Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. It sits off the eastern coast of the Asian mainland, across the Sea of Japan from Korea and China. Japan is made up of almost 14,000 islands, though most people live on just four of them: Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku. About 125 million people live in Japan. Its capital and biggest city is Tokyo.

Japan is a long, thin country. If you laid it over the east coast of the United States, it would stretch from Maine all the way down to Florida. Mountains cover about three-quarters of the land, so most people crowd onto small strips of flat ground near the coast. The tallest mountain is Mount Fuji, a volcano that rises 12,389 feet above sea level. It has not erupted since 1707.

Japan sits on the Ring of Fire, where several of Earth's tectonic plates push against each other. This makes it one of the shakiest places on the planet. Japan has about 1,500 earthquakes every year. Most are small, but big ones can cause terrible damage. In 2011, a huge earthquake off the northeast coast set off a tsunami with waves over 100 feet tall in some places. Japanese engineers now build many structures to sway safely when the ground moves.

People have lived in Japan for tens of thousands of years. For hundreds of years, powerful warlords ruled different parts of the country, and warriors called samurai fought for them. An emperor sat on the throne the whole time, but often had little real power. In the 1600s, Japan closed itself off from most of the outside world for more than 200 years. It opened up again in the 1850s and quickly built modern factories, railroads, and a strong military.

In the twentieth century, Japan fought on the losing side of World War II. After the war ended in 1945, Japan rebuilt itself as a peaceful democracy. Today it is one of the world's largest economies. Japanese companies invented the Walkman, built some of the first bullet trains, and make popular cars, video games, and cartoons called anime.

Japanese culture mixes old and new in ways that can surprise visitors. A thousand-year-old wooden temple might stand across the street from a neon-lit skyscraper. People bow to greet each other and take off their shoes before entering a home. Cherry trees bloom in pink clouds every spring, and families gather under them for picnics called hanami. This custom of watching the blossoms has been celebrated for more than a thousand years.