Japan, flag ofcountry lying off the east coast of Asia. It consists of a great string of islands in a northeast-southwest arc that stretches for approximately 1,500 miles (2,400 km) through the western Pacific Ocean. Nearly the entire land area is taken up by the country's four main islands; from north to south these are Hokkaido (Hokkaidō), Honshu (Honshū), Shikoku, and Kyushu (Kyūshū). Honshu is the largest of the four, followed in size by Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku. In addition, there are numerous smaller islands, the major groups of which are the Ryukyu (Nansei) Islands (including the island of Okinawa) to the south and west of Kyushu and the Izu, Bonin (Ogsawara), and Volcano (Kazan) islands to the south and east of central Honshu. The national capital, Tokyo (Tōkyō), in east-central Honshu, is one of the world's most populous cities.

Japan is bounded to the west by the Sea of Japan (East Sea), which separates it from the eastern shores of South and North Korea and southeastern Siberia (Russia); to the north by La Perouse (Sōya) Strait, separating it from Russian-held Sakhalin Island, and by the Sea of Okhotsk; to the northeast by the southern Kuril Islands (since World War II under Soviet and then Russian administration); to the east and south by the Pacific; and to the southwest by the East China Sea, which separates it from China. The island of Tsushima lies between northwestern Kyushu and southeastern South Korea and defines the Korea Strait on the Korean side and the Tsushima Strait on the Japanese side.

The Japanese landscape is rugged, with more than four-fifths of the land surface consisting of mountains. There are many active and dormant volcanoes, including Mount Fuji, which, at an elevation of 12,388 feet (3,776 metres), is Japan's highest mountain. Abundant rainfall and the generally mild temperatures throughout most of the country have produced a lush vegetation cover and, despite the mountainous terrain and generally poor soils, have made it possible to raise a variety of crops. Japan has a large and, to a great extent, ethnically homogeneous population, which is heavily concentrated in the low-lying areas along the Pacific coast of Honshu.

Complexity and contrast are the keynotes of life in Japan—a nation possessing an intricate and ancient cultural tradition yet one that, since World War II, has emerged as one of the world's most economically and technologically advanced societies. Heavy emphasis is placed on education, and Japan is one of the world's most literate countries. Tension between old and new is apparent in all phases of Japanese life. A characteristic sensitivity to natural beauty and a concern with form and balance are evident in such cities as Kyōto and Nara, as well as in Japan's ubiquitous gardens. Even in the countryside, however, the impact of rapid Westernization is evident in many aspects of Japanese life. The agricultural regions are characterized by low population densities and well-ordered rice fields and fruit orchards, whereas the industrial and urbanized belt along the Pacific coast of Honshu is noted for its highly concentrated population, heavy industrialization, and environmental pollution.

The mountainous character of the country is the outcome of orogenic (mountain-building) forces largely during the Quaternary Period (the past 1.8 million years), as evidenced by the frequent occurrence of violent earthquakes, volcanic activity, and signs of change in sea levels along the coast. There are no sizable structural plains and peneplains (large land areas leveled by erosion), features that usually occur in more stable regions of the Earth. The mountains are for the most part in a youthful stage of dissection in which steep slopes are incised by dense river-valley networks. Rivers are mostly torrential, and their valleys are accompanied by series of river terraces that are the result of movements in the Earth's crust, as well as climatic and sea-level changes in Holocene times (i.e., the past 10,000 years). Recent volcanoes are juxtaposed with old and highly dissected ones. The shores are characterized by elevated and depressed features such as headlands and bays, which display an incipient stage of development.

These mountain arcs, in turn, generally correspond to Japan's major physiographic regions: the four regions of Japan proper (Hondo)—Hokkaido, Northeastern, Central, and Southwestern—and the Ryukyu and Bonin archipelagoes.

The increasing demand for fresh water for use in wet-rice cultivation and industry and for domestic consumption is a serious problem. Difficulties of supply lie in the paucity of natural water reservoirs, the swift runoff of the rivers, and the engineering difficulties of constructing large-scale dams in the rugged mountains.

In general, Japan's climate is characterized as monsoonal (i.e., governed by seasonal winds). The main influences are the country's latitudinal extent, the surrounding oceans, and its proximity to the neighbouring Asian landmass. There are numerous local climatic variations, the result of relief features. In winter, the high pressure zone over eastern Siberia and the low pressure zone over the western Pacific result in an eastward flow of cold air (the winter monsoon) from late September to late March that picks up moisture over the Sea of Japan. The winter monsoon deposits its moisture as rain or snow on the side of Japan facing the Sea of Japan and brings dry, windy weather to the Pacific side. The pressure systems are reversed during the summer, and air movements from the east and south (the summer monsoon) from mid-April to early September bring warmer temperatures and rain. Cyclonic storms and frequent and destructive typhoons occur during late summer and early fall, especially in the southwest.

Much of the original vegetation has been replaced by agriculture or by the introduction of foreign species to the islands. Semitropical rainforest prevails in the Ryukyu and Bonin archipelagoes and contains various kinds of mulberries, camphor, oaks, and ferns (including tree ferns); madder and lianas are found as undergrowth. In the Amami Islands this type of plant life occurs only on lowlands, but it grows at higher altitudes to the south. There are a few mangrove swamps along the southern coast of Kyushu.

Despite the country's large human population, the land mammals of Japan are relatively numerous in the remote, heavily forested mountain regions. These animals include bears, wild boars, raccoon dogs (tanuki), foxes, deer, antelope, hares, and weasels; some species are distinct from those of the neighbouring Asian continent. Wild monkeys (the Japanese macaque) inhabit many places; those found at the northern tip of Honshu represent the northern limit of monkey habitation in the world.

From the late 19th century, economic and social changes affected even the most remote rural villages, but many traditional aspects have survived. In the villages, many features that are in common with those of other Asian villages are well preserved. Autonomous and cooperative systems of agricultural practices and rituals, as well as mutual assistance among the villagers, have been handed down to the present. These traditions are mixed with modernized farming practices and employment diversification. An autonomous rural unit, generally known as a mura, consists of some 30 to 50 or more households. Now called an aza, this unit should not be confused with the administrative terms mura or son in use after 1888.

Urbanization is generally of recent origin. Except for the former capital cities of Nara, Kyōto, and Kamakura, no sizable town of any significance appeared before the 16th century. Most of the provincial capitals, or koku-fu, of ancient Japan were only administrative centres that contained official residences and were not developed towns. After the latter part of the 16th century, influential temples and feudal lords began to build towns by gathering merchants and craftsmen close to their headquarters. The power of the feudal lords stabilized when they built jōka-machi (castle towns), which were located so as to command and control the main transportation routes and surrounding areas; the majority of Japan's important cities, including Tokyo, developed from them.

The Japanese people are members of the Asiatic geographic race and are closely akin to the other peoples of eastern Asia; they constitute the overwhelming majority of the population. During the Tokugawa period, there was a social (social class) division of the populace into four classes (warrior, farmer, craftsman, and merchant), with a peer class above and an outcast class below. With the exception of the burakumin (literally, “people of the hamlet”), the descendants of the former outcast class, this social-class system has almost disappeared. The burakumin, however, are still subject to varying degrees of discrimination.

Insofar as a social-class system does persist it does not have the ethnic basis that can exist in multiracial societies, since the Japanese regard themselves as belonging to a single ethnic group. The few exceptions include those classified as resident aliens (particularly Koreans) and Japanese citizens of Ainu and, to a lesser degree, Okinawan origin. Japan also has a small population of Chinese descent.

Japanese is the national language, and Ainu is almost extinct. The Japanese language is generally included in the Altaic linguistic group and is especially akin to Korean, although the vocabularies differ. Some linguists also contend that Japanese contains elements of Southeast Asian languages. The introduction of the Chinese (Chinese languages) writing system and of Chinese literature about the 4th century AD enriched the Japanese vocabulary. Until that time Japanese had no written form, and at first Chinese characters (called kanji in Japanese) were used to write Japanese; by the 9th century two syllabaries, known collectively as kana (katakana and hiragana), were developed from them. Since then, a combination of kanji and kana has been used for written Japanese. Although some 3,000 to 5,000 kanji are in general use, after World War II the number of characters necessary for a basic vocabulary was reduced to about 2,000, and the writing of these characters was simplified. Tens of thousands of Western loanwords, principally from English, also have been adopted.

In Japan, the indigenous religion, Shintō, various sects of Buddhism, and Christianity exist together with some ancient shamanistic practices and a number of “new religions” (shinkō shukyō) that have emerged since the 19th century. Not one of the religions is dominant, and each is affected by the others. Thus, it is typical for one person or family to believe in several Shintō gods and at the same time belong to a Buddhist sect. Intense religious feelings are generally lacking except among the adherents of some of the new religions. Japanese children usually do not receive formal religious training. On the other hand, many Japanese homes contain a Buddhist altar ( butsudan), at which various rituals—some on a daily basis—commemorate deceased family members.

Shintō is a polytheistic religion. People, commonly major historical figures, as well as natural objects have been enshrined as gods. Some of the Hindu gods and Chinese spirits were also introduced and Japanized. Each rural settlement has at least one shrine of its own, and there are several shrines of national significance, the most important of which is the Grand Shrine of Ise in Mie prefecture. Many of the ceremonies associated with the birth of a child and the rites of passage to adulthood are associated with Shintō. After the Meiji Restoration (1868), Shintō was restructured as a state-supported religion, but this institution was abolished after World War II.

Buddhism, which claims the largest number of adherents after Shintō, was officially introduced into the imperial court from Korea in the mid-6th century AD. Direct contact with central China was maintained, and several sects were introduced. In the 8th century Buddhism was adopted as the national religion, and national and provincial temples, nunneries, and monasteries were built throughout the country.

