & customs
Shoes come off at the entrance to homes (and some schools, temples and restaurants). People bow in greeting and thanks, from a slight nod to a deep bow of apology. Business cards are offered and received with both hands. Tipping is not done; good service is simply expected.
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
The calendar is full of seasonal rituals. At New Year (shōgatsu), the most important holiday, families gather, eat special foods and make the first shrine visit of the year (hatsumōde); Meiji Shrine in Tokyo draws millions. In spring, people picnic under cherry blossoms. In August, during Obon, families return to hometowns to welcome ancestors’ spirits and tend graves. Weddings are often in a Western-style chapel, and funerals are almost always Buddhist.
- Religion in Contemporary Japan — Ian Reader, Macmillan (1991)
- Shinto: A History — Helen Hardacre, Oxford University Press (2017)
Everyday life is famously orderly: trains run on time, streets are clean despite few rubbish bins, and lost wallets are often returned. Convenience stores (konbini) sell everything from rice balls to concert tickets. Visitors bring back omiyage, small gifts, usually local sweets, for colleagues after a trip.
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
Work has traditionally been central to identity, especially for men. Long hours and after-work drinking with colleagues were the norm in the postwar “salaryman” model, and karōshi (death from overwork) has been a recognised problem. Government reforms since 2018 have capped overtime, and younger workers increasingly prize balance.
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
Wounds & sensitivities
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. About 140,000 and 74,000 people died by the end of 1945. Japan is the only nation to have suffered atomic attack, and casual jokes about the bombs, or treating them as simply justified, can deeply hurt.
- Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum: Damage of the atomic bombing — Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, City of Hiroshima
- Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan — Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2005)
The war and its memory. This is double-edged. Many Japanese families remember the war mainly as their own loss and suffering. At the same time, accusations that Japan has never apologised frustrate many, who point to repeated official apologies such as the 1995 Murayama statement. Questions about Nanjing, “comfort women” or Yasukuni can make people uncomfortable, defensive or sad; few want to be personally blamed for the acts of their great-grandparents’ generation.
- War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945–2005 — Franziska Seraphim, Harvard University Asia Center (2006)
- Statement by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama: On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the war's end — Tomiichi Murayama, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (1995)
- Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II — Yoshimi Yoshiaki, Columbia University Press (2000)
Natural disasters. Earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons are part of life. The 2011 disaster killed about 18,000 people and left Fukushima evacuees and their stigma as an ongoing wound.
- 3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan — Richard J. Samuels, Cornell University Press (2013)
- Great East Japan Earthquake: Progress to date — Reconstruction Agency, Government of Japan (2024)
Being reduced to a stereotype. Samurai, geisha, anime and “weird Japan” clichés grate on many Japanese, as do jokes about their English or assumptions that they are all reserved or robotic.
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
Modern attitudes
Divided on Article 9. The constitution has never been amended. Conservatives, especially in the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party, want to revise Article 9 to recognise the Self-Defense Forces; many others see it as a safeguard of peace. Rising tension with China and North Korea has made more people accept a stronger defence, and Japan raised defence spending sharply from 2022.
- The Constitution of Japan — Government of Japan, Prime Minister's Office of Japan (1946)
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
Cool toward China. In the 2024 Genron NPO poll about 89 percent of Japanese respondents had an unfavourable view of China, reflecting disputes over the Senkaku Islands, wartime memory and Beijing’s assertiveness. Many still admire Chinese history, literature and food, and Chinese visitors are once again among the largest groups of tourists in Japan.
- The 20th Japan–China Joint Opinion Poll — The Genron NPO and China International Communications Group, The Genron NPO (2024)
Gender, slowly changing. Japan ranked 118th of 146 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Gender Gap index, held back by very few women in politics and senior management. In October 2025 Sanae Takaichi became the country’s first woman prime minister. Same-sex marriage is not legal, though several high courts have ruled the ban unconstitutional.
- Global Gender Gap Report 2024 — World Economic Forum, World Economic Forum (2024)
- Japan — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica
Worries about the future. Shrinking towns, stagnant wages, a weak yen and an ageing population dominate the news. Japan has cautiously opened to more foreign workers, and debates about immigration, once almost taboo, are now mainstream.
- Population Projections for Japan (2023 revision): 2021 to 2070 — National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, IPSS (2023)
- Vital Statistics of Japan, 2024 (preliminary annual estimates) — Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Government of Japan (2025)
Not all Japanese people are the same
Regions. People from Osaka and the Kansai region are known, and know themselves, as more talkative and quick to joke than Tokyoites. Tōhoku in the northeast is seen as stoic, Kyushu as warm-hearted. Dialects differ strongly.
