Japan

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Japan

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(jə-păn')

A country of Asia on an archipelago off the northeast coast of the mainland. Traditionally settled c. 660 B.C., Japan's written history began in the 5th century A.D. During the feudal period (12th-19th century) real power was held by the shoguns, whose dominance was finally ended by the restoration of the emperor Mutsuhito in 1868. Feudalism was abolished, and the country was opened to Western trade and industrial technology. Expansionist policies led to Japan's participation in World War II, which ended after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 1945). Today the country is highly industrialized and noted for its advanced technology. Tokyo is the capital and the largest city. Population: 127,000,000.

WORD HISTORY   Stamp collectors know that Nihon and Nippon on Japanese stamps mean "Japan"; what they probably don't know is that Nihon, Nippon, and Japan are all ultimately the same word. In the early part of the Chinese Tang dynasty-in A.D. 670, to be precise-Japanese scholars who had studied Chinese created a new name for their country using the Chinese phrase for "origin of the sun, sunrise," because Japan is located east of China. In the Chinese of the time (called Middle Chinese), the phrase was nzyet-pwun. To this the scholars added the Chinese suffix -kwuk, "country," yielding a compound nzyet-pwun-kwuk, "sun-origin-country, land of the rising sun." The consonant clusters in the word were not pronounceable in Old Japanese, so the form was simplified to Nip-pon-gu or *Ni-pon-gu, the latter developing by regular sound change to Ni-hon-gu. The forms Nippon and Nihon of today are the same as these, minus the "country" suffix. Interestingly, the Chinese themselves took to calling Japan by the name that the Japanese had invented, and it is from the Chinese version of the name that English Japan is ultimately derived. In Mandarin Chinese, one of the forms of Chinese to develop from Middle Chinese, the phrase evolved to Rìběnguó, an early form of which was recorded by Marco Polo as Chipangu, which he would have pronounced as (chĭ-pän-gū) or (shĭ-pän-gū). The early Mandarin word was borrowed into Malay as Japang, which was encountered by Portuguese traders in Moluccas in the 16th century. These traders may have been the ones to bring the word to Europe; it is first recorded in English in 1577, spelled Giapan.

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To 1945

In the late 1840s, the first daguerreotype camera came to Japan through a Dutch trader in Nagasaki, and was purchased by Shunojo Ueno, a dealer in European and American goods and avid student of Western science. Arriving well before the American Commodore Perry began the process of opening Japan to the West (1853), this camera was therefore available to record feudal Japan. Unfortunately, no photographs taken with it have been found. The oldest datable photographs extant in Japan were taken after Perry's second visit in February 1854 by his acting master's mate Eliphalet Brown Jr., and by the Russian photographer Lieutenant Alexander Fyodorovich Mozhaisky, who reached Japan a month after Perry. The oldest surviving photograph by a Japanese is a daguerreotype portrait of Nariakira Shimazu taken in 1857 by Shiro Ichiki, now in the Shoko Shusei Kan (Shimazu family museum) in Kagoshima.

Photography caught on in the liberal, wealthy, and intellectually curious sections of society. The first to receive a daguerreotype from Shunojo Ueno, Lord Shimazu, head of the Satsuma clan, became an important early patron of photography. In 1854 Shimazu paid for the published translation of a two-volume book on photographic technique by Kohmin Kawamoto. In 1862 Ueno's son Hikoma set up the first Japanese-owned portrait studio in Nagasaki. The same year, Renjo Shimooka opened a photography studio in Yokohama. Both establishments earned most of their income photographing foreigners and making picturesque albums of typical Japanese scenes and kimono-dressed women.

The most significant Western photographers of this period were the Italian Felice Beato, who worked primarily in the 1860s, and the Austrian Baron Raimund von Stillfried in the 1870s and 1880s. Arriving in Japan via the Crimea and China, Beato set up a studio in Yokohama in 1863 with a painter named Charles Wirgman, and is best known for his staged scenes, using paid Japanese models, for Western tourists and landscapes. Beato published albums of his images, beautifully hand coloured with elegant Japanese covers. He also recorded the bombardment of the Shimonoseki batteries by a British-led naval squadron in 1864. After 1867-8 he photographed less, but his studio, F. Beato & Co., continued. In 1877 it was sold to Stillfried, who carried it on through the 1880s.

With the opening of Japan and the numerous foreign influences now pouring in, the over-200-year stability of the Tokugawa government began to falter in the face of pro-feudal and pro-Western factionalism. With the Meiji Revolution (1868) came bunmei kaika (civilization and enlightenment), a time of officially promoted modernization that encouraged the proliferation of photo studios; by 1880 there were over 150 in Tokyo alone. The state also began to make direct use of photography. In 1872 an edict was passed to put the Emperor Meiji's portrait, taken by Kuichi Uchida (1844-75), in every school. In 1871 a government-sponsored expedition to survey and develop land on the northern island of Hokkaido included photographers to record progress and help publicize it to prospective settlers. The principal photographer involved was Kenzo Tamoto (1832-1912). Amongst the many photographs taken were numerous images of the impoverished indigenous Ainu peoples in their desolate surroundings. In 1877 the first Japanese war photographs were made by an official group, including Hikoma Ueno, of the South-Western Rebellion initiated by the Satsuma samurai Takamori Saigo, who led 40, 000 followers against the new government. (Another early Japanese war photographer was Rihei Tomishige.) In 1894, on the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, a Japanese Army Photographic Unit was formed under Kenji Ogura, who led it again in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. With war photography came censorship, and as photographers were attached to the army they could only document approved subjects. The Russo-Japanese photographs depict the Russian enemy, desirable expanses of empty land, the sparse and backward native population, and Japanese victories; though occasionally also the horrors of war.

The number of amateur photographers expanded, and in 1889 Shashin Shinpo (New Photography) magazine and the Nihon Shashinkai (Japan Photography Club) appeared. Shashin Geppo (Monthly Photography) magazine followed in 1894 for art photography (essentially pictorialism), which was increasing its following by 1900. In 1901 the Tokyo Shayukai (Tokyo Photography Group) started. Western pictorialist photographers and European Impressionist painters were sources of influence and inspiration. In 1904 the Yutsuzu-sha dedicated to research and art photography began, from 1907 known as the Tokyo Shashin Kenkyukai (Tokyo Photography Research Group). Yasuzo Nojima (aka Kozo), though less enamoured of pictorialism's soft-focus techniques, was among the most successful fine-art photographers, and one of the first to work extensively with the nude. Active in the Tokyo Photo Study Group, which he joined in 1910, he was also influential through his portrait studio and gallery (1915-20). The celebrated Naniwa Photography Club was founded in Osaka by Kichinosuke Ishii and Shozabura Kuwata in 1904. Dedicated to pictorialism until the late 1920s, it later became identified with the Shinko Shashin (New Photography) movement.

In the late 1910s, domestic manufacturing industries for paper and chemicals developed and photo supplies became cheaper and more easily obtainable, opening photography to amateurs and the middle class. More clubs formed to promote knowledge and exchange ideas. The Taisho period, coinciding with the First World War in Europe, heralded a time of economic growth and democracy. Self-expression and modern aesthetic ideas came into vogue. From 1920 smaller and handier roll-film cameras arrived. It was in this period that the optical firms that later developed into Japan's world-famous camera makers appeared (albeit initially under different names). The oldest, Konishi Honten (later Konica) dated from 1873; but it was joined in 1917 by Nippon Kogaku (later Nikon), then Olympus (1919) and Minolta (1928); Canon, Fuji, and Ricoh followed in the 1930s.

Shinzo Fukuhara was one of the most sophisticated pictorialist photographers in Japan. He founded the magazine Shashin Geijitsu (Fine Art Photography) in 1921, which also saw the birth of the amateur photo magazine Camera by Katsumi Miyake. In 1922 Hakuyo Fuchikami (1889-1960) followed with the monthly Hakuyo, with fine collotype illustrations. The activity around the magazine led to the formation of Nihon Koga Geijitsu Kyokai (Japan Fine Art Photography Group), a Kobe-based association with a nationwide membership of amateur pictorialists. The journal Geijitsu Shashin Kenkyu (Studies in Fine Art Photography) also began in 1922, with first Minoru Minami, then Kenkichi Nakajima as editor.