Christianity was introduced into Japan first by Jesuit and then by Franciscan missionaries in the mid- to late 16th century. It initially was well received both as a religion and as a symbol of European culture. After the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603), Christians were persecuted, and Christianity was totally banned in the 1630s. Inaccessible and isolated islands and the peninsula of western Kyushu continued to harbour “hiding Christian” villages until the ban was lifted by the Meiji government in 1873. Christianity was reintroduced by Western missionaries, who established a number of Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant congregations. Practicing Christians account for only a tiny fraction of the total population.

Japan is remarkable for its extraordinarily rapid rate of economic growth in the 20th century, especially after World War II. This growth has been based on unprecedented expansion of industrial production and on an aggressive export trade policy. The emphasis on trade stems from Japan's lack of the natural resources needed to support its industrial economy, notably fossil fuels and most minerals; in addition the limited amount of arable land in the country forces it to import much of its food needs.

Japan is now the world's second largest economic power, ranking only behind the United States. It has developed a highly diversified manufacturing and service economy and is one of the world's largest producers of motor vehicles, steel, and high-technology manufactured goods. Japan's standard of living did not increase as rapidly as did the overall economy in the early postwar decades—in large part because of the high percentage of capital reinvestment in those years—but by the mid-1980s it had caught up and was comparable with that found in other developed countries.

With few exceptions, Japan's mineral reserves are small, especially in fossil fuels; and although its mineral deposits are fairly diverse, the quality of those mined is often poor. Coal, iron ore, zinc, lead, copper, sulfur, gold and silver are among the most important minerals, with lesser quantities of tungsten, chromite, and manganese. Japan also has large deposits of limestone. There is an almost complete lack of nickel, cobalt, bauxite (the ore of aluminum), nitrates, rock salt, potash, phosphates, and crude petroleum and natural gas.

Agricultural production is stable or actually declining and accounts for a small and decreasing proportion of the national income. Despite rapid increases in yields after World War II, agricultural productivity per person now is considerably less than per capita output in other sectors of the economy. The agricultural sector employs a relatively large proportion of the working population in comparison to its contribution to national income, but the percentage of the workforce in agriculture is dropping. Many farmers are leaving agriculture for manufacturing and service-industry employment, and most others have to rely on outside occupations for a substantial part of their income.

Japanese agriculture is characterized by a large number of small and often inefficient farms. Larger farms generally are found in Hokkaido, where units of 25 to 50 acres (10 to 20 hectares) are not uncommon. The country's principal crop is rice. Other important farm products include wheat, barley, potatoes, fruits, vegetables, and tea.

The government's agricultural policy has encouraged self-sufficiency in the more important commodities (although this has been achieved only for rice), enlarging the size of the average holding, and closing the gap between rural and urban incomes. The central feature of this policy has been an artificially high producer price for rice. This has succeeded in raising farm incomes and has led to increases in rice production. A surplus of rice, eventual domestic consumer resistance to high prices for rice and other supported commodities, and pressure from foreign governments to reduce barriers to agricultural trade with Japan threaten to undermine this policy.

Despite Japan's considerable forest cover, forestry is a marginal activity. In part this is because many of the best stands are inaccessible. In addition, the reforestation in areas that were excessively logged during World War II is not yet available, and Japan's huge demand for timber, high labour costs and other inefficiencies, and concerns about erosion in Japan's steeply sloped mountains plague the domestic logging industry.

Japan relies heavily on the sea as a source of food, and it has one of the largest fish catches of any nation in the world. Much of the catch is derived from long-distance deep-sea fisheries. In spite of its dominant international position, the Japanese fishing industry faces some serious problems. Local fisheries are depleted by overfishing and water pollution, especially in the Inland Sea, while deep-sea fishing must contend with restrictions placed upon it by nations that have claimed a 200-mile economic zone in their coastal waters. Imports of fishery products exceed exports, the result of the growing Japanese demand for seafood and the high value of the Japanese currency. Aquaculture of fish, shellfish (notably clams and oysters), and seaweed is of increasing importance.

Mining is an unimportant and declining branch of the economy. The extractive industry is characterized by a large number of small and relatively inefficient mines that do not lend themselves to the application of modern, large-scale mining methods. Coal, the most important mineral mined throughout most of Japan's industrial period, is now extracted as a marginal operation. The coal industry suffers from uneconomic production, competition from cheaper foreign coal, and the general use of oil since World War II. Most of the remaining production is in Hokkaido. Virtually the whole of the country's output of oil and natural gas comes from Niigata prefecture. Natural gas also is produced in Chiba and Fukushima prefectures. Zinc and lead production is concentrated in southwestern Hokkaido, northern Tōhoku, and Hokuriku, with the first two areas also associated with sulfur mining. Other metallic ores of economic significance include gold, silver, and tungsten. Limestone quarrying is widespread throughout the Japanese archipelago.

Most of Japan's total electric power is generated by thermal plants. Oil is most important, but generation by coal-fired plants also is significant. Nuclear-power generation has been heavily developed since the 1970s, with a number of nuclear plants now in operation. Hydroelectric development is largely concentrated in central Honshu (along the Shinano, Tenryū, Tone, and Kiso rivers), in Tōhoku, and in some parts of Kyushu. This pattern of distribution ensures that Japan's hydroelectric capabilities are well located in relation to the important industrial areas. Although there is significant undeveloped potential, the best sites are already utilized, and further additions to capacity are increasingly expensive.

The most notable feature of Japan's economic growth since World War II is the rapid development of manufacturing, with progress in quantitative growth, quality, variety, and efficiency. Japan is a sometimes feared competitor whose products are in great demand worldwide. It is one of the world's principal shipbuilders and automakers and is a major producer of such basic products as crude steel, synthetic rubber, aluminum, sulfuric acid, plastics, cement, pulp and paper, refined copper, and cotton yarn. It has some of the world's largest and most advanced industrial plants. The most spectacular growth has been in the production of motor vehicles, iron and steel, machinery (including robots), petrochemicals, precision equipment (notably cameras), and advanced electronic products (including computers and microelectronics, telecommunications equipment, and consumer goods).

Some of the older industries, however, have advanced relatively slowly. The lumber and wood industry, textiles, and foodstuffs have failed to match the expansion in manufacturing as a whole.

A principal reason for Japan's postwar industrial performance was the high level and rapid growth of capital investment, especially in the 1960s and '70s. A boom in equipment investment provided the iron-and-steel and machine-building industries with a rapidly growing home market, allowed for a spectacular increase in productive capacity and in the scale of operations, and led to a rapid replacement of old machinery. This, in turn, resulted in a considerable improvement in productivity throughout the economy and enabled industry to grow, despite an acute shortage of skilled labour and rising wages. Thus, a high rate of labour productivity relative to other major industrial countries, high-quality products, and the extensive use of technological innovations gave many sectors of Japanese manufacturing a formidable advantage over their rivals, with the result that the country's exports soared. A subsequent strategy, carried out with particular success by manufacturers of automobiles and advanced electronic products, was to set up overseas facilities in parts of Asia, North America, and Europe.

Japan's complex financial system is different from that of other developed countries in a number of important respects, the two most important being the major role played by banking and the relatively minor position of securities. The Japanese financial establishment became a major international force in the 1980s: Japan's banks came to dominate international banking, while the Tokyo Stock Exchange emerged as one of the largest securities markets in the world. Much of this growth was based on speculation in a “bubble” economy of highly inflated real estate values. The bursting of the bubble in the early 1990s seriously affected both banking and the securities market.

A significant change in the composition of exports occurred in the late 20th century. The share of total exports of textiles and food products decreased considerably, while exports of machinery (including electronic equipment) and transport equipment grew dramatically, accounting for the largest component of exports. Other important exports include scientific and optical equipment, metal and metal manufactures, and chemicals. The United States is Japan's largest single customer; East and Southeast Asia, western Europe, and the Middle East are other important export destinations.

Japan has a long-established and complex system of wholesale distribution and retail marketing, characterized by numerous intermediary levels in the distribution of goods and small, often family-run retail outlets. This system, for years threatened by Japan's large department stores, is now being challenged by the growth of supermarket and discount-store chains and by mail-order sales. Sales traditionally are transacted in cash, but charge accounts and credit cards are becoming increasingly popular.

Japan has an extremely high density of motor vehicles per unit area in the plains and in other inhabited areas. Trucks represent a much higher proportion of vehicular traffic than in other major motorized countries. The great bulk of domestic freight transport is by truck. Many families now have two or more automobiles and are more likely to drive to a destination than in the past, resulting in road congestion in the big cities and in industrial areas. Although railways still play the major role in carrying commuters, there appears to be no practical solution to the problem of how to reduce the number of cars on the roads. The increases in noxious exhaust gases and in the noise of the traffic are serious problems. Steps taken to alleviate them include stringent pollution-control standards for automobiles and the installation of noise barriers on highways in densely populated areas.

Japan is one of the world's principal seagoing nations and has one of the world's largest merchant fleets. It has engaged in seafaring since early times; but large modern trading ports were not developed until the second half of the 19th century, after the country had reopened to foreign trade following a period of near isolation from the rest of the world. The first of these, Yokohama and Kōbe, remain Japan's leading trade entrepôts, the former being the outport of Tokyo and the latter the outport for Ōsaka and Kyōto. Other important modern ports include Chiba, Nagoya, Kawasaki, Kita-Kyūshū, Mizushima, and Sakai.

