Japan - Facts & Stats
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Location:
Eastern Asia, island chain between the North Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan, east of the Korean Peninsula
Country Name:
conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Japan
Nationality:
noun: Japanese (singular and plural)
adjective: Japanese
Capital:
Tokyo
Flag Description:
The Japanese Flag is a white banner whose center contains a red circle representing the sun without rays. The Japanese flag is called Hinomaru, which means "circle of the sun." In English it is sometimes called the "rising sun." The sun has been the state symbol in Japan for centuries. During the Mongol Invasions of the 13th Century, the priest Nichiren presented a sun flag to the shogun. Much later in the Tokugawa shogunate in the early 1600s a similar flag was adopted for the naval symbol, and from the mid-19th century all Japanese ships were to be recognized by the flag with the sun on a white field. The same symbol became the National Flag of Japan following the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
http://www.asianet.fi/materialbank/flags/symbolism_of_japan_flag.htm
Government Type:
constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government
Administrative Divisions:
47 prefectures; Aichi, Akita, Aomori, Chiba, Ehime, Fukui,
Fukuoka, Fukushima, Gifu, Gumma, Hiroshima, Hokkaido, Hyogo, Ibaraki, Ishikawa, Iwate,
Kagawa, Kagoshima, Kanagawa, Kochi, Kumamoto, Kyoto, Mie, Miyagi, Miyazaki, Nagano,
Nagasaki, Nara, Niigata, Oita, Okayama, Okinawa, Osaka, Saga, Saitama, Shiga, Shimane,
Shizuoka, Tochigi, Tokushima, Tokyo, Tottori, Toyama, Wakayama, Yamagata, Yamaguchi,
Yamanashi
Independence:
660 BC (traditional founding by Emperor Jimmu)
Language:
Japanese
Ethnic Groups:
Japanese 99%, others 1% (Korean 511,262, Chinese 244,241, Brazilian 182,232, Filipino 89,851, other 237,914)
Religion:
observe both Shinto and Buddhist 84%, other 16% (including Christian 0.7%)
Population:
126,974,628 (July 2002 est.)
Population Growth Rate:
.15% (2002 est.)
Age Structure:
0-14 years: 14.5% (male 9,465,282; female 8,999,888)
15-64 years: 67.5% (male 43,027,320; female 42,586,112)
65 years and over: 18% (male 9,664,112; female 13,231,914) (2002 est.)
Life Expectancy:
male: 78 years ; female: 84 years (2002 est.)
Literacy rate:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99% (1970 est.)
male: NA%
female: NA%
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Gross Domestic Product (GDP):
$3.55 trillion (2001 est.)
Currency:
yen (JPY; 132.66JPY=1USD)
Area:
145,709 sq. miles (slightly smaller than California)
Climate:
varies from tropical in south to cool temperate in north
Terrain:
mostly rugged and mountainous
Natural Resources:
negligible mineral resources, fish