In 1924 the Photo Times started for advanced amateurs. Edited by Sakae Tamura (1906-87), it introduced foreign trends, featuring photographers such as Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray. Sen-ichi Kimura figured prominently in it in the 1930s. The monthly Asahi Camera, Japan's most wide-ranging—and still extant—photo magazine, was launched in 1926, together with Fuchikami's Nihon Shashin Bijutsu Nenkan (Yearbook of Japanese Photography). Nihonkoga Kyokai (Japanese Fine Art Group), closely affiliated with Fuchikami's Nihon Koga Geijistu Kyokai, began in 1928, its members including Makihiko Yamamoto (1893-1985), Tamura, Yoshio Date, and Jiro Takao. In Osaka in 1930 Ueda Bizan founded the Tampei Shashin Club to promote the modernist photography influenced by German Neue Sachlichkeit. That year the Shinko Shashin Kenkyukai (New Photography Study Group), supported by the Photo Times, was founded by Sen-ichi Kimura to explore new aesthetic trends, and in 1932 Iwata Nakayama (1895-1949), Yasuzo Nojima, and Ihei Kimura started the modernist monthly magazine Koga (Light Picture). For the first issue, Ina Nobuo wrote a symbolic text entitled ‘Return to Photography’, influenced by the German critic Franz Roh. Nakayama introduced the movement to the Kansai area, where he settled in 1929, opening a studio in Ashiya, between Osaka and Kobe. There he started the Ashiya Camera Club with Kanbei Hanaya, Juzo Matsubara, and Kichinosuke Benitani. Their output was freer than that of the Tokyo clubs, and included photograms, photomontages, and portraiture.

Concurrently, Yonosuke Natori (1910-62), who had studied in Germany, founded the group Nippon Kobo (Japan Workshop) in 1933, and brought together Natori and Kimura, the designers Hiroshi Hara and Nobuo Ina, and other young photographers including Ken Domon. They began the foreign-language magazine Nippon featuring uplifting, patriotic imagery to promote Japanese culture overseas.

From 1935 avant-garde movements began to influence photographers nationwide. In Osaka a Surrealism-influenced photographic style was pioneered by the Avant-Garde Zoei Shudan (Avant-Garde Image Creators), established in 1937. In Tokyo, a more intellectual view of avant-garde photography was supported by the Zen'ei Shashin Kyokai (Avant-Garde Photographic Society), founded in 1938 by the art critic Shuzo Takiguchi. The trend spread to other parts of Japan such as Nagoya, where the Nagoya Photo Avant-Garde Group started in 1939, and even to Japan's Manchurian colony, Dalien. In Tottori prefecture, on Honshu's south-western coast, the young Shoji Ueda made Surrealist-influenced portraits of his family in the dunes, and photographed buildings and people in his seaside village.

The growth of nationalism in the 1930s brought curbs on freedom of expression, including domestic censorship. New laws limited foreign film and paper imports, banned cameras on aircraft, and in 1937 prohibited photography from a height of 100 m (330 ft) or more (20 m from 1940). Meanwhile, the government backed photographic developments with military potential, such as infrared film, underwater cameras, high-speed and X-ray films. While artistic expression was restricted, advertising and propaganda offered alternative creative outlets. Photographic mural montages showing inspirational nationalistic scenes—influenced by avant-garde photomontage—were installed for public viewing. In 1941 the Japanese photo world underwent reorganization. The magazines Shashin Geppo and Shashin Shinpo folded, and the number of journals fell from ten to four: Shashin Nippon (Photography Japan), Shashin Bunka (Photography Culture), Hodo Shashin (Journalistic Photography), and Asahi Camera (until April 1942).

The pre-war and wartime years were busy times for photojournalists. Nationalistic magazines like Front, launched in 1942 by Toho-sha, featured militaristic, dynamic layouts, with photomontage and two-tone colour. Photographers covered Japanese military operations, and captured images of events such as the Pearl Harbor attack for the domestic press. In 1945 powerful photographs were taken of the atomic destruction that ended the war, in particular those of Yoshito Matsushige in Hiroshima and Yosuke Yamahata in Nagasaki; and in 1946 images of reconstruction. But such work was mostly banned from publication and distribution by the American authorities and thus hardly seen before the Peace Treaty of 1952.Banta, M., and Taylor, S., A Timely Encounter: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Japan (1988). Borhan, P., and Iizawa, K., La Photographie japonaise de l'entre deux guerres: du pictorialisme au modernisme (1990). Kaneko, R., Japanische Photographie, 1860-1929 (1993). Bennett, T., Early Japanese Images (1996).

Since 1945

Though published on poor-quality paper and with limited print runs, many short-lived magazines, frequently referred to as kasutori zasshi, exploited the new-found liberty of the post-war years. More enduring publications included the Sun Photo News of Mainichi Publishing (1946) and, with Yonosuke Natori at the helm, Weekly Sun News (1947), modelled on the American Life. The latter was premature in a post-war economy, and Natori moved on to Iwanami Publishing in 1950 where he began the Iwanami Photo Library series of photographic pocket books on Japanese cultural history, the bombing of Hiroshima (by Shigeichi Nagano (b. 1925) ), theatre, architecture, and cities. A number of ‘straight photography’ specialists found work here. Asahi Camera reappeared in 1949 after a seven-year break.

Photorealism gathered momentum under the tutelage of Ken Domon, competition judge and columnist for Camera magazine, where he pushed candid, straight images under the banner of ‘direct connection of the camera and the motif’. Many talentd amateurs and future professionals had their first images published by Camera.

While Japanese photojournalists were influenced by foreign colleagues visiting Japan between coverage of the Korean and Indo-China wars (Capa arrived in April 1954, just before his death), other photographers travelled abroad. Yasuhiro Ishimoto, born (1921) in the USA but raised in Japan, studied in Chicago with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind. In 1955-6 Ihei Kimura published books on visits to Europe, and in 1958 Hiroshi Hamaya's book on his trip to China appeared. Natori also photographed abroad and published collections of this work.

The mid-and late 1950s brought a challenge to realism from more experimental and individualistic, German-influenced Subjective photography; in 1956 the Japan Subjective Photography League was formed, and a large exhibition held in Tokyo. (Earlier that year, the Family of Man exhibition had reached Tokyo, attracting thousands of visitors.) In 1957 Ikko Narahara, Eikoh Hosoe, Shomei Tomatsu, Kikuji Kawada, and six others were shown together in an exhibition entitled Junin no Me (The Eyes of Ten), organized by the critic Tatsuo Fukushima. In 1959 six of them created VIVO as a photographer-managed agency of the new photography. It became extremely influential amongst younger photographers like Daido Moriyama, who moved from Osaka to Tokyo to work with the group.

The 1950s also saw the beginning of the Japanese camera industry's rise to global dominance. The Japanese Camera Inspection Institute (JCII) started work in 1954, and the launch of the Nikon F in 1959, and a bevy of cameras by Pentax, Canon, and other manufacturers at the same time, heralded the ascendancy of the Japanese-made SLR (single-lens reflex). In terms of design, technological sophistication, and manufacturing efficiency, Japanese companies showed that they were second to none, and more than equal to the demands of both the high-end professional and mass-consumer markets.

The ratification of the Security Treaty between Japan and the USA in 1960 brought riots and organized protests. In October, a photographer on Mainichi shimbun, Yasuji Nagao, captured the dramatic assassination of the socialist leader Inejiro Asanuma by a young right-wing extremist, earning Japan's first Pulitzer Prize. Photographers who documented the violence were hindered from publishing in the domestic press, and to evade this censorship, some published small volumes of their work, including Hiroshi Hamaya's Ikari to kanashimi no kiroku (A Record of Anger and Sadness), which included a photo of the left-wing leader Michiko Kanba, beaten to death by the police. Later published by Life, the image led to Hamaya's membership of Magnum.

Social documentary work continued. Shishei Kuwabara held his first solo exhibition on Minamata disease in 1962, thirteen years before Eugene and Aileen Smith's celebrated book. Shigeichi Nagano explored the urban street scene, and the life of the Tokyo ‘salaryman’ in a period of frantic economic growth. His work was cited as exemplary by Natori in his debates with Tomatsu in Asahi Camera in 1960; while Natori insisted on story-based reportage, Tomatsu put the case for photography as an autonomous means of expression.

In general the 1960s were a time of exploration, including bold new work from VIVO photographers (even after the agency's dissolution). Amidst the political upheavals, there were dynamic changes in film and literature as well as photography. Photographers from Hosoe to Moriyama collaborated with figures in the emerging dance scene (Hosoe) and radical avant-garde theatre (Issei Suda (b. 1940) and Moriyama). Takuma Nakahira (b. 1938), photographer and editor of Gendai no me (The Modern Eye), and in 1968 co-founder of the journal and collective Provoke, held new-left views and became deeply involved with student protest movements. He also strongly influenced photographers like Moriyama, who contributed to the second and third issues of Provoke (which promptly folded). Although short-lived, the Provoke experiment remained influential, representing an individualistic, aggressively anti-conventional photography of graininess, distortion, and blur, epitomized by the disturbing Moriyama images later gathered in Stray Dog (1999).