Legislative powers are vested in the Diet, which is popularly elected and consists of two houses. The House of Representatives, or lower house (Shūgiin), ultimately takes precedence over the House of Councillors, or upper house (Sangiin). Membership in the House of Representatives is based on proportional representation from prefectural districts, while that in the House of Councillors is divided between proportional representation and at-large representation. The House of Representatives controls the budget and approves treaties with foreign powers. Executive power is vested in the Cabinet, which is organized and headed by the prime minister. If the House of Representatives passes a resolution of no-confidence or refuses to pass a vote of confidence in the government, the Cabinet must resign, unless the House of Representatives is dissolved within 10 days. There are governmental ministries and agencies in addition to the Prime Minister's Office. All offices of the central government are located in and around the Kasumigaseki district in central Tokyo. An independent constitutional body called the Board of Audit is responsible for the annual auditing of the accounts of the state.

It is common for Western observers of postwar Japan to emphasize its great economic achievement without equal regard to cultural attributes. Yet Japanese cultural distinctiveness and the manner in which it developed are instructive in understanding how it is that Japan came to be the first and so far only non-Western country to attain great-power status.

It is not known when humans first settled on the Japanese archipelago. It was long believed that there was no Paleolithic occupation in Japan, but since World War II thousands of sites have been unearthed throughout the country, yielding a wide variety of Paleolithic tools. These include both core tools, made by chipping away the surface of a stone, and flake tools (flake tool), made by working with a stone flake broken off from a larger piece of stone. There is little doubt that the people who used these implements moved to Japan from the Asian continent. At one stage, land connections via what are now the Korea and Tsushima straits made immigration from the Korean peninsula possible, while another connection, via what are now the Sōya and Tsugaru straits, allowed people to come in from northeastern Asia.

The new Yayoi culture that arose in Kyushu, while the Jōmon culture was still undergoing development elsewhere, spread gradually eastward, overwhelming the Jōmon culture as it went, until it reached the northern districts of Honshu (the largest island of Japan). The name Yayoi derives from the name of the district in Tokyo where, in 1884, the unearthing of pottery of this type first drew the attention of scholars. Yayoi pottery was fired at higher temperatures than Jōmon pottery and was turned on wheels. It is distinguished partly by this marked advance in technique and partly by an absence of the proliferating decoration that characterized Jōmon pottery. It developed, in short, as pottery for practical use. It is accompanied by metal objects and is associated with the wet (i.e., irrigated) cultivation of rice. Culturally, the Yayoi represents a notable advance over the Jōmon period and is believed to have lasted for some five or six centuries, from the 3rd or 2nd century BC to the 2nd or 3rd century AD.

The questions of how the unification of Japan was first achieved and of how the Yamato court, with the tennō (“emperor of heaven”) at its centre, came into being in central Honshu have inspired many hypotheses, none of which has so far proved entirely convincing. With the help of Chinese and Korean records, however, it is possible to get at least an approximate idea of the date by which substantial unification had occurred. The relations that Yamatai had begun with Wei were continued with the successor Chin dynasty (Jin dynasty) (265–317); but, following the dispatch of a mission in 266, all records of exchanges cease, and it is not until 147 years later, in 413 during the Eastern Chin dynasty (Dong Jin) (317–419), that the name of Wo again appears in Chinese documents. It is most likely that the blank period resulted from conditions within Japan that made exchanges with other countries impossible. The collapse of Yamatai and the birth pangs of the Yamato kingdom that took its place probably occurred during this period.

As Buddhism gained ground, imposing temples were built in the Chinese style. The astonishment aroused by these great wooded buildings—often built with more than one story and with massive tiled roofs, where previously there had been only low, thatched houses, may well be imagined. A new civilization descended on Japan almost overnight. Of the temples built at the time, all that has survived of most of them are the foundation stones, but the Hōryū Temple, founded between 601 and 607 at Ikaruga in present Nara prefecture, still preserves its ancient wooden structures; its extant buildings, dating from the late 7th and early 8th centuries, are the oldest wooden structures in the world.

In 710 the imperial capital was shifted a short distance from Asuka to Nara. For the next 75 years, with minor gaps, Nara was the seat of government, and the old custom of changing the capital with each successive emperor was finally discarded. During this period, the centralized government provided for under the ritsuryō structure worked reasonably well; it was a time of atypical social mobility based on merit, where those with Chinese learning or Buddhist knowledge enjoyed access to power. Perhaps the most conspicuous feature is the brilliant flowering of culture, especially Buddhist (Buddhism) culture. The leaders in its promotion were the emperor Shōmu and his consort, Kōmyō. Immediately on his accession, Shōmu—who from childhood had been given a thorough schooling as future emperor—showed an eager concern to promote the stable livelihood of the people. Convinced that the Buddhist faith was a means to ensure both the happiness of the individual and peace for the country as a whole, he introduced strong doses of Buddhism into his government.

The second measure taken by Shōmu was the construction of the Tōdai Temple as kokubunji of the capital and the installation within it of a huge bronze figure of the Vairocana Buddha as supreme guardian deity of the nation. The casting of the Great Buddha (Daibutsu) was a tremendously difficult task; but the emperor called on the people at large to contribute to the project, in however humble a way, and thereby partake of the grace of the Buddha. The great image that was produced as a result, though damaged in later ages, still stands in the Tōdai Temple and is famous the world over as the Great Buddha of Nara. The court also tried to attract Chinese monks to Nara. The most important of these was Ganjin (Chinese: Chien-chen), who finally reached Nara in 753 on his sixth attempt and founded the Ritsu sect at Tōshōdai Temple.

In 794, as noted above, the emperor Kammu shifted his capital to Heian, diluted the ties between government and Buddhism, and attempted to revive government in accordance with the ritsuryō. Commanding that the provisions of the ritsuryō system be enforced, he also amended those articles that were no longer relevant to the age. Since it was difficult in practice to carry out the allocation of rice fields once every 6 years, this was amended to once in 12 years. A tighter watch was imposed on corruption among local officials. The original system of raising conscript troops from among the peasantry was abolished, and soldiers were thenceforth selected from among the sons of local officials with martial prowess. Kammu, continuing campaigns that had plagued the regime since Nara times, dispatched large conscript armies against the Ezo (Emishi), a nonsubject tribal group in the northern districts of Honshu who were regarded as aliens. The Ezo eventually were pacified, although the northern border was never fully brought under the control of the central government. Those Ezo who submitted to government forces were resettled throughout the empire and largely assimilated into the existing population.

From the 10th century and through the 11th, successive generations of the northern branch of the Fujiwara clan continued to control the nation's government by monopolizing the posts of sesshō and kampaku, and the wealth that poured into their coffers enabled them to lead lives of the greatest brilliance. The high-water mark was reached in the time of Fujiwara Michinaga (966–1028). Four of his daughters became consorts of four successive emperors, and three of their sons became emperors. Government during this period was based mostly on precedent, and the court had become little more than a centre for highly ritualized ceremonies.

Particularly noteworthy in this respect were the daughters of the Fujiwara, who, under the aristocratic government of the day, became the consorts of successive emperors and surrounded themselves with talented women who vied with each other in learning and the ability to produce fine writing. The hiragana script—largely shunned by men, who composed official documents in stilted Chinese—provided such women with an opportunity to create works of literature. Among such works, The Tale of Genji (Tale of Genji, The) (Genji monogatari), a novel by Murasaki Shikibu, and The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon (Makura no sōshi), a collection of vivid scenes and incidents of court life by Sei Shōnagon, who was a lady-in-waiting to the empress Sadako, are masterpieces of world literature.

In the late Heian period, the more powerful of the samurai, who, as noted above in Aristocratic government at its peak (Japan), first established their power in the provinces, gradually gathered in or near the capital, where they served both the military needs of the state against potential outbreaks of rebellion and also as bodyguards for the great noble houses. Through association with the aristocracy, they gradually established a foothold at court. Outstanding among these samurai were the branch of the Minamoto (or Genji) family descended from the emperor Seiwa and the Taira (Taira Family) (Heike) family lineage that traced its roots to the emperor Kammu. The Seiwa Genji established themselves as clients in the service of successive Fujiwara regents even before Michinaga was regent. Their fame as a warrior clan was greatly heightened in the mid-11th century when they quelled a rebellion in northeastern Japan. The victorious Minamoto (Minamoto Yoshiie) leader Yoshiie became the nation's most celebrated warrior, and many local figures made voluntary vows of allegiance to him and commended lands to him in return for his protection. Yoshiie's sudden rise to power forced the court to view him warily, even denying the commendation of estates from would-be clients. The Taira took advantage of this relative decline to advance their own fortunes again.

The establishment of the bakufu by Minamoto Yoritomo at the end of the 12th century can be regarded as the beginning of a new era, one in which independent government by the warrior class successfully opposed the political authority of the civil aristocracy. Modern scholarly interpretation, however, has retreated from recognizing a major break and the establishment of feudal institutions with the founding of the Kamakura regime. During the Kamakura period, total warrior dominance was not achieved. There was, instead, what approached a dyarchy with civil power in Kyōto and military power in Kamakura sharing authority for governing the nation. Institutions of the Heian imperial-aristocratic system remained in place throughout the Kamakura age, replaced with new feudal institutions when Kamakura passed from the scene.

Although the Gempei War ended in 1185, a dispute between Yoritomo and his brother Yoshitsune (Minamoto Yoshitsune) resulted in continued warfare until 1189, when Yoritomo finally destroyed the northern Fujiwara family of Mutsu province (modern Aomori prefecture), which had sheltered his rebellious brother. Three years later Yoritomo went to Kyōto and was appointed shogun (shogunate) (an abbreviation of seii taishōgun; “barbarian-quelling generalissimo”), the highest honour that could be accorded a warrior. Though he kept the title only briefly and was not known by that term in the documents he issued to manage Kamakura affairs, “shogun” ultimately emerged as the title associated with the head of a bakufu. At first the chief base of the Kamakura bakufu lay in the shōen seized from the Taira family and in the limited administrative revenues from public estates in provinces granted to Yoritomo by the imperial court. But later the bakufu was able to expand its influence over lands that were still controlled by the civil provincial governors, as well as the private estates of the civil aristocracy and the temples and shrines.

