Portal:Japan

Main   Geography   Projects Japan, officially Nippon-koku (日本国) is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of China, Korea and Russia. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes identified as the "Land of the Rising Sun". Japan comprises over 3,000 islands, the largest of which are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku. Most of the islands are mountainous, many volcanic; for example, Japan’s highest peak, Mount Fuji, is a volcano. Japan has the world's tenth largest population, with about 128 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents. Influence from the outside world followed by long periods of isolation has characterized Japan's history. Since adopting its constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament, the Diet. A major economic power, Japan has the world's third largest economy by nominal GDP. It is a member of the United Nations, G8, G4, OECD and APEC, with the world's fifth largest defense budget. It is also the world's fourth largest exporter and sixth largest importer and a world leader in technology and machinery. The posting system is a baseball player transfer system currently in effect between Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and the United States' Major League Baseball (MLB). NPB players have never been eligible to be obtained through the traditional means of the Rule 4 Draft, and since there were no set legal rules in place to govern the process, problems arose. The system was implemented for two reasons. First, the NPB players Hideo Nomo and Alfonso Soriano used loopholes to void contracts and leave for the MLB - possibly taking fans with them. Second, NPB player Hideki Irabu had very little negotiating power when it came to his trade deal between NPB and MLB teams. By creating a system that requires MLB teams to pay NPB teams transfer fees while allowing players the power to negotiate their own trade deals, the posting system presumably was meant to solve both problems. As of 2008, twelve Japanese players have been "posted" using the system. Of these, seven were immediately signed to Major League contracts, three were signed to minor league contracts and two were unsuccessful in drawing any MLB interest. The two highest-profile players that have been acquired through the posting system are Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Respectively, they attracted high bids of $13.125 million and $51.1 million and have enjoyed highly successful careers in the MLB. Zhou Maoshu Appreciating Lotuses, c. 15th century Zhou Maoshu Appreciating Lotuses, c. 15th century, an ink painting in suiboku style by Kanō Masanobu. The scroll has been designated a National Treasure of Japan. June 14: Births 1899 - Yasunari Kawabata (d. 1972), writer and novelist, Nobel Prize laureate 1947 - Hiroshi Miyauchi, actor 1968 - Nene Otsuka, actress 1975 - Ryuji Miki, race car driver 1983 - Hirofumi Araki, actor and singer 1983 - Ayumi Beppu, actress Film and television 2014 - Climbing to Spring, a drama film starring Kenichi Matsuyama, Yu Aoi, Etsushi Toyokawa, and Kaoru Kobayashi “ I have lived in the United States and I know the might of their industrial complex. The United States is a sleeping giant and I am afraid that our attack has awakened it. ” —Chuichi Nagumo, admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy Archive Tōru Takemitsu was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Though largely self-taught, Takemitsu is recognised for his skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre, drawing from a wide range of influences, including jazz, popular music, avant-garde procedures and traditional Japanese music, in a harmonic idiom largely derived from the music of Claude Debussy and Olivier Messiaen. In 1958, the international attention he drew with his Requiem for strings (1957) resulted in several commissions from across the world, and settled his reputation as the leading Japanese composer of the 20th century. He was the recipient of numerous awards, commissions and honours; he composed over one hundred film scores for ensembles of various sizes and combinations. He also found time to write a detective novel, and appeared frequently on Japanese television as a celebrity chef. In the foreword to a selection of Takemitsu's writings in English, conductor Seiji Ozawa commented: "I am very proud of my friend Tōru Takemitsu. He is the first Japanese composer to write for a world audience and achieve international recognition." February 8: North Korea launches long-range missile December 20: Barça beat River Plate 3-0 to win third FIFA Club World Cup December 18: Suárez scores a hat-trick, Barcelona advances to FIFA Club World Cup 2015 Final September 11: Typhoon Etau causes more leakage at Fukushima April 24: Power outage at Fukushima poses radioactive risk March 4: Explorers find shipwreck thought to be massive WWII battleship Musashi January 22: Japanese Olympic judoka Hitoshi Saito dies aged 54 September 18: Chinese President signs multiple trade deals with India June 29: Canada wins 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship June 28: Germany and Canada into 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championships final June 27: Germany, Netherlands, Canada and USA into Women's Wheelchair Basketball Championships semi-finals June 26: Belgian men's goalball team departs for Finland for World Championships June 25: Japanese wheelchair basketball player Mari Amimoto leads in scoring at world championships June 19: Japan bans possession of child pornography June 15: Annual Japanese whaling campaign kills 30 minke whales May 19: North Korean singer thought executed appears on state television March 28: Japan agrees to ship nuclear materials to U.S. February 8: Japan government panel urges reinterpretation of pacifist constitution December 7: Wikinews interviews academic Steve Redhead about Australian women's soccer October 9: Japanese adults rank high in literacy and numeracy in OECD survey Midtown Tower in Tokyo, Japan ... that, at 248.1 metres (814 ft), Midtown Tower (pictured) is the tallest building in Tokyo? ...that Kaiyō Maru, a Japanese steam warship, was the flagship of Admiral Enomoto Takeaki of the rebel Republic of Ezo in the Boshin War? ... that the Japanese visual novel 5 has been described by its development team as a "noisy northern province love comedy"? ... that one of the humanoid robots created by Japanese roboticist Tomotaka Takahashi was listed in Time’s Coolest Inventions in 2004? ... that a 15th-century bell from the Gokoku-ji Buddhist temple in Japan was sent to the U.S. in 1854 and rung when the Naval Academy at Annapolis won the annual Army-Navy football game? ▼ Japan ► Buildings and structures in Japan ► Communications in Japan ► Japanese culture ► Economy of Japan ► Geography of Japan ► Government of Japan ► History of Japan ► Military of Japan ► Politics of Japan ► Science and technology in Japan ► Japanese society ► Sport in Japan ► Tourist attractions in Japan ► Transport in Japan ► Images of Japan These are all of the Japan-related portals on Wikipedia: AKB48 Ancient Japan Anime and Manga Asian Games Dragon Ball Final Fantasy Japanese cars Karate The Legend of Zelda Nintendo Origami Osaka Pokémon Sega Shinto SNK Sonic the Hedgehog Sony PlayStation Studio Ghibli Tokyo Eras Paleolithic | Jōmon | Yayoi | Kofun | Asuka | Nara | Heian | Kamakura | Muromachi | Azuchi-Momoyama | Edo | Meiji | Taishō | Shōwa | Heisei History Economic history | Educational history | Military history | Naval history | Meiji Restoration | Occupied Japan | Post-occupation Japan Politics Constitution | Government | Emperors | Imperial Household Agency | Prime Ministers | Cabinet | Ministries | National Diet (House of Councillors · House of Representatives) | Judicial system | Elections | Political parties | Foreign relations Culture Clothing | Customs and etiquette | Education | Festivals | Food | Holidays | Language | Religion Art Architecture | Cinema | Literature | Music | Theatre (Noh · Kabuki · Bunraku) Economy Primary sector | Industry | Currency | Tokyo Stock Exchange | Communications | Transportation (Shinkansen · Tokyo Metro · Railway companies) Other Demographics | List of Japanese people Asia Ancient Japan Anime & manga Japanese cars Karate Origami Osaka Shinto Tokyo Topics Culture Geography Health History Mathematics Nature People Philosophy Religion Society Technology What are portals? 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