Japan

Facts & Stats (http://asia.isp.msu.edu/wbwoa/facts_stats.htm) | History (http://asia.isp.msu.edu/wbwoa/history.htm) | Culture (http://asia.isp.msu.edu/wbwoa/culture.htm) | Geography (http://asia.isp.msu.edu/wbwoa/geography.htm) | Religion (http://asia.isp.msu.edu/wbwoa/religion.htm) | Current Events (http://globaledge.msu.edu/countries/japan/) | Links & Resources (http://asia.isp.msu.edu/wbwoa/links_resources.htm)

Japan has long been seen as Asia’s first “miracle”, a nation that rose from the ashes of World War II to become the leading economic player in Asia, with a standard of living and per capita income on a par with Western nations.  Since 1947 Japan has developed as the US partner in Asia and today its economy and its business practices are models for developing Asia.  Japan has a long history, rich in myth, art, drama, religion.  Japan has borrowed heavily from China in the 6-12th centuries, and from the West in the 19th and 20th centuries; in both cases, it has taken these borrowing and fashioned them into a particular Japanese culture.