After the death of Yoritomo in 1199, real power in the bakufu passed into the hands of the Hōjō Family, from which Yoritomo's wife, Masako, had come. In 1203 Hōjō Tokimasa, Masako's father, assumed the position of regent (shikken) for the shogun, an office that was held until 1333 by nine successive members of the Hōjō family. Taking advantage of disputes among Yoritomo's generals, the Hōjō overthrew and outmaneuvered their rivals, and after three generations the direct line of descent from Yoritomo had become extinct. Though wielding actual power, the Hōjō family was of low social rank, and its leaders could not aspire to become shoguns themselves. Kujō Yoritsune, a Fujiwara scion and distant relative of Yoritomo, was appointed shogun, while Tokimasa's son Hōjō Yoshitoki (shikken 1205–24) handled most government business. Thereafter, the appointment and dismissal of the shogun followed the wishes of the Hōjō family. Shoguns were selected only from the Fujiwara or imperial houses, out of concern for pedigree.

The establishment of the regency government coincided with the rise of the Mongols under Genghis Khan in Central Asia. Beginning in 1206, in the space of barely half a century, they had established an empire extending from the Korean peninsula in the east to as far west as Russia and Poland. In 1260 Genghis Khan's successor, Kublai (Kublai Khan), became Great Khan in China and fixed his capital at present-day Peking (Beijing). In 1271 Kublai adopted the dynastic title of Yüan, and shortly thereafter the Mongols began preparations for an invasion of Japan. In the autumn of 1274 a Mongol and Korean army of some 40,000 men set out from present-day South Korea. On landing in Kyushu it occupied a portion of Hizen province (part of present-day Saga prefecture) and advanced to Chikuzen. The bakufu appointed Shōni Sukeyoshi as military commander, and the Kyushu military vassals were mobilized for defense. A Mongol army landed in Hakata Bay, forcing the Japanese defenders to retreat to Dazaifu; but a typhoon suddenly arose, destroying more than 200 ships of the invaders, and the survivors returned to southern Korea.

In matters of religion, the great social changes that took place between the end of the Heian period and the early Kamakura period fostered a sense of crisis and religious awakening and caused the people to demand a simple standard of faith, in place of the complicated teachings and ceremonies of the ancient Buddhism. The warriors of the farming villages, in particular, demanded a religion that would suit their personal experience. Several new Buddhist sects sprang up that eschewed difficult ascetic practices and recondite scholarship. Among these may be included the Jōdo, or Pure Land, sect mentioned earlier and its offshoot, the Shin (True) school, which sought reliance on the saving grace of Amida, and the sect established by the former Tendai priest Nichiren, which sought salvation in the Lotus Sutra. By contrast, the Zen school sought to open the way to insight by self-effort (jiriki); hence, it met with a ready response, satisfying the demands of many samurai. At the same time, scholarship and the arts were still deeply linked with the Tendai and Shingon sects of esoteric Buddhism, which was a vigorous influence even in Shintō circles. Nonetheless, the new forms of worship expanded popular participation in Buddhism tremendously.

In the visual arts the carving of wooden images of famous monks flourished, and, after the middle of the Kamakura period, Chinese styles of the Sung dynasty also influenced Kamakura wood carving. In painting as well as sculpture, Buddhist themes began to give way to more secular works; especially popular were picture scrolls (emakimono (emaki)), which took as their themes the history of temples and shrines, the biographies of founders of religious sects, and, increasingly, military epics and the secular life of both courtiers and warriors.

After the withdrawal of Go-Daigo to Yoshino, Ashikaga (Ashikaga Yoshimitsu) Takauji set up a bakufu at Nijō Takakura in Kyōto. But in 1378 Takauji's grandson, the shogun Yoshimitsu, moved the bakufu to the Muromachi district in Kyōto, where it remained and took final shape. Yoshimitsu, assisted by the successive shogunal deputies (kanrei) Hosokawa Yoriyuki and Shiba Yoshimasa, gradually overcame the power of the great military governors (shugo) who had been so important in the founding of the new regime. He destroyed the Yamana family in 1391, and, in uniting the Northern and Southern courts, attacked and destroyed the great shugo Ōuchi Yoshihiro, thus gaining control of the Inland Sea. Yoshimitsu was now raised to the highest office of prime minister, or dajō-daijin. He constructed the famed Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji; see below The establishment of warrior culture (Japan)) northeast of the capital in Kitayama, taking great pride in its luxurious display, and also reestablished trade and diplomacy with Ming dynasty China under the title “King of Japan.”

After the Ōnin War, the power of independent local leaders increased markedly, and in many instances deputies of great shugo houses usurped the domains of their superiors, retainers overthrew their overlords, and branch families seized power from main families. Because of this tendency for “inferiors to overcome superiors” (gekokujō), the previous shugo almost completely disappeared from Kyōto and the surrounding provinces; a new type of domain lord, the daimyo, took their place. Since this time was marked by constant warfare among many such lords, it is called the Sengoku (“Warring States”) period, named for a somewhat similar period in ancient Chinese history.

In the arts the nō (Noh theatre) drama developed in the Kamakura period out of the older tradition of agricultural festival dances, and guilds (za) were formed to serve at the ceremonies of temples and shrines and at funeral services. Four such actor guilds were attached to the Kōfuku Temple and the Kasuga Shrine of Yamato province (present Nara prefecture), from which came the father and son Kan'ami and Zeami Motokiyo; under the patronage of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, they laid the foundations for a flourishing nō drama, establishing the guidelines for performance and bequeathing many texts. kyōgen (dialogue plays with dance), which developed from the comic elements of an older form of entertainment called sarugaku, were performed in the intervals of nō drama. Based on themes from the everyday life of the common people, kyōgen were widely appreciated by them, especially because they satirized the upper class. Traditional Japanese waka verse was still composed, but renga (linked verse) became ever more popular and was enjoyed by the warriors and the common people alike. After a time, however, even renga became overly formal, as the waka had, and lost its freshness; hence, the free-style verse called haikai was born.

As Zen prospered, the shoin (shoin-zukuri) architectural style closely connected with this school was widely adopted by both warriors and civil aristocrats in the construction of their residences, becoming the foundation of present-day Japanese domestic architecture. Originally a room in which monks read the Buddhist scriptures, the shoin had several distinctive features: an entrance called a genkan, straw mats called tatami laid out over the entire floor of the room, paper-covered sliding partitions (shoji) between rooms, and an alcove (tokonoma) and shelves at different levels (chigai-dana) for displaying works of art. The custom of hanging a monochrome painting in the tokonoma and placing flowers or an incense bowl before it also became popular at this time. In the construction of gardens, delight was taken in adding the Zen mood of retreat from the world to the old shinden style, making symbolic use of streams, flowers, and bushes. Later, even more symbolic gardens were constructed using arrangements only of stones, raked sand, and gravel.

The carving of images of the Buddha and the Buddhist paintings that had flourished in the Kamakura period declined in later Muromachi times; so, too, did the ancient sects themselves, and new ones arose. Yamato-e painting also declined, and the picture-scrolls lost their freshness. In their place, the increased interest in Zen led to the introduction of monochrome painting in the Sung and Yüan style by the Gozan monks. By the time of Yoshimasa, however, the great painter Sesshū broke away from imitation of Chinese models and opened new frontiers in monochrome paintings. The father and son Kanō Masanobu and Kanō Motonobu introduced the gentle forms of Yamato-e to monochrome painting and became the founders of the new Kanō school.

Tea drinking, introduced from Sung China by the Zen priest Eisai in the Kamakura period, spread among warriors and even common people from the mid-14th century. In the time of the shogun Yoshimasa, Murata Shukō, a man of merchant background from Nara, began the wabi-cha form of tea ceremony by bringing together the cha-no-yu of the civil aristocracy and the cha-yoriai of the common people. This new form spread among the warriors and great merchants and was further stylized by the Sakai merchant Takeno Jōō. The development of the tea ceremony stimulated new forms in tearoom architecture, flower arrangement, pottery, and even the Japanese cakes served with tea. The Higashiyama cultural tradition was further diffused among the common people, and as the levels of wealth and education of urban merchants and artisans rose, they, too, came to enjoy nō and kyōgen dramas, the tea ceremony, and renga. Fairy tales were also widely enjoyed, being easy to read, and included stories that had been related among the people since ancient times. These became popular not only among the children of the nobility and warriors but also among those of the townspeople who were educated in temples and shrines. Muromachi fiction celebrated the life of the burgeoning artisan and merchant classes. Local daimyo also promoted culture within their domains, eager to enhance their dignity as lords by building temples and shrines in their castle towns and by employing artists and scholars who helped spread the culture of Kyōto.

In the 1550–60 period the Sengoku daimyo, who had survived the wars of the previous 100 years, moved into an even fiercer stage of mutual conflict. These powerful daimyo were harassed not only by each other but also by the rise of common people within their domains. The daimyo sought to resolve their dilemma by acquiring land and people to widen their domains and, finally, by trying to seize control of the whole country. That, of course, required the control of Kyōto, the political centre of Japan since ancient times. Out of these bloody struggles emerged one Sengoku daimyo, Oda Nobunaga of Owari province (in modern Aichi prefecture), who succeeded in occupying the capital as the first feudal unifier.

Nobunaga's father was a minor Owari daimyo, whereas Hideyoshi was the son of a peasant from the same province. After entering Nobunaga's service, Hideyoshi impressed all with his brilliant talents, and he soon rose to become one of Nobunaga's most powerful commanders. After Nobunaga's death—his vassal Akechi Mitsuhide assassinated him—Hideyoshi eliminated many rivals by relying on his superb political judgment and shrewd actions, firmly establishing himself as successor. Following in Nobunaga's footsteps, Hideyoshi proceeded to unify the whole country at a rapid pace, and by 1590 all Japan—from Kyushu in the southwest to Tōhoku in the northeast—had come under his control. As an example of Hideyoshi's shrewd judgment, he gave the Kantō domain, formerly controlled by the Hōjō family, to Tokugawa Ieyasu, nominally as a reward for distinguished service. The “reward” forced Ieyasu to move to Edo (modern Tokyo); this was, in fact, a stratagem to remove the Tokugawa family from the Chūbu region around modern-day Nagoya, which had been its power base.