Another influential Tokyo figure was Shoji Yamagishi, editor of Camera Mainichi from 1970 until his death in 1979. He encouraged many photographers, including Moriyama, and the VIVO members Kishin Shinoyama, Yoshihiro Tatsuki, and Noriaki Yokosuka: photographers also committed to extreme individualism. Fluent in English, Yamagishi published major New York photographers such as Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, and Garry Winogrand in his magazine and facilitated exchanges with the New York museum and gallery world. In particular, he collaborated with John Szarkowski at MoMA on the 1974 exhibition New Japanese Photography which, with its catalogue, was one of Japanese photography's first large-scale manifestations on the American scene. The participants included Domon, Tomatsu, Kawada, Masahisa Fukase, Narahara, Hosoe, Moriyama, and numerous others—but were limited by Yamagishi to those active in Tokyo. The economic background was the post-1973 recession, to which photographers reacted in various ways; some, like Issei Suda, Kazuo Kitai, and Hiromi Tsuchida, switched their attention to the countryside, where traditional ways of life were gradually being transformed.

The mid-1970s saw the creation of several galleries run by young photographers in Tokyo: Prism (Miyabi Taniguchi and Osamu Hiraki), Camp (Keizo Kitajima and Seiji Kurata), and Put (Noboru Hama et al.). The main members of the latter two were students of the small Workshop Photo School (1974-6) run by leading photographers including Tomatsu, Moriyama, Nobuyoshi Araki, Fukase, Hosoe, and Yokosuka. The gallery movement continued to spread, both in Tokyo and elsewhere. Zeit-Foto Salon, owned by Etsuro Ishihara, opened in 1978. He did much to raise the profile of Japanese photography in Europe, and showed Brassaï, Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson, and Man Ray, among others, in Tokyo. Photo Gallery International (PGI) opened in 1979 with the show Message from the West Coast, featuring Ansel Adams, Brett Weston, and Wynn Bullock, and continued to organize exchanges with American galleries. The short-lived Gallery Min (1986-90) excelled in lavish exhibitions and catalogues. The Seibu Museum of Art presented major shows of Arbus, Avedon, and others. Outside Tokyo, the Dot gallery opened in Kyoto (1980), and the Picture Photo Space Gallery in Osaka (1984). The Third Gallery Aya opened in 1995, with many exhibitions of female photographers.

Museums also proliferated, starting with the Domon Museum in Yamagata (1983). The Tsukuba Museum of Photography functioned for six months during the Tsukuba Expo in 1985, and in Paris-New York-Tokyo showed foreign and Japanese work side by side. The Kawasaki City Museum (1988) was the first general Japanese museum with a photography department, followed by the Yokohama Museum in 1989. The 1990s added no fewer than five photography museums, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, which opened fully in 1995.

The 1980s saw the rise of new photographers whose constructed and carefully thought-out work can be characterized as ‘art referential’. Among them were Michiko Kon (still lifes); Yasumasa Morimura (elaborate self-portrait re-creations of classic Western paintings); Hiroshi Sugimoto (‘portraits’ of wax-museum figures, and near-abstract seascapes and cinema screens); and Toshio Shibata (dramatic images of dams and waterways). All earned considerable acclaim both in Japan and abroad. Meanwhile, photographers such as Keiichi Tahara and Jun Shiraoka had established themselves outside Japan in the 1970s and attracted critical attention in Europe throughout the 1980s. Kenro Izu and Sugimoto later followed their example, but chose New York as their stamping ground. A new generation of ‘Nature Photo’ photographers, including Manabu Miyazaki, Michio Hoshino, and Mitsuaki Iwagou, also appeared in the 1980s. Although there was a long tradition in this field, these photographers sought subjects outside Japan.

In the 1990s, open competitions and festivals attracted young photographers and helped launch their careers: for example, the New Cosmos of Photography (1991- ), and the Hitotsubo-Ten (1992- ). They encouraged the young, often women, to express themselves through photography; laureates included Hiromix, Rika Noguchi, and Masafushi Sanai. Over the decade, traditional photo magazines gradually lost ground with the young, compared with lifestyle and fashion magazines. Talented photographers sought editorial work rather than classic photography-magazine spreads. Araki, an ultraprolific (and controversial) photographer and book producer, became highly popular both with the general public and other photographers, and in Europe, where he had numerous shows, probably Japan's best-known photographer.

In the first decade of the 21st century, Japan has one of the world's most thriving photographic cultures, and the work of both historical and contemporary Japanese photographers has become an essential component of representative collections worldwide. In 2003 the first comprehensive survey of Japanese photographic history was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Given the huge variety of photographic practice in Japan over the six decades since 1945 (and not forgetting the country's countless amateurs: by the 1990s, photography was the main hobby of Japanese pensioners), the complexities of Japanese society and culture, and the coexistence of robust traditions with a vigorous appetite for modernity, the outsider should be wary of facile generalizations about trends and influences. However, three features of the Japanese photographic scene stand out: first, the tendency since 1945 for many photographers to live and work abroad, sometimes for long periods; second, the ever-increasing participation of women, often in path-breaking ways; and, third, the growing institutionalization of the medium since the 1970s-1980s, with the proliferation of galleries, museums, festivals, prizes, and university photography courses—contrasting with the more traditional system of private associations, groups, and masters which dominated Japanese photography from the late 19th century until the Second World War.Madeleine Hill Vedel/Mariko Takeuchi/Osamu Hiraki

Featured article: Constructing the Self as 'Other'.

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Bibliography

• Banta, M., and Taylor, S., A Timely Encounter: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Japan (1988)

Bibliography

• Spielmann, H., Die japanische Photographie: Geschichte, Themen, Strukturen (1984).
• Holborn, M., Black Sun: The Eyes of Four. Roots and Innovation in Japanese Photography (1986).
• Putzar, E., Japanese Photography 1945-1985 (1987).
• Weiermair, P., and Matt, G., Japanese Photography: Desire and Void (1997).
• Tucker, A. W., et al., The History of Japanese Photography (2003)

Traditional dance has flourished in Japan for centuries within the highly stylized forms of dance drama. Bugaku, which is a semi-religious dance, originated in the 7th century but until the latter half of the 20th century it was performed exclusively at the imperial court or in certain shrines. Kabuki, which developed at the end of the 16th century, was the first popular dance theatre for commoners. In its early days it was performed by female prostitutes and some of its manifestations were so immoral that the women were banned from performing it by the authorities. Male dancers then adopted the kabuki style, taking on the female roles themselves. Being an onnagata (female impersonator) became an honoured profession. Today kabuki is seen throughout the world. Western theatrical dance arrived in Japan in the 20th century. Visits by the Pavlova company, the Denishawn Dancers, and the Ruth Page company in the 1920s sparked public interest and by the 1930s ballet had taken hold. The first schools were established, out of which grew new classical companies, many of them based in Tokyo. Training, style, and repertoire were greatly influenced by the Soviet model. The most important of the Japanese companies was the Tokyo Ballet, founded in 1964. Today Japanese ballet audiences are among the most enthusiastic in the world. Companies like the Royal Ballet and the Kirov are regular visitors, and Western stars like Sylvie Guillem and Evelyn Hart are idolized there. In recent years Japanese-born dancers have found great success in the West. Tetsuya Kumakawa and Miyako Yoshida have led a whole new generation of fine Japanese classical dancers trained and performing abroad. Independent Japanese choreographers, such as Saburo Teshigawara, have been very active in the field of post-modern dance. Butoh, an expressionist dance form which originated in Japan in the 1950s, is seen around the world performed by Japanese companies.

The earliest official account of Buddhism in Japan states that it arrived at the imperial court in 552 (or 538 according to some authorities), when a delegation from the kingdom of Paekche on the Korean peninsula brought a Buddha image and some scriptures as gifts for the emperor. It is likely, however, that Buddhism was already known in Japan through other non-official channels. After this initial contact, the court had to decide whether allowing the practice and study of this new religion would anger the local deities or kami, whose protection the imperial family needed in consolidating their rule over the newly centralized kingdom. During this earliest period, Buddhist texts and clergy came to Japan along with a wave of Chinese cultural imports that also included writing, political thought, urban planning, and other innovative ideas. It seems clear that the court and aristocrats understood Buddhism as a variant of their native religion, and used it primarily as a way to cure illnesses and gain supernatural support for their political and military efforts. Prince Shōtoku (572-621), who ruled Japan as regent after the death of his father, is credited with being among the first to see Buddhist teachings as distinct from the native cults. He is thought to have composed commentaries to several scriptures, and he fostered a programme of rapid temple construction.

Scholars generally divide the subsequent history of Japanese Buddhism into periods defined by the location of the capital city. The Nara (710-94), Heian (794-1185), and Kamakura (1185-1392) periods are the most important, since these are the periods in which the main schools of Buddhism were established and took shape.