- Japan — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica
Okinawa. Okinawans descend from the people of the independent Ryukyu Kingdom, annexed in 1879. The 1945 battle and the US bases that still occupy much of the main island give many Okinawans a distinctive, often critical view of both Tokyo and Washington.
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II — John W. Dower, W. W. Norton (1999)
The Ainu. The Indigenous people of Hokkaido were pressed to assimilate after the Meiji era and were only recognised by law as an Indigenous people in 2019.
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- Japan — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica
Zainichi Koreans and others. Many ethnic Koreans whose families came, often forcibly, during colonial rule have lived in Japan for generations, some still as permanent residents without citizenship. Descendants of the historically outcast burakumin still sometimes face discrimination. A growing number of residents are from China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brazil and Nepal.
- The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895–1910 — Peter Duus, University of California Press (1995)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
Generations. Those who grew up during the boom remember lifetime employment and national optimism; those born after 1990 have known only stagnation and insecure work. Older Japanese may feel more strongly about wartime memory; younger ones are more likely to feel distant from it.
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
The Nikkei diaspora. Japanese emigrants went to Hawaii, the Americas and especially Brazil from the late nineteenth century. During the war about 120,000 Japanese Americans, most of them US citizens, were incarcerated in camps; the US government apologised and paid reparations in 1988.
- Japanese Diasporas: Unsung Pasts, Conflicting Presents, and Uncertain Futures — Nobuko Adachi (ed.), Routledge (2006)
- A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America — Greg Robinson, Columbia University Press (2009)
Meeting someone
Conversation starters
- Food and travel inside Japan. Ask about their hometown’s specialities or favourite onsen; every region has its proud local dish.
- Japan — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The seasons. Cherry blossoms, autumn leaves, summer festivals: seasonal talk is a natural opener.
- Culture they love. Anime, manga, baseball, J-pop, Ghibli films or old Kurosawa classics; but let them lead rather than assuming.
- Your own attempts. Trying a few words of Japanese, or chopsticks, is usually met with warmth and encouragement.
Topics to approach carefully
- The war. Avoid blaming individuals; if the subject comes up, listen. Many Japanese are thoughtful about it but may find it hard to discuss with outsiders.
- War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945–2005 — Franziska Seraphim, Harvard University Asia Center (2006)
- The atomic bombs. Don’t make light of them or open with “the bombs were justified”.
- Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum: Damage of the atomic bombing — Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, City of Hiroshima
- China and Korea. Relations are complicated and politically charged; personal views often differ from headlines.
- The 20th Japan–China Joint Opinion Poll — The Genron NPO and China International Communications Group, The Genron NPO (2024)
- The emperor and imperial family. Generally treated with quiet respect; jokes may fall flat.
- Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan — Herbert P. Bix, HarperCollins (2000)
- Direct criticism. Saying no directly or criticising someone in front of others can cause embarrassment; Japanese people often signal disagreement indirectly.
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson (2011)
Common misconceptions
- “Japan is completely homogeneous.” It is relatively uniform, but there are Ainu, Okinawans, Zainichi Koreans, a growing immigrant population and big regional differences.
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- “Japan has never apologised for the war.” Governments have apologised many times; the dispute is about sincerity, consistency and what politicians say and do alongside the apologies.
- Statement by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama: On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the war's end — Tomiichi Murayama, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (1995)
- Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the result of the study on the issue of comfort women — Yohei Kono, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (1993)
- War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945–2005 — Franziska Seraphim, Harvard University Asia Center (2006)
- “Japan was totally closed until 1853.” It traded in controlled ways with the Dutch, Chinese, Koreans and Ryukyuans throughout the Edo period.
- State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu — Ronald P. Toby, Princeton University Press (1984)
- “Japanese people are cold or robotic.” Reserve in public often gives way to warmth, humour and great generosity among friends, especially over food and drink.
- “Samurai and geisha are still everywhere.” The samurai class was abolished in the 1870s; Japan is one of the most modern societies on earth, even if it treasures its traditions.
- The Making of Modern Japan — Marius B. Jansen, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2000)
People everyone knows
Murasaki Shikibu
A lady-in-waiting at the Heian court in Kyoto who wrote The Tale of Genji in the early eleventh century, often called the world's first great novel. Writing in Japanese kana rather than the Chinese used by men for official work, she captured the court's sensitivity to beauty, seasons and the sadness of passing things (mono no aware). Her dates are uncertain. She remains a national icon, and Genji is still read, adapted and taught in every Japanese school.