Cultural historians often refer to the last few decades of this era as the Azuchi-Momoyama period, taking the name from Oda Nobunaga's massive fortress at Azuchi, overlooking Lake Biwa at Hikone, and Hideyoshi's magnificent edifice in the Momoyama district, southeast of Kyōto. Often abbreviated as, simply, the Momoyama period, it is characterized by gaudy splendour celebrating the ego of the two great rulers. The defining feature of the age is the castles (castle) —magnificent structures of stone, surrounded by wide moats and topped by graceful ramparts and donjons—that dotted the landscape between the 1580s and 1630s. Many of the associated castle towns were the forerunners of Japan's present provincial capitals (e.g., Okayama, Kanazawa, Hiroshima, Ōsaka, and Matsuyama).

The castles were often filled with items reflecting the personalities of the rulers. In particular, Momoyama culture is noted for the magnificent standing screens, fusuma (sliding doors), and wall paintings of a monumental nature that decorated the castles. Artists of the Kanō school, drawing on the old Yamato-e style, produced colourful pictures of animals and landscapes. Characterized by rich pigments on reflective, gold-leaf backgrounds, these paintings are thought to have enhanced the poor illumination in the massive rooms of these castles. Whatever the reason for the strikingly rich colours and great reliance on gold, Momoyama paintings provide a vivid contrast to the somber tones of the monochrome paintings of the Muromachi era. A specific genre within this tradition is often referred to as namban (“southern barbarian”) pictures, since they represent both the European priests and traders—referred to as “southern barbarians” since they had entered Japan from the South Seas—of the day and their magnificent ships. Nobunaga and Hideyoshi spent great amounts of time and money indulging their cultural proclivities, especially the tea ceremony (cha-no-yu). Both men collected valuable tea bowls, caddies, and other implements associated with the rituals of the ceremony, and Hideyoshi favoured enormous social events, such as the massive tea party scheduled to last for several days in Kyōto in 1587. Not always devoted to ostentation, Hideyoshi extended his patronage to the tea master Sen no Rikyū, the figure from whom all current tea masters trace their lineage. Rikyū brought the tea ceremony to new heights before he was forced to commit suicide by the impetuous Hideyoshi in 1591.

The ancestors of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Edo bakufu, were the Matsudaira, a Sengoku daimyo family from the mountainous region of Mikawa province (in present Aichi prefecture) who had built up their base as daimyo by advancing into the plains of Mikawa. But when they were attacked and defeated by the powerful Oda family from the west, Ieyasu's father, Hirotada, was killed. Ieyasu had earlier been sent to the Imagawa family as a hostage to cement an alliance but had been captured en route by the Oda family. After his father's death Ieyasu was sent to the Imagawa family and spent 12 years there under detention. When, in 1560, Oda Nobunaga destroyed the Imagawa family in the Battle of Okehazama, launching him on his course of unification, Ieyasu was finally released. Ieyasu returned to Okazaki in Mikawa and brought this province under his control. As Oda's ally, he guarded the rear for the advance on Kyōto, and he thereafter fought his own military campaigns, advancing steadily eastward. By 1582 he was a powerful daimyo, possessing, in addition to his home province of Mikawa, the four provinces of Suruga and Tōtōmi (modern Shizuoka prefecture), Kai (Yamanashi prefecture), and southern Shinano (Nagano prefecture).

When Hideyoshi seized power, Ieyasu at first opposed him. But he then submitted, and, rising to be the most powerful daimyo among Hideyoshi's vassals, he became chief of the five tairō (senior ministers), the highest officers of the Hideyoshi regime. After Hideyoshi's death the daimyo split between those supporting Hideyori and those siding with Ieyasu. Matters came to a head at the Battle of Sekigahara (Sekigahara, Battle of) in 1600, where Ieyasu won a decisive victory and established his national supremacy. Ieyasu had seen the failure of both Nobunaga and Hideyoshi to consolidate a lasting regime, and in 1603 he set up the Edo bakufu (more commonly known as the Tokugawa shogunate 【1603–1867】) to legalize this position. Assuming the title shogun, he exercised firm control over the remaining daimyo at this time. On the pretext of allotting rewards after Sekigahara, he dispossessed, reduced, or transferred a large number of daimyo who opposed him. Their confiscated lands he either gave to relatives and Tokugawa family retainers to establish them as daimyo and to increase their holdings, or he reserved them as Tokugawa house domains. Furthermore, Hideyoshi's son and heir Hideyori (Toyotomi Hideyori) was reduced to the position of a daimyo of the Kinki (Ōsaka area) district. Two years after the establishment of the bakufu, Ieyasu relinquished the post of shogun to his son Hidetada, retiring to Sumpu (modern city of Shizuoka) to devote himself to strengthening the foundations of the bakufu. In 1615 Ieyasu stormed and captured Ōsaka Castle, destroying Hideyori and the Toyotomi family. Immediately afterward, the Laws for the Military Houses (Buke Shohatto) and the Laws for the Imperial and Court Officials (Kinchū Narabi ni Kuge Shohatto) were promulgated as the legal basis for bakufu control of the daimyo and the imperial court. In 1616 Ieyasu died, the succession already having been established.

Besides the licensed quarters for prostitutes, theatrical districts also flourished in the Genroku era. Kabuki drama also developed in the early Edo period. Okuni kabuki, named for the female dancing troupe led by Izumo Okuni, became popular at the turn of the 17th century and is conventionally regarded as the origin of this dramatic form. Other troupes imitated her work, developing into yūjo (“prostitutes' ”) kabuki, run by brothel owners. Ultimately, women were banned from kabuki, and actors and prostitutes separated into distinct quarters. A further development was the wakashū (“young-man style”) kabuki, in which the young men were also available as sexual partners; this also was prohibited because of widespread homosexuality. All kabuki was banned following the death of the shogun Iemitsu in 1652. It was allowed once again, but only after substantial reform, in which even women's parts were played by adult males (who were distinguished from the wakashū by shaved forelocks). Kabuki now developed from its previous dancing-act form into a theatrical form centred on a dramatic plot with realistic acting. In western Japan (Kyōto and Ōsaka), the style that emerged was called wagoto (“tender business”), which had a pronounced comical element and concentrated on love; by contrast, the popular form of Edo kabuki was aragoto (“rough business”), which focused on the rash actions of historical heroes. This Edo form of kabuki seemed to suit the rowdy elements of society; indeed the word kabuki itself (using different Chinese ideograms), meaning “inclined,” was first used by wild gangs of outrageously dressed young men called kabukimono.

Distinctive development also occurred in the fine arts and crafts. Ogata Kōrin, for example, brought decorative painting to its highest stage of perfection, bequeathing to posterity many splendid masterpieces in gold lacquer (maki-e) and other media. Techniques of dyeing (dye) and weaving were also improved in the Edo period. In Kyōto, Miyazaki Yūzen developed the splendid techniques of yūzen-zome (a rice-paste batik method of dyeing), and the weaving and decorating of the traditional kimono became even more colourful. In Edo, drawing in traditional styles was further developed by Hishikawa Moronobu, who not only depicted the usual courtesans and actors but also vividly portrayed various aspects of the lives of ordinary people. But Moronobu's real contribution was to develop the Chinese technique of wood-block printing to produce the ukiyo-e (“pictures of the floating world”) style, which met a growing popular demand. Many great Edo-period artists—e.g., Andō Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai—developed the ukiyo-e genre into a unique Japanese art form. Famous centres of pottery production also flourished at various places throughout the country, some ancient, like Seto, but others, like Hagi, stimulated by the influence of Korean potters captured during Hideyoshi's invasions.

Both the old ceremonies of the imperial court and the various forms of warrior etiquette developed by the successive bakufu were codified, studied, and even extended to the common people, helping to shape manners throughout the country. Indeed, Japanese customs in dress, food, and housing became established and somewhat standardized during the Edo period. Even eating habits changed from two to three meals a day; in the cities rice became the standard food, and a rich variety of cakes and sweets were consumed by urban dwellers.

In the world of art, ukiyo-e reached maturity in both form and content and was unquestionably the most popular art form. Early wood-block printing had been simply in black and white, but artists had experimented with colour. nishiki-e, literally “brocade pictures” (wood-block printing in many colours), was invented by Suzuki Harunobu in 1765 and entered its golden age with the prints of kabuki actors by Tshūsai Sharaku and of courtesans by Kitagawa Utamaro. In the last years of the Edo period, the masters of wood-block landscape prints, Andō Hiroshige (Hiroshige) and Katsushika Hokusai (Hokusai), extended the boundaries of wood-block prints far beyond the world of the pleasure quarters. While their prints show how Japanese artists had absorbed some techniques from Western art, the popularity of their works outside Japan and influence on foreign art is a measure of the sophistication Japanese culture reached in Edo times. As a result of the development of complex transportation links and market networks between city and countryside, scholarship, literature, and art not only spread to but even was produced in regional towns and villages, where crafts and products with distinctive local colouring were supported by landlords and merchants. A national culture emerged and became the foundation of a modern Japanese culture that developed after 1868.