The Nara Period

During the Nara period, Buddhist activity went in two primary directions: the clergy were busy trying to understand the doctrines found in newly imported texts, and the government put Buddhist rituals and organizations to work for the welfare of the state. As to the first of these tasks, the so-called ‘Six Schools of Nara Buddhism’ comprised groups of clergy who concentrated on the texts and thought of six different Chinese schools. Almost all of the scholar-monks who engaged in these studies lived in the capital under government auspices and were housed in the main temple there, the Tōji. Outside of this government-sponsored establishment, a few self-ordained practitioners left society and lived in the mountains performing austeries and magical services for ordinary citizens. In addition to the scholarly activity in the capital, the primary activity of clergy was to perform rituals on behalf of a paid clientele that came almost entirely from the imperial family and the aristocracy.

The Heian Period

This saw a movement of Buddhism away from government centres and out among the people, although this movement fell far short of a full-scale popularization of the religion. During this time both Saichō (767-822) and Kūkai (774-835) journeyed to China to deepen their knowledge of Buddhism. Saichō went to Mt. T'ien-t'ai to study T'ien-t'ai doctrines, but while waiting for a ship to take him home, he encountered a monk who practised esoteric rituals. After a short period of training and the conferral of the proper initiation, he returned to Japan and settled on Mt. Hiei, where he established the Tendai school to be a successor to the Chinese T'ien-t'ai school. However, because the real patronage came from the performance of esoteric rituals (see esoteric Buddhism), he divided this new school's focus between the exoteric doctrines of T'ien-t'ai and esoteric ritual performance. In addition, he made a crucial move to establish the Tendai school independently from the government-controlled monastic establishment in Nara when he asked for permission to ordain his own monks on Mt. Hiei using only the Mahāyāna precepts of the Brahmajāla Sūtra (Japanese, Bonmōkyō). Permission was granted after his death, and the Tendai school was thus freed from the necessity of submitting its monks to the Ritsu school in the capital for ordination. Meanwhile, Kūkai went to China exclusively to receive training in esoteric texts and rituals, and the Shingon school that he established on Mt. Kōya upon his return concentrated solely on esoteric Buddhism, and for a time outshone the Tendai school in patronage and popularity.

The relationship between Buddhism and its assembly of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and the Shintō pantheon, continued to concern many in Japan, and during the Heian period the theory known as honji-suijaku, or ‘original nature and provisional manifestation’, came to dominate. According to this theory, the local kami of Shintō were manifestations of various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas that appeared in Japan to teach the people and protect the nation. Thus, for example, the Sun goddess Amaterasu was in fact a local manifestation of the great Sun Buddha Vairocana. In this way, both religions could be accommodated in a single institution that incorporated both Buddhist and Shintō personnel and practices (known as the jingūji, or ‘shrine-temple’).

The Kamakura Period

By the opening years of the Kamakura period the Tendai school was the largest and most powerful of the eight schools in existence at that time, and its broad focus on both doctrinal and esoteric study and practice, as well as its laxity, corruption, and militance (as seen in its infamous ‘monk-soldiers’, or sōhei), made it the breeding ground for subsequent reform movements and schools. Out of the Tendai matrix, the following figures emerged to establish new schools under the following broad categories: (1) Pure Land: Hōnen (1133-1212) founded the Jōdo Shū; Shinran (1173-1262) the Jōdo Shinshū; and Ippen (1239-89) the Jishū. (2) Zen: Eisai (or Yōsai, 1141-1215) founded the Rinzai school, which took its lineage of Dharma-transmission from the Chinese Lin-chi school; and Dōgen (1200-53) the Sōtō school, derived from the Chinese Ts'ao-tung lineage. (3) Nichiren (1222-82) founded the Nichiren school, which proclaimed the superiority of the Lotus Sūtra (Myōhō renge kyō) over all other scriptures and recommended the constant repetition and praise of its title as the sole means of salvation. In addition to the formal establishment of these schools and their institutions, the tradition of mountain asceticism continued under the name shugendō, or ‘the way of experiential cultivation’. Drawn primarily from the ranks of Tendai and Shingon esoteric clergy, practitioners lived in the mountains and practised by fasting, repentance, esoteric rituals, and long, arduous journeys through the mountains that covered as much as 50 miles in a single day.

Ashikaga and Tokugawa Periods (1392-1868)

By the end of the Kamakura period, Buddhism was a significant presence at all levels of Japanese society. At times, this was a source of concern for the feudal government. In the 15th century, Jōdo Shinshū adherents formed popular leagues called ikkō ikki, which rose up in rebellion against local aristocratic rule in Kaga and in 1488 took control of the province themselves. In 1571 the shōgun Oda Nobunaga, distrustful of the enormous landholdings and secular power of Buddhist monasteries, attacked and razed the Enryakuji on Mt. Hiei, dispersing its sōhei once and for all, and he suppressed many other Buddhist establishments. On the other hand, the pervasive presence of Buddhist institutions could be a source of strength for the government. For instance, after the ban on Christianity in 1612 and the subsequent expulsion of Christian missionaries, the government required all citizens to register with local Buddhist temples beginning in 1640, effectively co-opting these institutions as a census bureau. Buddhism's close cooperation with and support by the government in this way led to an inevitable decline, although a few notable figures stand out as exemplars: Takuan Sōhō (1573-1645), Bankei Eitaku (1622-93), and Hakuin Zenji (1685-1768) in the zen school, and Rennyo (1415-99) and Shimaji Mokurai (1838-1911) of the Pure Land school, to name a few. However, as the Tokugawa period drew to a close in the early 19th century, the real locus of religious vitality was in Confucianism and various intellectual and spiritual renewal movements within Shintō. In addition, the first appearance of the so-called ‘New Religions’ such as Tenrikyō offered real competition for the loyalty of the peasants and the middle classes.

The Meiji and Modern Periods

When the Meiji emperor succeeded in restoring real political and executive power to the imperial family in 1868, one of his first acts was to abrogate the honji-suijaku understanding of the relationship between Buddhism and Shintō, and declared the two put asunder in a move called shimbutsu bunri, or ‘separation of kami and Buddhas’. Buddhism itself came under persecution during the first decade or so of the Meiji period, but the attack galvanized Buddhists into action, and they successfully demanded recognition and toleration under the new constitution. At the same time, Buddhist chaplains who accompanied Japanese troops on military adventures in China, Korea, Taiwan, and south-east Asia, as well as missionaries who travelled to America and Europe to participate in the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions and to settle abroad, gave Japanese Buddhism an international presence. While all schools of Japanese Buddhism came to Hawaii and the American mainland with the large numbers of immigrants at that period, Zen had the most success in making an impression on Euro-American culture. The westward expansion of Japanese Buddhism accelerated after the Second World War. At the same time, social changes taking place in modern Japan have fostered the development of many Buddhist-derived ‘New Religions’, most of which sprang from offshoots of the Nichiren school and its devotion to the Lotus Sūtra. Prominent among these are the Nichiren Shōshū and its lay branch, the Sōka Gakkai (which broke away from its parent organization in 1992), and Risshō Kōseikai. Today, Japanese Buddhism is a combination of the old and the new: even the most ancient of the Nara schools continues to coexist alongside the newest of the ‘New Religions’. The Sōtō and Jōdo Shinshū schools are the largest of the traditional schools, and Buddhism remains completely integrated as a vital part of Japanese life and culture.

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The period before World War II is the first important period for psychoanalysis in Japan.

Kiyoyasu Marui went to the United States in 1919 to study with Adolf Meyer at Johns Hopkins University. Witnessing the influence of psychoanalysis on American psychiatry, he hoped to introduce psychoanalysis to the Japanese. After returning to Japan, he began teaching at the University of Tohoku in Sendai (in northeastern Japan). Psychoanalysis became the focus of his medical school lectures on psychiatry. In 1933, Marui visited Freud in Vienna and received approval for establishing a Sendai Branch of the IPA.

Heisaku Kosawa, a student of the Tohoku School, left Japan to study at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute from 1932 to 1933. He received training analysis from Richard Sterba, and individual supervision on psychotherapy from Paul Federn. While in Vienna, furthermore, Kosawa visited Freud at this home at Bergasse 19 and interviewed him directly. He presented Freud with a paper explaining his theory of the Ajase complex, which he contrasted with Freud's Oedipus complex. Unfortunately, Freud does not appear to have evinced great interest in Kosawa's thesis. After returning to Japan in 1933, Heisaku Kosawa opened a private clinic in Tokyo. Here he began practicing psychoanalytic therapy as it was known in Europe and the United States.

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Japan became an ally of Nazi Germany, which regarded psychoanalysis as a dangerous, Jewish system of thought. Kosawa came under constant surveillance from the special police. Nevertheless, he continued to conduct a private practice throughout the war.