- The Tale of Genji (translation) — Murasaki Shikibu, trans. Royall Tyler, Viking (2001)
- The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan — Ivan Morris, Alfred A. Knopf (1964)
Tokugawa Ieyasu
The last of the three great unifiers of the Warring States era, after Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He won the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, became shogun in 1603 and founded a dynasty that ruled from Edo (Tokyo) until 1867. The long Tokugawa peace, with its fixed social order, controlled foreign contact and flourishing city culture, shaped much of what the world thinks of as "traditional" Japan.
- Tokugawa Ieyasu: Shogun — Conrad Totman, Heian International (1983)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
- A History of Japan (2nd edition) — Conrad Totman, Blackwell (2005)
Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito)
He came to the throne as a teenager in 1867, and the 1868 "restoration" of imperial rule took his reign name. The oligarchs who governed in his name abolished the samurai class, built railways, schools and a conscript army, and adopted a constitution in 1889. Meiji himself became the symbol of a modern, unified nation, and the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, built in his honour, draws millions of visitors every New Year.
- Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912 — Donald Keene, Columbia University Press (2002)
- The Making of Modern Japan — Marius B. Jansen, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2000)
- Japan's Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period — Carol Gluck, Princeton University Press (1985)
Fukuzawa Yukichi
A low-ranking samurai turned writer and educator who travelled to the United States and Europe in the 1860s and became modern Japan's great popular teacher of Western ideas. His bestselling An Encouragement of Learning opens by saying that heaven does not create one person above or below another, and he founded what became Keio University. He also argued that Japan should part ways with China and Korea, a view read very differently in those countries. His face was on the 10,000-yen note for four decades.
- The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa — Fukuzawa Yukichi, trans. Eiichi Kiyooka, Columbia University Press (1966)
- The Making of Modern Japan — Marius B. Jansen, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2000)
Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa)
Emperor from 1926 to 1989, through militarism, war, defeat and recovery. On 15 August 1945 his recorded voice told the nation, for the first time, that Japan would surrender. The US occupation kept him on the throne and he was never tried. Historians still debate how far he shaped wartime decisions; Herbert Bix argues he was an active participant. To many older Japanese he symbolised survival and rebuilding; to many in China and Korea, unpunished responsibility.
- Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan — Herbert P. Bix, HarperCollins (2000)
- Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II — John W. Dower, W. W. Norton (1999)
Yoshida Shigeru
A diplomat and prime minister for most of 1946–54 who steered Japan through the occupation and the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951. The "Yoshida Doctrine" bore his name: rely on the US alliance for security, keep the military small, and pour national energy into economic growth. That bargain framed Japan's postwar identity as a peaceful trading nation and is still argued over today.
- Empire and Aftermath: Yoshida Shigeru and the Japanese Experience, 1878–1954 — John W. Dower, Harvard University Press (1979)
- Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II — John W. Dower, W. W. Norton (1999)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
Try it yourself
The quickest way into a culture: a song, a film, a book and a dish.
“Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.”
“Japan, following a mistaken national policy, advanced along the road to war ... and, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations.”
Listen
- Ue o Muite Arukō ("Sukiyaki") Kyu Sakamoto's 1961 song about walking with your head up so the tears won't fall; it topped the US charts in 1963 under an unrelated title.▶ Listen
Watch
- Tokyo Story Yasujirō Ozu's 1953 film about elderly parents visiting their busy grown-up children; quiet, devastating and regularly named among the greatest films ever made.▶ Watch
- Seven Samurai Akira Kurosawa's 1954 epic of masterless samurai defending a village; endlessly remade, from The Magnificent Seven onward.▶ Watch
- Spirited Away Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 Studio Ghibli fantasy, full of kami and bathhouse spirits; it won the Oscar for best animated feature.▶ Watch
Read
Taste
- Washoku Traditional Japanese cuisine, listed by UNESCO as intangible heritage in 2013; seasonal, simple and beautifully presented.Recipe
See & do
- The Great Wave off Kanagawa Hokusai's woodblock print of about 1831, with Mount Fuji tiny behind the wave; it inspired European artists, and Hokusai's Fuji prints now decorate the pages of Japanese passports.Look it up
- Hanami Cherry-blossom viewing each spring, when friends, families and co-workers picnic under the trees; the blossoms' brief life is a classic image of beauty and impermanence.Look it up
Where
Homeland Diaspora Significant place
Related
Sources & further reading
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press, 2003
- Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History — Bruce Cumings, W. W. Norton, 1997
- The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea — Byung-Kook Kim and Ezra F. Vogel (eds.), Harvard University Press, 2011
- The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan — C. Sarah Soh, University of Chicago Press, 2008
