INTRODUCTION Japan is geographically described as having 47 prefectures, with 4 distinct main islands, Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. The distance separating Korea and Kyushu is only 200 km while the distance separating Hokkaido and Sakhalin is only 40 km. The formation of the Japanese civi...

According to Shinto legend two gods, Izanagi and Izanami, which were brother and sister, dipped a spear into the ocean and drops from the spear formed the island of Onokorojima. Izanagi and Izanami then fell to earth and married. Izanami then gave birth to the islands of Japan and a couple more gods...

Japan's earliest settlers were fishers, hunters and food gatherers who traipsed over the land bridges from Korea to the west and Siberia to the north. It's also thought that seafaring migrants from Polynesia were part of the ethnic blend. By 300 AD, the sun-worshipping Yamato ...

Emperor Hirohito ruled over Japan from 1926 until his death in 1989. He saw Japan through World War II, its defeat and resurrection from the ashes to become a world-renowned industrial and economic power. He was the grandson of the famed Emperor Meiji, who was generally considered to be one of the b...