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Overview - Japan
Nation Name: Japan
Head of State: The Emperor
Head of Government: The Prime Minister
Claims: The Home Islands, Takeshima (Dokdo, Physically Controlled by Korea), Senkaku Islands (Contested by China, Physically Controlled by Japan)
Capital: Tokyo
Population: 125,480,000
Description of Nation's Economy: Japan boasts a highly advanced economy, making it one of the "Asian tigers". It ranks as the world's 3rd largest.
Imports:
Crude petroleum – $72.3 billion.
Coal briquettes – $21.9 billion.
Petroleum gas – $19.3 billion.
Refined petroleum – $16.5 billion.
Copper ore – $9.19 billion.
Exports:
Vehicles: US$122.6 billion (19.1% of total exports)
Machinery including computers: $121.8 billion (19%)
Electrical machinery, equipment: $102.6 billion (16%)
Optical, technical, medical apparatus: $37.5 billion (5.8%)
Plastics, plastic articles: $25.6 billion (4%)
Iron, steel: $22.8 billion (3.6%)
Organic chemicals: $14.9 billion (2.3%)
Gems, precious metals: $13.3 billion (2.1%)
Other chemical goods: $12.2 billion (1.9%)
Ships, boats: $10.8 billion (1.7%)
Economy Type: Collective Capitalism
GDP (Nominal): $5.082 trillion
GDP Per Capita: $42,928
Description of Government: Unitary State Under a Bicameral Parliamentary Democracy and Constitutional Monarchy
Description of Nation's Military: Ranked as the world's 5th strongest military power, Japan maintains a small yet highly advanced land force, a powerful navy, and one of the world's most advanced air forces. The Japanese constitution forbids the country from entering into foreign conflicts, and this military is restricted to defending Japan.
Active Personnel: 247,150
Reserve Personnel: 56,000
Nationality of Equipment: American, Domestic, NATO
Era of Equipment: Modern
Aircraft Carriers: 1, JS Izumo (Converted Helicopter Carrier)
Brief History:
Japan is roughly 3,000 years old. It is a country which is more ancient than Rome. Long have the Japanese been known for their martial prowess, their art, and their culture. In their long history, the Japanese have broken many boundaries. They became the first non-western superpower of the modern age. They defeated Russia, and in the Asia Pacific War, inflicted the largest naval and land defeats in American and British history respectively.
But the momentum of Japan’s 20th century empire waned, and the island nation left the war stripped of her colonial possessions and devastated. Remarkably, Japan did not fall into poverty and chaos, but rather, made one of the most remarkable recoveries in history. Up until 1973, Japan was governed by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, at which point the party faced a number of scandals as it leading figures were caught up in a massive tax evasion scandal. The Nobuhide Affair effectively devastated the LDP’s popularity, and led to the victory of the more centrist left Progressive Party winning majorities with it’s allies in the following Diet elections.
The LDP would lose the Prime Ministers office in 1982 and would not retake the position until 1988. From then until the early 2000s, the Japanese government was divided between narrowly alternating conservative and liberal majorities in the House of Representatives and Councilors while the LDP Prime Ministers struggled to govern. The tides shifted when the Progressive Party finally got a Prime Minister in 2014–2017, and now in 2021, LDP Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga seems on the verge of resigning after his party suffered terrible losses in the most recent 2019 and 2020 elections.
Modern Japan is the worlds third strongest economy, and center of industry, science, art, and technology for the rest of the world.