The end of World War II brought an influx of learning and culture from the United States, which greatly influenced all aspects of Japanese society including the field of psychiatry. It created a generation of young psychiatrists who sought to study the model of American dynamic psychiatry. They chose to receive training analysis and individual supervision from Kosawa. This group of psychiatrists who studied under him became the second generation of Japanese psychoanalysts, known as the Kosawa School. Some leading members included Takeo Doi, Masahisa Nishizono, and Keigo Okonogi.

After the death of Kiyoyasu Marui in 1953, Kosawa changed the name of the Sendai Branch to the Japan Branch which is known internationally as the Japan Psychoanalytic Society. Psychiatrists who received training analysis from Kosawa between 1950 and 1960 represent its core members.

In 1969, following the death of Heisaku Kosawa, Michio Yamamura succeeded to the presidency of the Japan Psychoanalytic Society. The period 1960-1970 also witnessed the return of several Japanese psychiatrists from clinical work abroad. Boosted by the participation of these third-generation psychiatrists, psychoanalysis gradually gained importance in Japan, and became a major influence in the field of clinical psychiatry. From the 1950s to the 1960s, Japanese psychoanalysis was greatly influenced by psychoanalysis in the United States, especially ego psychology (Heinz Hartmann, Anna Freud, Paul Federn, Erik Erikson). In terms of clinical practice, it was during the period from 1960 to 1970 that the diagnosis and psychotherapy of borderline cases, as well as classic psychoanalytic therapy, began to attract keen attention.

During the 1980s, Japanese translations appeared for most of the essential works of object relations and Kleinian theorists. From 1980 onwards, a growing number of psychoanalysts from overseas, particularly from the United States, began to visit Japan. Leading American psychoanalysts such as Otto Kernberg and Arnold Cooper conducted the first international seminar in Tokyo, on borderline cases and narcissism. Numerous psychoanalysts from other countries followed, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of seminars and lectures held in Japan. Leading IPA analysts, including former IPA presidents Robert Wallerstein, Serge Lebovici, and Joseph Sandler, came to Japan on various occasions to give lectures and organize seminars. As representative of IPA's Asian Committee, Ramon Ganzarain and Elizabeth Bianchedi, meanwhile, visited Japan numerous times to conduct lectures and supervisions, and Serge Lebovici, Robert Emde, Joy Osofsky, and Peter Fonagy came for the World Association for Infant Mental Health (WAIMH) Regional Meeting Tokyo.

In 1995, the Japan Psychoanalytic Society established new regulations in line with the education and training criteria set forth by the IPA. It also plans to increase the number of training analysts, and to implement training analyses in accordance with international standards, Along with the implementation of these new regulations, the Society has begun making efforts to establish a psychoanalytic institute covering all of Japan.

Japanese psychiatrists' and psychologists' study of psychoanalytic thought generated an encounter between Western and Japanese culture. Indigenous Japanese patterns of thought merged with the imported theory of psychoanalysis, paving the way for such theories as those of amae (Tako Doi), the Ajase complex (Heisaku Kosawa, Keigo Okonogi), and the prohibition of "Don't look" (O. Kitayama). These theories aid in understanding the mentality not only of the Japanese, but also of people from other cultures; they furthermore promise to contribute greatly to psychoanalytical understanding itself. Japanese psychoanalysts strive to continue making significant theoretical contributions to the international community.

Bibliography

Okonogi, Keigo. (1995). A history of psychoanalysis in Japan. In Peter Kutter (Ed.), Psychoanalysis international, a guide to psychoanalysis throughout the world (Vol. 2). Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog.

—KEIGO OKONOGI

Island nation in the northwest Pacific Ocean off the coast of east Asia, separated by the Sea of Japan from Russian Siberia, China, and Korea. The Japanese archipelago includes four major islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku) as well as many smaller islands. Its capital and largest city is Tokyo.

• Called the “Land of the Rising Sun,” Japan is symbolized by a red sun on a white background.
• Another symbol of Japan is Fujiyama, also called Mount Fuji, a volcano whose symmetrical snow-capped peak has been the object of countless pilgrimages, poems, and paintings. It has not erupted since 1707.
• Imperial Japan was organized on a feudal system (see feudalism), characterized by the samurai (the warrior class, which eventually became landed gentry) and the shogun (the hereditary administrative leader). The emperor, believed to be divine, was the ceremonial leader. Japan is a constitutional monarchy today.
• Japan's ports were first opened to Western traders in the sixteenth century but were closed in the seventeenth century. Japan remained in virtual isolation until the 1850s, when an American naval officer, Matthew C. Perry, persuaded the government to reopen trade with the West.
• Suffering from overcrowding, lack of natural resources, and the influence of powerful military factions, Japan pursued an aggressive policy of expansion in China during the 1930s, ultimately resulting in a military alliance with Germany and Italy to form the Axis powers in World War II. (See also Hiroshima, Pearl Harbor, and Douglas MacArthur.)
• Although a world leader in shipbuilding, electronics, and automobile manufacture, Japan's economy suffered a severe slump during the 1990s.

The international dialing code for Japan is:   81

It is 12:09 PM, February 4, in Japan.

Japanese Yen

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Background:

In 1603, a Tokugawa shogunate (military dictatorship) ushered in a long period of isolation from foreign influence in order to secure its power. For more than two centuries this policy enabled Japan to enjoy stability and a flowering of its indigenous culture. Following the Treaty of Kanagawa with the US in 1854, Japan opened its ports and began to intensively modernize and industrialize. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Japan became a regional power that was able to defeat the forces of both China and Russia. It occupied Korea, Formosa (Taiwan), and southern Sakhalin Island. In 1931-32 Japan occupied Manchuria, and in 1937 it launched a full-scale invasion of China. Japan attacked US forces in 1941 - triggering America's entry into World War II - and soon occupied much of East and Southeast Asia. After its defeat in World War II, Japan recovered to become an economic power and a staunch ally of the US. While the emperor retains his throne as a symbol of national unity, elected politicians - with heavy input from bureaucrats and business executives - wield actual decisionmaking power. The economy experienced a major slowdown starting in the 1990s following three decades of unprecedented growth, but Japan still remains a major economic power, both in Asia and globally. In January 2009, Japan assumed a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2009-10 term.

Location:	Eastern Asia, island chain between the North Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan, east of the Korean Peninsula
Geographic coordinates:	36 00 N, 138 00 E
Map references:	Asia
Area:	total: 377,835 sq km land: 374,744 sq km water: 3,091 sq km note: includes Bonin Islands (Ogasawara-gunto), Daito-shoto, Minami-jima, Okino-tori-shima, Ryukyu Islands (Nansei-shoto), and Volcano Islands (Kazan-retto)
Area - comparative:	slightly smaller than California
Land boundaries:	0 km
Coastline:	29,751 km
Maritime claims:	territorial sea: 12 nm; between 3 nm and 12 nm in the international straits - La Perouse or Soya, Tsugaru, Osumi, and Eastern and Western Channels of the Korea or Tsushima Strait contiguous zone: 24 nm exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
Climate:	varies from tropical in south to cool temperate in north
Terrain:	mostly rugged and mountainous
Elevation extremes:	lowest point: Hachiro-gata -4 m highest point: Mount Fuji 3,776 m
Natural resources:	negligible mineral resources, fish note: with virtually no energy natural resources, Japan is the world's largest importer of coal and liquefied natural gas as well as the second largest importer of oil
Land use:	arable land: 11.64% permanent crops: 0.9% other: 87.46% (2005)
Irrigated land:	25,920 sq km (2003)
Total renewable water resources:	430 cu km (1999)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):	total: 88.43 cu km/yr (20%/18%/62%) per capita: 690 cu m/yr (2000)
Natural hazards:	many dormant and some active volcanoes; about 1,500 seismic occurrences (mostly tremors) every year; tsunamis; typhoons
Environment - current issues:	air pollution from power plant emissions results in acid rain; acidification of lakes and reservoirs degrading water quality and threatening aquatic life; Japan is one of the largest consumers of fish and tropical timber, contributing to the depletion of these resources in Asia and elsewhere
Environment - international agreements:	party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note:	strategic location in northeast Asia