In 1845, when Abe Masahiro replaced Mizuno Tadakuni as head of the rōjū, there were various reactions against the Tempō reforms. Reaction against domestic reform was comparatively calm, however, and the major stumbling block facing the bakufu was the foreign problem. The Netherlands, the only European power trading with Japan, realized that, if Britain succeeded in forcing Japan to open the country, it would lose its monopoly; so the Dutch now planned to seize the initiative in opening Japan and thus to turn the situation to their own advantage. In 1844 the Dutch sent a diplomatic mission urging the bakufu to open the country, but Abe and the bakufu rulers refused this suggestion. Yet visits by foreign ships proliferated. In 1844, 1845, and 1846, British and French warships visited the Ryukyu Islands and Nagasaki to request commercial relations. In response, the bakufu in 1845 established a new office for coastal defense and various diplomatic posts. The defense system of Edo Bay also was revived, the number of domains on guard duty was increased, and new gun emplacements were built. In 1848 the bakufu decided not to revive the Order to Drive Away Foreign Ships, which had been rescinded during the Tempō reforms, but decided instead to continue extensive military preparations against potential attack.

Rumours had long circulated among the various Western powers that the U.S. government would send an expeditionary fleet to Japan. In 1846 Commander James Biddle (Biddle, James) of the American East Indian fleet appeared with two warships in Uraga Harbour (near Yokohama) and held consultations with bakufu representatives on the question of opening commercial relations. When refused by the bakufu, Biddle returned empty-handed. The United States, however, eagerly desired ports for fuel and provisions for its Pacific merchant and whaling ships and was not willing to give up attempts to open Japan. But the bakufu had for two centuries retained its political dominance through strict adherence to the policy of seclusion, and it could not muster up the resolution necessary to open the country. Opinion among the daimyo and samurai was split between seclusion and opening the country. The opening of Japan was thus postponed until the last possible moment and had to be effected unilaterally by foreign pressure, backed by massive naval strength. This pressure was initiated by the squadron of U.S. warships commanded by Commodore Matthew C. Perry (Perry, Matthew C) that entered Uraga Bay in July 1853.

The term restoration is commonly applied to the political changes in Japan that returned power to the imperial house in 1868. In that year the boy emperor Mutsuhito—later known by his reign name Meiji, or “Enlightened Rule”—replaced the Tokugawa bakufu, or shogunate, at the political centre of the nation. Although phrased in traditional terms as a restoration of imperial rule, the changes initiated during the Meiji period (1868–1912) constituted a social and political revolution that began in the late Tokugawa period and was not completed until the promulgation of the Meiji constitution in 1889.

Achieving equality with the West was one of the primary goals of the Meiji leaders. Treaty reform, designed to end the foreigners' judicial and economic privileges provided by extraterritoriality and fixed customs duties was sought as early as 1871 when the Iwakura mission went to the United States and Europe. The Western powers insisted, however, that they could not revise the treaties until Japanese legal institutions were reformed along European and American lines. Efforts to reach a compromise settlement in the 1880s were rejected by the press and opposition groups in Japan. It was not until 1894, therefore, that treaty provisions for extraterritoriality were formally changed.

After the conclusion of the war, Japanese leaders gained a free hand in Korea. Korean opposition to Japanese “reforms” was no longer tolerated. Itō Hirobumi, sent to Korea as resident general, forced through treaties that gave Korea little more than protectorate status and ordered the abdication of the Korean king. Itō's assassination in 1909 led to Korea's annexation by Japan the following year. Korean liberties and resistance were crushed. By 1912, when the Meiji emperor died, Japan had not only achieved equality with the West but also had become the strongest imperialist power in East Asia.

The notion that expansion through military conquest would solve Japan's economic problems gained currency during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It was argued that the rapid growth of Japan's population—which stood at close to 65 million in 1930—necessitated large food imports. To sustain such imports, Japan had to be able to export. Western tariffs limited exports, while discriminatory legislation in many countries and anti-Japanese racism served as barriers to emigration. Chinese and Japanese efforts to secure racial equality in the League of Nations covenant had been rejected by Western statesmen. Thus, it was argued, Japan had no recourse but to use force.

Each advance by the military extremists gained them new concessions from the moderate elements in the government and brought greater foreign hostility and distrust. Rather than oppose the military, the government agreed to reconstitute Manchuria as an “independent” state, Manchukuo. The last Manchu emperor of China, P'u-i, was declared regent and later enthroned as emperor in 1934. Actual control lay with the Kwantung Army, however; all key positions were held by Japanese, with surface authority vested in cooperative Chinese and Manchu. A League of Nations (Nations, League of) committee recommended in October 1932 that Japanese troops be withdrawn, Chinese sovereignty restored, and a large measure of autonomy granted to Manchuria. The League called upon member states to withhold recognition from the new puppet state. Japan's response was to formally withdraw from the world body in 1933. Thereafter, Japan poured technicians and capital into Manchukuo, exploiting its rich resources to establish the base for the heavy-industry complex that was to undergird its “new order” in East Asia.

The attack on Pearl Harbor (Pearl Harbor attack) (December 7 【December 8 in Japan】, 1941) achieved complete surprise and success. It also unified American opinion and determination to see the war through to a successful conclusion. The Japanese had expected that, once they fortified their new holdings, a reconquest would be so expensive in lives and treasure that it would discourage the “soft” democracies. Instead, the U.S. fleet was rebuilt with astonishing speed, and the chain of defenses was breached before the riches of the newly conquered territories could be effectively tapped by Japan.

Miyazawa Kiichi, who succeeded Kaifu in 1991, had been a powerful figure within the LDP for several decades. Another damaging political scandal emerged, and Miyazawa, sensing the public outcry, tried to introduce reform legislation in the Diet. This cost him the support of key LDP members, and a no-confidence motion in June 1993, supported by many LDP members, toppled his government. In elections held the following month, the LDP lost its Diet majority to a coalition of opposition parties, ending its 38-year rule.

Emperors and empresses regnant of Japan Emperors and empresses regnant of JapanThe table provides a chronological list of the emperors and empresses regnant of Japan.

Prime ministers of Japan Prime ministers of JapanThe table provides a chronological list of the prime ministers of Japan.

An excellent, textually rich, and well-illustrated compendium is Richard Bowring and Peter Kornicki (eds.), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Japan (1993). Compilations of information on Japan's history and its modern physical, social, political, and cultural environment include Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, 9 vol. (1983), and supplement (1986); Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 2 vol. (1993); Ronald E. Dolan and Robert L. Worden (eds.), Japan: A Country Study, 5th ed. (1992); and Japan: Profile of a Nation (1995). Further research can be found in Bibliography of Asian Studies (annual).Representative atlases of Japan include Teikoku-Shoin Co. (ed.), Atlas Japan: In English & Japanese (1989); Martin Collcutt, Marius Jansen, and Isao Kumakura, Cultural Atlas of Japan (1988); Akira Ebato and Kazuo Watanabe, Atlas of Japan: Physical, Economic, and Social, 2nd rev. ed. (1974), with text in English, French, and Spanish; Grand Atlas of Japan (1985, reissued 1990), published by Heibonsha; and Geographical Survey Institute, The National Atlas of Japan, rev. ed. (1990).

Ryuziro Isida, Geography of Japan (1961), covers the country's physical geography as well as its economy and cultural environment. Glenn Thomas Trewartha, Japan: A Geography (1965, reissued 1979), is considered the classic regional geography in English. Association of Japanese Geographers (eds.), Geography of Japan (1980), is a highly regarded study. Representative geographic works include Regional Geography of Japan, trans. from Japanese, 6 vol. (1957), the proceedings of a conference of the International Geographical Union; Norton Ginsburg, “Economic and Cultural Geography,” in Arthur E. Tiedemann (ed.), An Introduction to Japanese Civilization (1974), pp. 423–459; Gil Latz, “The Experience of Place in Japan,” Asian Art, 5(2):2–7 (Spring 1992); and Jacques Pezeu-Massabuau, The Japanese Islands: A Physical and Social Geography (1978; originally published in French, 1968), a thoughtful account from a European perspective. Toshio Noh (Toshio Nō) and Douglas H. Gordon (eds.), Modern Japan: Land and Man, rev. ed. (1978); and Toshio Noh (Toshio Nō) and John C. Kimura (eds.), Japan: A Regional Geography of an Island Nation, 2nd ed. (1989), review the distinctive regional character of the archipelago. Geomorphology is covered by Watanabe Akira (Akira Watanabe), “Landform Divisions of Japan,” Bulletin of the Geographic Survey Institute, 2(1):81–94 (1950); and Torao Yoshikawa, Sohei Kaizuka, and Yoko Ota, The Landforms of Japan (1981). Climatology is dealt with in E. Fukui (ed.), The Climate of Japan (1977). Aono Hisao (Hisao Aono) and Birugawa Shōhei (Shōhei Birugawa) (eds.), Nihon chishi, 21 vol. (1967–80), is a comprehensive series (in Japanese) dealing with Japan's regional geography by prefectures. A detailed survey of biogeography can be found in M. Numata (ed.), The Flora and Vegetation of Japan (1974).A classic field survey of village life from geographic, historical, and social viewpoints is Richard K. Beardsley, John W. Hall, and Robert E. Ward, Village Japan (1959, reissued 1969). Japan's cities are treated in detail in Ronald P. Dore, City Life in Japan: A Study of a Tokyo Ward (1958, reissued 1965); and in Japanese Cities: A Geographical Approach (1970). David Kornhauser, Japan: Geographical Background to Urban-Industrial Development, 2nd ed. (1982), contains an original assessment of Japan's urban and historical geography.