- Japan's Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period — Carol Gluck, Princeton University Press, 1985
- Korea Old and New: A History — Carter J. Eckert, Ki-baik Lee, Young Ick Lew, Michael Robinson and Edward W. Wagner, Ilchokak / Korea Institute, Harvard University, 1990
- MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925–1975 — Chalmers Johnson, Stanford University Press, 1982
- A History of Japan (2nd edition) — Conrad Totman, Blackwell, 2005
- Tokugawa Ieyasu: Shogun — Conrad Totman, Heian International, 1983
- Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912 — Donald Keene, Columbia University Press, 2002
- The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan — Eiko Ikegami, Harvard University Press, 1995
- Japan — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Japan as Number One: Lessons for America — Ezra F. Vogel, Harvard University Press, 1979
- War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945–2005 — Franziska Seraphim, Harvard University Asia Center, 2006
- The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa — Fukuzawa Yukichi, trans. Eiichi Kiyooka, Columbia University Press, 1966
- The Constitution of Japan — Government of Japan, Prime Minister's Office of Japan, 1946
- A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America — Greg Robinson, Columbia University Press, 2009
- Shinto: A History — Helen Hardacre, Oxford University Press, 2017
- Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan — Herbert P. Bix, HarperCollins, 2000
- Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum: Damage of the atomic bombing — Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, City of Hiroshima
- Religion in Contemporary Japan — Ian Reader, Macmillan, 1991
- The Philippines under Japan: Occupation Policy and Reaction — Ikehata Setsuho and Ricardo Trota Jose (eds.), Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1999
- The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan — Ivan Morris, Alfred A. Knopf, 1964
- Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila — James M. Scott, W. W. Norton, 2018
- The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China — Jay Taylor, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009
- Japan in Transformation, 1945–2010 (2nd edition) — Jeff Kingston, Pearson, 2011
- Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II — John W. Dower, W. W. Norton, 1999
- Empire and Aftermath: Yoshida Shigeru and the Japanese Experience, 1878–1954 — John W. Dower, Harvard University Press, 1979
- The Search for Modern China — Jonathan D. Spence, W. W. Norton, 1990
- The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography — Joshua A. Fogel (ed.), University of California Press, 2000
- Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan — Karl F. Friday, Routledge, 2004
- The Making of Modern Japan — Marius B. Jansen, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000
- Japanese Assimilation Policies in Colonial Korea, 1910–1945 — Mark E. Caprio, University of Washington Press, 2009
- Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey: A Short History — Michael E. Robinson, University of Hawai'i Press, 2007
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield, 2016
- Vital Statistics of Japan, 2024 (preliminary annual estimates) — Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Government of Japan, 2025
- The Tale of Genji (translation) — Murasaki Shikibu, trans. Royall Tyler, Viking, 2001
- Population Projections for Japan (2023 revision): 2021 to 2070 — National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, IPSS, 2023
- Japanese Diasporas: Unsung Pasts, Conflicting Presents, and Uncertain Futures — Nobuko Adachi (ed.), Routledge, 2006
- The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895–1910 — Peter Duus, University of California Press, 1995
- Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937–1945 — Rana Mitter, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013
- Great East Japan Earthquake: Progress to date — Reconstruction Agency, Government of Japan, 2024
- 3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan — Richard J. Samuels, Cornell University Press, 2013
- State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu — Ronald P. Toby, Princeton University Press, 1984
- The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy — S. C. M. Paine, Cambridge University Press, 2003
- Population Estimates (as of October 1, 2024) — Statistics Bureau of Japan, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 2025
- 2023 Housing and Land Survey: preliminary results — Statistics Bureau of Japan, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 2024
- The Making of the "Rape of Nanking": History and Memory in Japan, China, and the United States — Takashi Yoshida, Oxford University Press, 2006
- The 20th Japan–China Joint Opinion Poll — The Genron NPO and China International Communications Group, The Genron NPO, 2024
- Statement by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama: On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the war's end — Tomiichi Murayama, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 1995
- Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan — Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005
- Global Gender Gap Report 2024 — World Economic Forum, World Economic Forum, 2024
- Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the result of the study on the issue of comfort women — Yohei Kono, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 1993
- Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II — Yoshimi Yoshiaki, Columbia University Press, 2000
- Never Forget National Humiliation: Historical Memory in Chinese Politics and Foreign Relations — Zheng Wang, Columbia University Press, 2012