Japan (Japanese: 日本, Nippon [ɲippoꜜɴ] (About this soundlisten) or Nihon [ɲihoꜜɴ]

(About this soundlisten)) is an island country of East Asia in the northwest

Pacific Ocean. It borders the Sea of Japan to the west and extends from the Sea of
Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. Japan is part
of the Pacific Ring of Fire and comprises an archipelago of 6,852 islands covering
377,975 square kilometers (145,937 sq mi); its five main islands, from north to
south, are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is the country's
capital and largest city; other major cities include Osaka and Nagoya.

Japan is the 11th most populous country in the world, as well as one of the most
densely populated and urbanized. About three-fourths of the country's terrain is
mountainous, concentrating its population of 126.2 million on narrow coastal
plains. Japan is administratively divided into 47 prefectures and traditionally
divided into eight regions. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous
metropolitan area in the world, with more than 37.4 million residents.

The islands of Japan were inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period,
though the first mentions of the archipelago appear in Chinese chronicles from the
1st century AD. Between the 4th and 9th centuries, the kingdoms of Japan became
unified under an emperor and imperial court based in Heian-kyō. Starting in the
12th century, however, political power was held by a series of military dictators
(shōgun), feudal lords (daimyō), and a class of warrior nobility (samurai). After a
century-long period of civil war, the country was reunified in 1603 under the
Tokugawa shogunate, which enacted a foreign policy of isolation. In 1854, a United
States fleet forced Japan to open trade to the West, leading to the end of the
shogunate and the restoration of imperial power in 1868. In the Meiji era, the
Empire of Japan adopted a Western-style constitution and pursued industrialization
and modernization. Japan invaded China in 1937; in 1941, it entered World War II as
an Axis power. After suffering defeat in the Pacific War and two atomic bombings,
Japan surrendered in 1945 and came under an Allied occupation, during which it
adopted a post-war constitution. It has since maintained a unitary parliamentary
constitutional monarchy with an elected legislature known as the National Diet.

Japan is a great power and a member of numerous international organizations,

including the United Nations (since 1956), the OECD, and the G7. Although it has
renounced its right to declare war, the country maintains a modern military ranked
as the world's fourth most powerful. Following World War II, Japan experienced
record economic growth, becoming the second-largest economy in the world by 1990.
As of 2019, the country's economy is the third-largest by nominal GDP and fourth-
largest by purchasing power parity. Japan is a global leader in the automotive and
electronics industries and has made significant contributions to science and
technology. Ranked "very high" on the Human Development Index, Japan has the
world's second-highest life expectancy, though it is currently experiencing a
decline in population. Culturally, Japan is renowned for its art, cuisine, music,
and popular culture, including its prominent animation and video game industries.

The name for Japan in Japanese is written using the kanji 日本 and pronounced
Nippon or Nihon.[8] Before it was adopted in the early 8th century, the country was
known in China as Wa (倭) and in Japan by the endonym Yamato.[9] Nippon, the
original Sino-Japanese reading of the characters, is favored today for official
uses, including on banknotes and postage stamps.[8] Nihon is typically used in
everyday speech and reflects shifts in Japanese phonology during the Edo period.[9]
The characters 日本 mean "sun origin", in reference to Japan's relatively eastern
location.[8] It is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising
Sun".[10]

The name Japan is based on the Chinese pronunciation and was introduced to European
languages through early trade. In the 13th century, Marco Polo recorded the early
Mandarin or Wu Chinese pronunciation of the characters 日本國 as Cipangu.[11] The
old Malay name for Japan, Japang or Japun, was borrowed from a southern coastal
Chinese dialect and encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia, who
brought the word to Europe in the early 16th century.[12] The first version of the
name in English appears in a book published in 1577, which spelled the name as
Giapan in a translation of a 1565 Portuguese letter.[13][14]