Three penetrating profiles of Japanese society include Chie Nakane, Japanese Society, rev. ed. (1973, reissued 1984; originally published in Japanese, 1967); Takeo Doi, The Anatomy of Dependence (1973, reissued 1981; originally published in Japanese, 1971); and Takie Sugiyama Lebra (ed.), Japanese Social Organization (1992). George De Vos and Hiroshi Wagatsuma, Japan's Invisible Race: Caste in Culture and Personality, rev. ed. (1972), discusses the burakumin minority. Studies of Japanese religions include Ian Reader, Religion in Contemporary Japan (1991); and H. Neill McFarland, The Rush Hour of the Gods: A Study of New Religious Movements in Japan (1967, reissued 1970). Gender questions are explored in Gail Lee Bernstein, Haruko's World: A Japanese Farm Woman and Her Community (1983); Takie Sugiyama Lebra, Japanese Women: Constraint and Fulfillment (1984); Anne E. Imamura, Urban Japanese Housewives: At Home and in the Community (1987, reissued 1992); and Sumiko Iwao, The Japanese Woman: Traditional Image and Changing Reality (1993).

General background texts include G.C. Allen, Japan's Economic Recovery (1958, reprinted 1986), Japan's Economic Expansion (1965), and A Short Economic History of Modern Japan, 4th ed. (1981); and Penelope Francks, Japanese Economic Development: Theory and Practice (1992). Robert B. Hall, Jr., Japan: Industrial Power of Asia, 2nd ed. (1976), contains a brief analysis of post-World War II industrial development. Japan in Transition: One Hundred Years of Modernization (1968, reissued 1975), is an illustrated description of Japan's transition to an industrial power. Edward Augustus Ackerman, Japan's Natural Resources and Their Relation to Japan's Economic Future (1953), is a basic source for understanding post-World War II economic development. Energy and power issues are treated in Richard J. Samuels, The Business of the Japanese State: Energy Markets in Comparative and Historical Perspective (1987). Cogent analyses of the Japanese agricultural sector can be found in Ronald P. Dore, Land Reform in Japan (1959, reissued 1985), and Shinohata: A Portrait of a Japanese Village (1978, reissued 1994).Other valuable works on the economy are Richard K. Beardsley (ed.), Studies on Economic Life in Japan (1964); Alice H. Cook, An Introduction to Japanese Trade Unionism (1966); William W. Lockwood (ed.), The State and Economic Enterprise in Japan: Essays in the Political Economy of Growth (1965, reissued 1981); Yutaka Matsumura, Japan's Economic Growth, 1945–1960 (1961); Takafusa Nakamura, The Postwar Japanese Economy: Its Development and Structure, 1937–1994, 2nd ed. (1995; originally published in Japanese, 1978); Ardath W. Burks, Japan: A Postindustrial Power, 3rd ed. rev. and updated (1991); Ronald P. Dore, Taking Japan Seriously: A Confucian Perspective on Leading Economic Issues (1987); Frank Gibney, Miracle By Design: The Real Reasons Behind Japan's Economic Success (1982), and Japan: The Fragile Superpower, 2nd rev. ed. (1985); Edward J. Lincoln, Japan's Unequal Trade (1990), and Japan's New Global Role (1993); Kenneth B. Pyle, The Japanese Question: Power and Purpose in a New Era (1992); and Yoshio Suzuki (ed.), The Japanese Financial System (1987, reissued 1992; originally published in Japanese, 1986).

Chalmers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925–1975 (1982), offers a seminal contribution to understanding Japan's government-business relationships. Thoughtful discussions of the Japanese political system include Hans H. Baerwald, Japan's Parliament: An Introduction (1974); Gerald L. Curtis, The Japanese Way of Politics (1988); Takeshi Ishida and Ellis S. Krauss (eds.), Democracy in Japan (1989); and Daniel I. Okimoto and Thomas P. Rohlen (eds.), Inside the Japanese System: Readings on Contemporary Society and Political Economy (1988).Reviews of the Japanese educational system can be found in William K. Cummings, Education and Equality in Japan (1980); Thomas P. Rohlen, Japan's High Schools (1983); and Merry White, The Japanese Education Challenge: A Commitment to Children (1987).

H. Paul Varley, Japanese Culture, 3rd ed. (1984), is the most useful cultural history. Cultural aspects also are treated in the encyclopaedias cited above. Additional sources may be found in the bibliographies to the articles arts, East Asian, and Japanese literature.Gil Latz

The classic survey is George Bailey Sansom, A History of Japan, 3 vol. (1958–63, reissued 1978). The most comprehensive and detailed account in English is John W. Hall et al. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Japan (1988– ). James Murdoch, A History of Japan, 3 vol. (1903–26, reprinted 3 vol. in 6, 1964), though dated, is a pioneer work detailing political history. Shorter, excellent interpretive works include Edwin O. Reischauer, Japan: The Story of a Nation, 4th ed. (1990); Edwin O. Reischauer and Albert M. Craig, Japan: Tradition & Transformation, rev. ed (1989); Edwin O. Reischauer and Marius B. Jansen, The Japanese Today: Change and Continuity, enlarged ed. (1995); Saburō Ienaga, History of Japan, 9th ed. (1965); and John Whitney Hall, Japan from Prehistory to Modern Times (1970, reissued 1991). Another authoritative general history is John K. Fairbank, Edwin O. Reischauer, and Albert M. Craig, East Asia: Tradition & Transformation, rev. ed. (1989). Works covering more specific periods include Mikiso Hane, Premodern Japan: A Historical Survey (1991), and Modern Japan: A Historical Survey, 2nd ed. (1992); John Whitney Hall, Government and Local Power in Japan, 500–1700: A Study Based on Bizen Province (1966, reissued 1980); Conrad Totman, Japan Before Perry: A Short History (1981); and W.G. Beasley, The Rise of Modern Japan (1990), which updates and is based on his classic The Modern History of Japan, 3rd ed. (1981).

Useful works on Japan's ancient history include C. Melvin Aikens and Takayasu Higuchi, Prehistory of Japan (1982), an inventory of archaeological sites and finds; and Gina L. Barnes, Protohistoric Yamato: Archaeology of the First Japanese State (1988). The earliest compilations of myths and histories are contained in L. Carrington Goodrich (ed.), Japan in the Chinese Dynastic Histories: Later Han Through Ming Dynasties, 2nd ed. (1968); and Donald L. Philippi (trans.), Kojiki, trans. from Japanese (1968, reissued 1992). Further English-language materials are W.G. Aston (trans.), Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697, 2 vol., trans. from Japanese and Chinese (1886, reissued 1972); J.E. Kidder, Jr., Japan Before Buddhism, rev. ed. (1966); Michiko Yamaguchi Aoki (trans.), Izumo Fudoki (1971; originally published in Japanese, 1931); Robert S. Ellwood, The Feast of Kingship: Accession Ceremonies in Ancient Japan (1973); and Richard J. Miller, Ancient Japanese Nobility: The Kabane Ranking System (1974), and Japan's First Bureaucracy: A Study of Eighth-Century Government (1978).The Nara and Heian periods are discussed in Robert Borgen, Sugawara no Michizane and the Early Heian Court (1986, reissued 1994); G. Cameron Hurst III, Insei: Abdicated Sovereigns in the Politics of Late Heian Japan, 1086–1185 (1976); Allan G. Grapard, The Protocol of the Gods: A Study of the Kasuga Cult in Japanese History (1992); Ivan Morris, The World of The Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan (1964, reissued 1994); Karl F. Friday, Hired Swords: The Rise of Private Warrior Power in Early Japan (1992); and William Wayne Farris, Population, Disease, and Land in Early Japan, 645–900 (1985), and Heavenly Warriors: The Evolution of Japan's Military, 500–1300 (1992).

Among works of note on medieval Japan are several by Jeffrey P. Mass: Warrior Government in Early Medieval Japan: A Study of the Kamakuru Bakufu, Shugo, and Jitō (1974, reissued 1991), The Development of Kamakura Rule, 1180–1250 (1979), and Lordship and Inheritance in Early Medieval Japan: A Study of the Kamakura Soryō System (1989). Excellent volumes of essays by Japanese and Western scholars include Jeffrey P. Mass (ed.), Court and Bakufu in Japan: Essays in Kamakura History (1982); John Whitney Hall and Jeffrey P. Mass (eds.), Medieval Japan: Essays in Institutional History (1974, reissued 1988); and John Whitney Hall and Toyoda Takeshi (Takeshi Toyoda) (eds.), Japan in the Muromachi Age (1977).Other useful works include H. Paul Varley, Imperial Restoration in Medieval Japan (1971), and Warriors of Japan as Portrayed in the War Tales (1994); Minoru Shinoda, The Founding of the Kamakura Shogunate, 1180–1185 (1960); Kenneth Allen Grossberg, Japan's Renaissance: The Politics of the Muromachi Bakufu (1981); Carl Steenstrup Hōjō Shigetoki, 1198–1261, and His Role in the History of Political and Ethical Ideas in Japan (1979); Peter Judd Arnesen, The Medieval Japanese Daimyo: The Ōuchi Family's Rule of Suō and Nagato (1979); Martin Collcutt, Five Mountains: The Rinzai Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan (1981); Thomas Keirstead, The Geography of Power in Medieval Japan (1992); and Hitomi Tonomura, Community and Commerce in Late Medieval Japan: The Corporate Villages of Tokuchin-ho (1992).

