|
Complexity and contrast are the keynotes
of life in Japan—a country possessing an intricate and ancient cultural tradition
yet one that, since 1950, has emerged as one of the world’s most
economically and technologically advanced societies.
Humans have occupied Japan for tens of
thousands of years, but Japan’s recorded history begins only in the 1st
century BCE, with mention in Chinese sources. Contact with China and Korea
in the early centuries ce brought profound
changes to Japan, including the Chinese writing system, Buddhism, and many
artistic forms from the continent. The first steps at political unification
of the country occurred in the late 4th and early 5th centuries ce under the Yamato court. A great civilization then
developed first at Nara in the 8th century and then at Heian-kyō
(now Kyōto) from the late 8th to the late 12th century. The seven
centuries thereafter were a period of domination by military rulers
culminating in near isolation from the outside world from the early 17th to
the mid-19th century.
The reopening of the country ushered in
contact with the West and a time of unprecedented change. Japan sought to
become a modern industrialized nation and pursued the acquisition of a
large overseas empire, initially in Korea and China. By late 1941 this latter
policy caused direct confrontation with the United States and its allies
and to defeat in World War II (1939–45). Since the war, however, Japan’s
spectacular economic growth—one of the greatest of any nation in that
period—brought the country to the forefront of the world economy. It now is
one of the world’s foremost manufacturing countries and traders of goods
and is a global financial leader.
(from
Encyclopedia Britannica)
|
|
|
|
for the
BRIEF HISTORY
OF JAPAN
|
|
|
|
for the
POLITICAL STRUCTURE OF JAPAN
|
|
|