Population:	127,078,679 (July 2009 est.)
Age structure:	0-14 years: 13.5% (male 8,804,465/female 8,344,800) 15-64 years: 64.3% (male 41,187,425/female 40,533,876) 65 years and over: 22.2% (male 11,964,694/female 16,243,419) (2009 est.)
Median age:	total: 44.2 years male: 42.4 years female: 46.1 years (2009 est.)
Population growth rate:	-0.191% (2009 est.)
Birth rate:	7.64 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Death rate:	9.26 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Net migration rate:	NA (2009 est.)
Urbanization:	urban population: 66% of total population (2008) rate of urbanization: 0.2% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)
Sex ratio:	at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.74 male(s)/female total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
Infant mortality rate:	total: 2.79 deaths/1,000 live births male: 2.99 deaths/1,000 live births female: 2.58 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:	total population: 82.12 years male: 78.8 years female: 85.62 years (2009 est.)
Total fertility rate:	1.21 children born/woman (2009 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:	less than 0.1% (2003 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:	9,600 (2007 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths:	fewer than 100 (2007 est.)
Nationality:	noun: Japanese (singular and plural) adjective: Japanese
Ethnic groups:	Japanese 98.5%, Koreans 0.5%, Chinese 0.4%, other 0.6% note: up to 230,000 Brazilians of Japanese origin migrated to Japan in the 1990s to work in industries; some have returned to Brazil (2004)
Religions:	Shintoism 83.9%, Buddhism 71.4%, Christianity 2%, other 7.8% note: total adherents exceeds 100% because many people belong to both Shintoism and Buddhism (2005)
Languages:	Japanese
Literacy:	definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 99% male: 99% female: 99% (2002)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education):	total: 15 years male: 15 years female: 15 years (2006)
Education expenditures:	3.5% of GDP (2005)

Country name:	conventional long form: none conventional short form: Japan local long form: Nihon-koku/Nippon-koku local short form: Nihon/Nippon
Government type:	a parliamentary government with a constitutional monarchy
Capital:	name: Tokyo geographic coordinates: 35 41 N, 139 45 E time difference: UTC+9 (14 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
Administrative divisions:	47 prefectures; Aichi, Akita, Aomori, Chiba, Ehime, Fukui, Fukuoka, Fukushima, Gifu, Gunma, 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 B.C. (traditional date of the founding of the nation by Emperor JIMMU; first recognized by Emperor Meiji in 1873)
National holiday:	Birthday of Emperor AKIHITO, 23 December (1933)
Constitution:	3 May 1947
Legal system:	modeled after German civil law system with English-American influence; judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with reservations
Suffrage:	20 years of age; universal
Executive branch:	chief of state: Emperor AKIHITO (since 7 January 1989) head of government: Prime Minister Taro ASO (since 24 September 2008) cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister elections: Diet designates prime minister; constitution requires that prime minister commands parliamentary majority; following legislative elections, leader of majority party or leader of majority coalition in House of Representatives usually becomes prime minister; monarch is hereditary
Legislative branch:	bicameral Diet or Kokkai consists of the House of Councillors or Sangi-in (242 seats - members elected for fixed six-year terms; half reelected every three years; 146 members in multi-seat constituencies and 96 by proportional representation) and the House of Representatives or Shugi-in (480 seats - members elected for maximum four-year terms; 300 in single-seat constituencies; 180 members by proportional representation in 11 regional blocs); the prime minister has the right to dissolve the House of Representatives at any time with the concurrence of the cabinet. elections: House of Councillors - last held 29 July 2007 (next to be held in July 2010); House of Representatives - last held 11 September 2005 (next election by September 2009) election results: House of Councillors - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - DPJ 109, LDP 83, Komeito 20, JCP 7, SDP 5, others 18 House of Representatives - percent of vote by party (in single-seat constituencies) - LDP 47.8%, DPJ 36.4%, others 15.8%; seats by party - LDP 296, DPJ 113, Komeito 31, JCP 9, SDP 7, others 24 (2007)
Judicial branch:	Supreme Court (chief justice is appointed by the monarch after designation by the cabinet; all other justices are appointed by the cabinet)
Political parties and leaders:	Democratic Party of Japan or DPJ [Ichiro OZAWA]; Japan Communist Party or JCP [Kazuo SHII]; Komeito [Akihiro OTA]; Liberal Democratic Party or LDP [Taro ASO]; Social Democratic Party or SDP [Mizuho FUKUSHIMA]
Political pressure groups and leaders:	other: business groups; trade unions
International organization participation:	ADB, AfDB (nonregional member), APEC, APT, ARF, ASEAN (dialogue partner), Australia Group, BIS, CE (observer), CERN (observer), CP, EAS, EBRD, FAO, G-20, G-5, G-7, G-8, G-10, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, LAIA, MIGA, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE (partner), Paris Club, PCA, PIF (partner), SAARC (observer), SECI (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNDOF, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNRWA, UNWTO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC
Diplomatic representation in the US:	chief of mission: Ambassador Ichiro FUJISAKI chancery: 2520 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008 telephone: [1] (202) 238-6700 FAX: [1] (202) 328-2187 consulate(s) general: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Agana (Guam), Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Portland (Oregon), San Francisco, Seattle consulate(s): Anchorage, Nashville
Diplomatic representation from the US:	chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires James P. ZUMWALT embassy: 1-10-5 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8420 mailing address: Unit 9800, Box 300, APO AP 96303-0300 telephone: [81] (03) 3224-5000 FAX: [81] (03) 3505-1862 consulate(s) general: Naha (Okinawa), Osaka-Kobe, Sapporo consulate(s): Fukuoka, Nagoya
Flag description:	white with a large red disk (representing the sun without rays) in the center

Economy - overview:	In the years following World War II, government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, mastery of high technology, and a comparatively small defense allocation (1% of GDP) helped Japan advance with extraordinary speed to the rank of second most technologically powerful economy in the world after the US. Today, measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis, Japan is the third-largest economy in the world after the US and China. Two notable characteristic of the post-war economy were the close interlocking structures of manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors, known as keiretsu, and the guarantee of lifetime employment for a substantial portion of the urban labor force. Both features are now eroding under the dual pressures of global competition and domestic demographic change. Japan's industrial sector is heavily dependent on imported raw materials and fuels. A tiny agricultural sector is highly subsidized and protected, with crop yields among the highest in the world. Usually self sufficient in rice, Japan imports about 60% of its food on a caloric basis. Japan maintains one of the world's largest fishing fleets and accounts for nearly 15% of the global catch. For three decades, overall real economic growth had been spectacular - a 10% average in the 1960s, a 5% average in the 1970s, and a 4% average in the 1980s. Growth slowed markedly in the 1990s, averaging just 1.7%, largely because of the after effects of inefficient investment and an asset price bubble in the late 1980s that required a protracted period of time for firms to reduce excess debt, capital, and labor. In October 2007 Japan's longest post-war period of economic expansion ended after 69 months and Japan entered into recession in 2008, with 2009 marking a return to near 0% interest rates. The 10-year privatization of Japan Post, which has functioned not only as the national postal delivery system but also, through its banking and insurance facilities as Japan's largest financial institution, was completed in October 2007, marking a major milestone in the process of structural reform. The Japanese financial sector was not heavily exposed to sub-prime mortgages or their derivative instruments and weathered the initial effect of the global credit crunch, but a sharp downturn in business investment and global demand for Japan's exports in late 2008 pushed Japan further into a recession. Japan's huge government debt, which totals 170% of GDP, and the aging of the population are two major long-run problems. Debate continues on the role of and effects of reform in restructuring the economy.
GDP (purchasing power parity):	$4.348 trillion (2008 est.) $4.365 trillion (2007) $4.263 trillion (2006) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP (official exchange rate):	$4.844 trillion (2008 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:	-0.4% (2008 est.) 2.4% (2007 est.) 2% (2006 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP):	$34,200 (2008 est.) $34,300 (2007 est.) $33,400 (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP - composition by sector:	agriculture: 1.4% industry: 26.4% services: 72.1% (2008 est.)
Labor force:	66.15 million (2008 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:	agriculture: 4.4% industry: 27.9% services: 66.4% (2005)
Unemployment rate:	4.2% (2008 est.)
Population below poverty line:	NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share:	lowest 10%: 4.8% highest 10%: 21.7% (1993)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:	38.1 (2002)
Investment (gross fixed):	22.5% of GDP (2008 est.)
Budget:	revenues: $1.672 trillion expenditures: $1.823 trillion (2008 est.)
Fiscal year:	1 April - 31 March
Public debt:	170.4% of GDP (2008 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):	1.8% (2008 est.)
Central bank discount rate:	0.1% (19 December 2008)
Commercial bank prime lending rate:	1.68% (November 2008)
Stock of money:	$4.37 trillion (31 December 2007)
Stock of quasi money:	$4.783 trillion (31 December 2007)
Stock of domestic credit:	$9.653 trillion (31 December 2007)
Market value of publicly traded shares:	$4.453 trillion (31 December 2007)
Agriculture - products:	rice, sugar beets, vegetables, fruit; pork, poultry, dairy products, eggs; fish
Industries:	among world's largest and technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronic equipment, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemicals, textiles, processed foods
Industrial production growth rate:	0.5% (2008 est.)
Electricity - production:	1.195 trillion kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - consumption:	1.08 trillion kWh (2006 est.)
Electricity - exports:	0 kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - imports:	0 kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - production by source:	fossil fuel: 60% hydro: 8.4% nuclear: 29.8% other: 1.8% (2001)
Oil - production:	132,400 bbl/day (2007)
Oil - consumption:	5.007 million bbl/day (2007)
Oil - exports:	240,000 bbl/day (2007)
Oil - imports:	5.032 million bbl/day (2007)
Oil - proved reserves:	44.12 million bbl (1 January 2008 est.)
Natural gas - production:	3.729 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:	100.3 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - exports:	0 cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - imports:	95.62 billion cu m (2007 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:	20.9 billion cu m (1 January 2008 est.)
Current account balance:	$187.8 billion (2008 est.)
Exports:	$776.8 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)
Exports - commodities:	transport equipment, motor vehicles, semiconductors, electrical machinery, chemicals
Exports - partners:	US 20.4%, China 15.3%, South Korea 7.6%, Taiwan 6.3%, Hong Kong 5.4% (2007)
Imports:	$696.2 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)
Imports - commodities:	machinery and equipment, fuels, foodstuffs, chemicals, textiles, raw materials
Imports - partners:	China 20.5%, US 11.6%, Saudi Arabia 5.7%, UAE 5.2%, Australia 5%, South Korea 4.4%, Indonesia 4.2% (2007)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:	$954.1 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Debt - external:	$1.492 trillion (30 June 2007)
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home:	$139.7 billion (2008 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad:	$597 billion (2008 est.)
Currency (code):	yen (JPY)
Currency code:	JPY
Exchange rates:	yen (JPY) per US dollar - 103.58 (2008 est.), 117.99 (2007), 116.18 (2006), 110.22 (2005), 108.19 (2004)