Conrad Totman, Early Modern Japan (1993), is a good general text. Among the many excellent collections of essays are John Whitney Hall and Marius B. Jansen (eds.), Studies in the Institutional History of Early Modern Japan (1968); John Whitney Hall, Nagahara Keiji (Keiji Nagahara), and Kozo Yāmamura (eds.), Japan Before Tokugawa: Political Consolidation and Economic Growth, 1500–1650 (1981; originally published in Japanese, 1978); Chie Nakane and Shinzaburō Ōishi (eds.), Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic Antecedents of Modern Japan (1990); and Tetsuo Najita and Irwin Scheiner (eds.), Japanese Thought in the Tokugawa Period, 1600–1868: Methods and Metaphors (1978, reissued 1988).The Sengoku era is discussed in Mary Elizabeth Berry, Hideyoshi (1982), and The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto (1994); George Elison, Deus Destroyed: The Image of Christianity in Early Modern Japan (1973, reissued 1988); George Elison and Bardwell L. Smith (eds.), Warlords, Artists & Commoners: Japan in the Sixteenth Century (1981); and Neil McMullin, Buddhism and the State in Sixteenth-Century Japan (1984).The political history of the Tokugawa period is best covered in Conrad Totman, Politics in the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1600–1843 (1967), and The Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1862–1868 (1980); James L. McClain, Kanazawa: A Seventeenth-Century Japanese Castle Town (1982); and Harold Bolitho, Treasures Among Men: The Fudai Daimyo in Tokugawa Japan (1974). Economic history is discussed in William B. Hauser, Economic Institutional Change in Tokugawa Japan: Ōsaka and the Kinai Cotton Trade (1974); Thomas C. Smith, The Agrarian Origins of Modern Japan (1959, reissued 1984); Thomas C. Smith, Robert Y. Eng, and Robert Lundy, Nakahara: Family Farming and Population in a Japanese Village, 1717–1830 (1977); Susan B. Hanley and Kozo Yamamura, Economic and Demographic Change in Preindustrial Japan, 1600–1868 (1977); Charles David Sheldon, The Rise of the Merchant Class in Tokugawa Japan, 1600–1868 (1958, reprinted 1973); and Tetsuo Najita, Visions of Virtue in Tokugawa Japan: The Kaitokudō Merchant Academy of Osaka (1987). Excellent scholarship on Tokugawa thought is found in Masao Maruyama, Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan (1974, reissued 1989; originally published in Japanese, 1965); H.D. Harootunian, Things Seen and Unseen: Discourse and Idealogy in Tokugawa Nativism (1988), and Toward Restoration: The Growth of Political Consciousness in Tokugawa Japan (1970, reissued 1991); and Herman Ooms, Tokugawa Ideology: Early Constructs, 1570–1680 (1985). E.H. Norman, Origins of the Modern Japanese State, ed. by John W. Dower (1975), is a collection of representative essays; the themes are continued in two studies of peasant revolts: Herbert P. Bix, Peasant Protest in Japan, 1590–1884 (1986); and Anne Walthall, Social Protest and Popular Culture in Eighteenth-Century Japan (1986). Cultural history is well covered in Ronald P. Dore, Education in Tokugawa Japan (1965, reprinted 1992); Howard Hibbett, The Floating World in Japanese Fiction (1959, reissued 1975); and Donald Keene, The Japanese Discovery of Europe, 1720–1830, rev. ed. (1969). Ronald P. Toby, State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu (1984, reissued 1991), discusses foreign relations.

Useful works on the opening of Japan and the fall of the shogunate include Matthew C. Perry, Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, 3 vol. (1856, reissued 1967); Oliver Statler, Shimoda Story (1969, reprinted 1986); Grace Fox, Britain and Japan, 1858–1883 (1969); and W.G. Beasley (trans. and ed.), Select Documents on Japanese Foreign Policy, 1853–1868 (1955, reissued 1967). Works on the Meiji Restoration include W.G. Beasley, The Meiji Restoration (1972); Marius B. Jansen, Sakamoto Ryōma and the Meiji Restoration (1961, reissued 1994); Albert M. Craig, Chōshū in the Meiji Restoration (1961); Thomas M. Huber, The Revolutionary Origins of Modern Japan (1981), a newer interpretation; and E. Herbert Norman, Japan's Emergence as a Modern State: Political and Economic Problems of the Meiji Period (1940, reprinted 1973). The emergence of the modern state during Meiji is surveyed in William W. Lockwood, The Economic Development of Japan: Growth and Structural Change, expanded ed. (1968, reissued 1974); Thomas C. Smith, Political Change and Industrial Development in Japan: Government Enterprise, 1868–1880 (1955, reissued 1974); Johannes Hirschmeier, The Origins of Entrepreneurship in Meiji Japan (1964); and Marius B. Jansen (ed.), Changing Japanese Attitudes Toward Modernization (1965, reissued 1982).Meiji political issues are the focus of Robert Arden Wilson, Genesis of the Meiji Government in Japan, 1868–1871 (1957, reprinted 1980); George Akita, Foundations of Constitutional Government in Modern Japan, 1868–1900 (1967); and Robert E. Ward (ed.), Political Development in Modern Japan (1968, reissued 1973). Foreign relations are treated in Hilary Conroy, The Japanese Seizure of Korea, 1868–1910: A Study of Realism and Idealism in International Relations (1960, reissued 1974); John Albert White, The Diplomacy of the Russo-Japanese War (1964, reissued 1984); and Shumpei Okamoto, The Japanese Oligarchy and the Russo-Japanese War (1970). Meiji social and intellectual trends can be followed in Kenneth B. Pyle, The New Generation in Meiji Japan: Problems of Cultural Identity, 1885–1895 (1969); Carol Gluck, Japan's Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period (1985); Sharon L. Sievers, Flowers in Salt: The Beginnings of Feminist Consciousness in Modern Japan (1983); and Gail Lee Bernstein (ed.), Recreating Japanese Women, 1600–1945 (1991). Developments in late 19th- and early 20th-century agriculture and industry include James I. Nakamura, Agricultural Production and the Economic Development of Japan, 1873–1922 (1966); Richard J. Smethurst, Agricultural Development and Tenancy Disputes in Japan, 1870–1940 (1986); Andrew Gordon, The Evolution of Labor Relations in Japan: Heavy Industry, 1853–1955 (1985); and Sheldon Garon, The State and Labor in Modern Japan (1987).Works dealing with the emergence of politics and nationalism include Tetsuo Najita, Hara Kei in the Politics of Compromise, 1905–1915 (1967); Peter Duus, Party Rivalry and Political Change in Taishō Japan (1968); Robert A. Scalapino, Democracy and the Party Movement in Prewar Japan (1953, reissued 1975); Gordon Mark Berger, Parties out of Power in Japan, 1931–1941 (1977); Masao Maruyama, Thought and Behavior in Modern Japanese Politics, expanded ed., edited by Ivan Morris (1969); William Miles Fletcher III, The Search for a New Order: Intellectuals and Fascism in Prewar Japan (1982); Delmer Myers Brown, Nationalism in Japan: An Introductory Historical Analysis (1955, reissued 1971); Akira Iriye, After Imperialism: The Search for a New Order in the Far East, 1921–1931 (1965, reissued 1990); Ramon H. Myers and Mark R. Peattie (eds.), The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895–1945 (1984); James B. Crowley, Japan's Quest for Autonomy: National Security and Foreign Policy, 1930–1938 (1966); Francis Clifford Jones, Japan's New Order in East Asia: Its Rise and Fall, 1937–45 (1954, reprinted 1978); and Richard Storry, The Double Patriots: A Study of Japanese Nationalism (1957, reprinted 1973).Studies of the wartime period include Sadako N. Ogata, Defiance in Manchuria: The Making of Japanese Foreign Policy, 1931–1932 (1964, reprinted 1984); a four-volume series, Japan's Road to the Pacific War, ed. by James William Morley, Deterrent Diplomacy: Japan, Germany, and the USSR, 1935–1940 (1976), The Fateful Choice: Japan's Advance into Southeast Asia, 1939–1941 (1980), Japan Erupts: The London Naval Conference and the Manchurian Incident, 1928–1932 (1984), and The China Quagmire: Japan's Expansion on the Asian Continent, 1933–1941 (1983), all trans. from Japanese; Dorothy Borg and Shumpei Okamoto (eds.), Pearl Harbor as History: Japanese-American Relations, 1931–1941 (1973); Ronald H. Spector, Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan (1985); Robert J.C. Butow, Japan's Decision to Surrender (1954, reissued 1967); Thomas R.H. Havens, Valley of Darkness: The Japanese People and World War Two (1978, reprinted 1986); and John W. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (1986, reissued 1993).Important postwar studies include Masataka Kosaka, 100 Million Japanese: The Postwar Experience (1972, reissued as A History of Postwar Japan, 1982); Andrew Gordon (ed.), Postwar Japan as History (1993); Robert E. Ward and Sakamoto Yoshikazu (Yoshikazu Sakamoto) (eds.), Democratizing Japan: The Allied Occupation (1987); Kazuo Kawai, Japan's American Interlude (1960, reprinted 1979); Shigeru Yoshida, The Yoshida Memoirs (1961, reissued 1973; originally published in Japanese, 4 vol., 1957–58); Ezra F. Vogel, Japan as Number One: Lessons for America (1979, reprinted 1985); Hugh Patrick and Henry Rosovsky (eds.), Asia's New Giant: How the Japanese Economy Works (1976); Yasutake Murakami and Hugh Patrick (eds.), The Political Economy of Japan, 3 vol. (1987–92); J.A.A. Stockwin, Japan: Divided Politics in a Growth Economy, 2nd ed. (1982); T.J. Pempel, Policy and Politics in Japan: Creative Conservatism (1982); I.M. Destler et al., Managing an Alliance: The Politics of U.S.-Japanese Relations (1976); Michio Nagai, Higher Education in Japan: Its Takeoff and Crash (1971); Joyce Lebra, Joy Paulson, and Elizabeth Powers (eds.), Women in Changing Japan (1976); Martin E. Weinstein, Japan's Postwar Defense Policy, 1947–1968 (1971); John Owen Haley, Authority Without Power: Law and the Japanese Paradox (1991); Frank K. Upham, Law and Social Change in Postwar Japan (1987); Chae-Jin Lee, China and Japan: New Economic Diplomacy (1984); Dennis J. Encarnation, Rivals Beyond Trade: America Versus Japan in Global Competition (1992); and Edward J. Lincoln, Japan's New Global Role (1993).G. Cameron Hurst III Fred G. Notehelfer