Telephones - main lines in use:	51.232 million (2007)
Telephones - mobile cellular:	107.339 million (2007)
Telephone system:	general assessment: excellent domestic and international service domestic: high level of modern technology and excellent service of every kind international: country code - 81; numerous submarine cables provide links throughout Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Europe, and US; satellite earth stations - 5 Intelsat (4 Pacific Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean), 1 Intersputnik (Indian Ocean region), and 1 Inmarsat (Pacific and Indian Ocean regions
Radio broadcast stations:	AM 215 (plus 370 repeaters), FM 89 (plus 485 repeaters), shortwave 21 (2001)
Radios:	120.5 million (1997)
Television broadcast stations:	211 (plus 7,341 repeaters); in addition, US Forces are served by 3 TV stations and 2 TV cable services (1999)
Televisions:	86.5 million (1997)
Internet country code:	.jp
Internet hosts:	39.909 million (2008)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs):	73 (2000)
Internet users:	88.11 million (2007)

Airports:	175 (2008)
Airports - with paved runways:	total: 144 over 3,047 m: 7 2,438 to 3,047 m: 41 1,524 to 2,437 m: 40 914 to 1,523 m: 28 under 914 m: 28 (2008)
Airports - with unpaved runways:	total: 31 914 to 1,523 m: 4 under 914 m: 27 (2008)
Heliports:	14 (2007)
Pipelines:	gas 3,862 km; oil 167 km; oil/gas/water 53 km (2008)
Railways:	total: 23,474 km standard gauge: 3,204 km 1.435-m gauge (3,204 km electrified) narrow gauge: 77 km 1.372-m gauge (77 km electrified); 20,182 km 1.067-m gauge (13,334 km electrified); 11 km 0.762-m gauge (11 km electrified) (2006)
Roadways:	total: 1,196,999 km paved: 949,101 km (includes 7,383 km of expressways) unpaved: 247,898 km (2006)
Waterways:	1,770 km (seagoing vessels use inland seas) (2007)
Merchant marine:	total: 683 by type: bulk carrier 136, cargo 30, carrier 3, chemical tanker 27, container 11, liquefied gas 59, passenger 12, passenger/cargo 135, petroleum tanker 156, refrigerated cargo 2, roll on/roll off 51, vehicle carrier 61 registered in other countries: 3,074 (Australia 1, Bahamas 87, Belize 8, Bermuda 2, Burma 1, Cambodia 1, Cayman Islands 13, China 2, Cyprus 21, France 1, Honduras 4, Hong Kong 111, Indonesia 6, Isle of Man 6, Italy 1, South Korea 20, Liberia 116, Malaysia 4, Malta 8, Marshall Islands 17, Nigeria 1, Norway 29, Panama 2335, Philippines 81, Portugal 15, Saint Kitts and Nevis 3, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 3, Singapore 131, Thailand 4, UK 4, US 7, Vanuatu 29, Vietnam 1, unknown 1) (2008)
Ports and terminals:	Chiba, Kawasaki, Kobe, Mizushima, Moji, Nagoya, Osaka, Tokyo, Tomakomai, Yohohama

Military branches:	Japanese Ministry of Defense (MOD): Ground Self-Defense Force (Rikujou Jietai, GSDF), Maritime Self-Defense Force (Kaijou Jietai, MSDF), Air Self-Defense Force (Koku Jieitai, ASDF) (2009)
Military service age and obligation:	18 years of age for voluntary military service (2001)
Manpower available for military service:	males age 16-49: 27,819,804 females age 16-49: 26,863,794 (2008 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:	males age 16-49: 22,757,136 females age 16-49: 21,920,703 (2009 est.)
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:	male: 621,254 female: 589,270 (2009 est.)
Military expenditures:	0.8% of GDP (2006)

Disputes - international:

the sovereignty dispute over the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, and Shikotan, and the Habomai group, known in Japan as the "Northern Territories" and in Russia as the "Southern Kuril Islands," occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945, now administered by Russia and claimed by Japan, remains the primary sticking point to signing a peace treaty formally ending World War II hostilities; Japan and South Korea claim Liancourt Rocks (Take-shima/Dokdo) occupied by South Korea since 1954; China and Taiwan dispute both Japan's claims to the uninhabited islands of the Senkaku-shoto (Diaoyu Tai) and Japan's unilaterally declared exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea, the site of intensive hydrocarbon prospecting

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Doll Festival Menu Pork and cabbage dumplings Sushi Peach tofu Vegetables with vinegar lemon dressing Sake Harvest Moon Menu Miso soup Tempura Rice Deep-fried oysters Daikon salad Red bean jelly New Year's Menu Miso soup with grilled rice cakes Sashimi shaped into roses Sushi canapés Beef and onion rolls Smoked salmon and daikon rolls Persimmon and daikon salad Spicy braised gobo (burdock root)

Recipes

Gohan (Boiled Rice)
Sushi
Onigiri (Rice Ball)
Miso Soup
Beef Sukiyaki
Chicken Teriyaki
Yaki-Soba (Fried Noodles)
Ozoni (New Year's Soup)
Sweet Peanut Mochi (Rice Cakes)
Yakitori (Grilled Chicken on Skewers)
Ramen (Noodle Soup)
Broiled Salmon

Geographic Setting and Environment

Japan is an archipelago (chain of islands) made up of about 3,000 islands. About twothirds of the land is too mountainous for development, so almost all the people live in cities, most of which were built on the country's flat land (plains area). The country sometimes experiences natural disasters, such as typhoons (huge storms originating over the ocean) and earthquakes.

Some mountainous areas have been terraced (had step-like areas cut into them) to allow farmers to grow rice and other crops. The climate is good for farming, with rice being the chief crop. About half of Japan's arable land (land able to be farmed) is devoted to growing rice. From the 1970s to the 1990s, the production of Japan's livestock farmers doubled.

Japan accounts for about 8 percent of all the fish caught in the world. Japanese people consume large amounts of fish. Each person in Japan eats more than 150 pounds of fish per year, or around three pounds of fish per week.

History and Food

Japanese cuisine has been influenced by the food customs of other nations, but has adopted and refined them to create its own unique cooking style and eating habits.

The first foreign influence on Japan was China around 300 B.C., when the Japanese learned to cultivate rice. The use of chopsticks and the consumption of soy sauce and soybean curd (tofu) also came from China.

The Buddhist religion, one of the two major religions in Japan today (the other is Shintoism), was another important influence on the Japanese diet. In the A.D. 700s, the rise of Buddhism led to a ban on eating meat. The popular dish, sushi (raw fish with rice) came about as a result of this ban. In the 1800s, cooking styles became simpler. A wide variety of vegetarian (meatless) foods were served in small portions, using one of five standard cooking techniques. All foods were divided into five color groups (green, red, yellow, white, and black-purple) and six tastes (bitter, sour, sweet, hot, salty, and delicate). The Japanese continue to use this cooking system.

Beginning in the early 1200s, trade with other countries began bringing Western-style influences to Japan. The Dutch introduced corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. The Portuguese introduced tempura (batter frying).

After a ban of more than one thousand years, beef returned to Japan during the Meiji Period (1868–1912). Western foods, such as bread, coffee, and ice cream, become popular during the late twentieth century. Another Western influence has been the introduction of timesaving cooking methods. These include the electric rice cooker, packaged foods such as instant noodles, instant miso (fermented soybean paste) soup, and instant pickling mixes. However, the Japanese are still devoted to their classic cooking traditions.

Foods of the Japanese

Rice and noodles are the two primary staples of the Japanese diet. Rice, either boiled or steamed, is served at every meal. Noodles come in many varieties. Among the most popular are soba, thin brown noodles made from buckwheat flour; udon, thick white noodles made from wheat flour; and ramen, thin, curly noodles, also made from wheat flour. Soy sauce and other soybean products are also staples in Japan. These include miso (fermented soybean paste) and tofu (a soybean curd that resembles custard). Other common ingredients in Japanese food include bamboo shoots, daikon (a giant white radish), ginger, seaweed, and sesame seed products. Japanese pickles called tsukemono are served at every meal. Seafood is also plentiful in this island nation. Green tea is the national beverage of Japan, although black tea is also available. Sake (SAH-kee, wine made from rice, usually served warm) and beer are also very popular.

Two uniquely Japanese foods are sushi (fresh raw seafood with rice) and sashimi (fresh raw seafood with soy sauce); both rely on freshly caught fish or seafood. Dishes prepared in a single pot (nabemeno) are popular throughout Japan. Sukiyaki is a dish made up of paper-thin slices of beef (or sometimes chicken), vegetables, and cubes of tofu cooked in broth. Shabu-shabu is beef and vegetables, also cooked in broth but then dipped in flavorful sauces. Each region has its own selection of favorite foods. People living on the cold northern island of Hokkaido enjoy potatoes, corn, and barbecued meats. Foods in western Japan tend to be more delicately flavored than those in the east.

The Japanese are known for using very fresh ingredients in their cooking. They prefer using fresh, seasonal foods for their meals, buying it the same day it will be cooked. The Japanese are also famous for their skill in arranging food so that it looks beautiful. The people of Japan live long lives and have a low rate of heart disease because of healthy eating habits.

See Gohan (Boiled Rice) recipe.

See Sushi recipe.

See Onigiri (Rice Ball) recipe.

See Miso Soup recipe.

See Beef Sukiyaki recipe.

See Chicken Teriyaki recipe.

See Yaki-Soba (Fried Noodles) recipe.

Food for Religious and Holiday Celebrations

The most important holiday in Japan is the New Year, Shogatsu. Special holiday foods, called osechi, are prepared in beautifully decorated stackable boxes called jubako. Each layer of the box has compartments for several different foods. Glazed sardines, bamboo shoots, sweet black beans, and chestnuts in sweet potato paste are just a few of the many holiday foods. New Year foods are also eaten because they are believed to represent good fortune or long life. At New Year's, children are especially fond of hot rice cakes dipped in sweet soybean powder.

The Girls' Festival (or Doll Festival) is held in March. Dolls are dressed in traditional Japanese dresses called kimonos and are offered rice crackers, colored rice cakes, and a sweet rice drink called amazake. Everyone in the family eats the foods. Festive foods for Children's Day (May 5) include rice dumplings stuffed with sweet bean paste.

The tea ceremony (cha-no-yu) is an important Japanese ritual that can be held on a holiday or other special occasion. Developed over several centuries, it plays an important role in Japanese life and culture.

See Ozoni (New Year's Soup) recipe.

See Sweet Peanut Mochi (Rice Cakes) recipe.

Mealtime Customs

The Japanese eat three main meals a day. The main ingredient in all three, however, is rice (or sometimes noodles). Miso soup and pickles are always served as well. Meals eaten early in the day tend to be the simplest. A typical breakfast consists of rice, miso soup, and a side dish, such as an egg or grilled fish.

Noodles are very popular for lunch (and as a snack), and a restaurant or take-out stand referred to as a noodle house is a popular spot for lunch. A typical lunch would be a bowl of broth with vegetables, seaweed, or fish. The bento is a traditional box lunch packed in a small, flat box with dividers. It includes small portions of rice, meat, fish, and vegetables. Stores sell ready-made bento for take out and some even have Western-style ingredients like spaghetti or sausages. A favorite among young people, and as a take-out food, is a stuffed rice ball called onigiri.

Many Japanese have turned to Western-style food for breakfast and lunch, especially in the cities. However, traditional dinners are still eaten by most people in Japan, such as rice, soup, pickles, and fish. Seasonal fresh fruit makes a great dessert. Sweets are more likely to be served with green tea in the afternoon.

Food is grasped between chopsticks and lifted to one's mouth. Chopsticks should never be stuck into a piece of food or used to pass food back and forth. It is not considered impolite to sip one's soup directly from the bowl. At a Japanese meal, people at the table fill each other's drinking glasses but never their own.

The Japanese do not eat while they are doing other things, such as walking or driving. A Japanese car company once claimed that some of its seatbelts didn't work properly in the United States because Americans spilled so much food in their cars. They believe people should not eat and drive cars at the same time.

See Yakitori (Grilled Chicken on Skewers) recipe.

See Ramen (Noodle Soup) recipe.

See Broiled Salmon recipe.

Politics, Economics, and Nutrition

Because Japanese people like to eat a lot of fish, one of the major issues facing the Japanese government relates to fishing privileges. For example, Japan, Canada, and the United States have argued over the rights to fish for salmon. Japan has had conflicts with neighboring Asian nations, including the Republic of Korea, China, Indonesia, and Australia, over fishing rights to waters around those countries.

More than 80 countries, including the United States, have adopted laws that restrict other countries from fishing within 200 miles of their coastlines. This has resulted in Japan being forced to pay fees for the privilege of fishing in many ocean areas around the world.

Further Study

Books

Albyn, Carole Lisa, and Lois Webb. The Multicultural Cookbook for Students. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1993.

Beatty, Theresa M. Food and Recipes of Japan. New York: PowerKids Press, 1999.

Bremzen, Anya von, and John Welchman. Terrific Pacific Cookbook. New York: Workman Publishing, 1995.

Cook, Deanna F. The Kids' Multicultural Cookbook: Food and Fun Around the World. Charlotte, VT: Williamson Publishing, 1995.

Halvorsen, Francine. Eating Around the World in Your Neighborhood. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

Ridgwell, Jenny. A Taste of Japan. New York: Thomson Learning, 1993.

Slack, Susan Fuller. Japanese Cooking for the American Table. New York: Berkeley Publishing, 1996.

Weston, Reiko. Cooking the Japanese Way. Minneapolis: Lerner, 2001.

Web Sites

Schauwecker's Guide to Japan. [Online] Available http://www.japan-guide.com/r/e1.html (accessed August 17, 2001).

Tokyo Food Page. [Online] Available http://www.bento.com/tf-recp.html (accessed August 17, 2001).

Specialty Ingredients

Asia Foods [Online] Available http://www.asiafoods.com (accessed August 17, 2001).

The Oriental Pantry 423 Great Road (2A) Acton, MA 01720 (978) 264-4576 [Online] Available http://www.orientalpantry.com (accessed August 17, 2001).

Specialty Orient Foods, Inc. 43-30 38th Street Long Island City, NY 11101 Toll free: 1-800-758-7634 [Online] Available http://www.sofi-ny.com/mail_order/english/mail_order_main_e.htm (accessed August 17, 2001).

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Magical concepts can be found among the Japanese in their traditional religious beliefs and rites and in their conception of nature. According to such beliefs, all forms and objects, both animate and inanimate, possess, equally with man, a soul with good or evil tendencies. These forms and objects, either of their own volition or by evocation, come into close touch with humans either to their advantage or detriment. Much of Japanese folklore and tradition is permeated with a belief in the supernatural.

Shinto Religion and Ancestor-Worship

A prominent feature of the Japanese religion Shintoism is the worship of ancestors, allied to the worship of nature. Each of the main sects of Shintoism includes the veneration of one's ancestors as a cardinal principle. According to that belief, the disembodied spirits acquire the powers of deities and possess supernatural attributes. They become potential for good or evil and exercise their potentialities in the same mundane sphere upon which their interests and affections centered during life. Consequently they become guardian divinities and the object of ceremonies to honor them, to show gratitude for their services while upon earth, and to solicit a continuance of these services beyond the grave.

On this point, Lafcadio Hearn writes:

An intimate sense of relation between the visible and invisible worlds is the special religious characteristic of Japan among all civilized countries. To Japanese thought the dead are not less real than the living. They take part in the daily life of the people—sharing the humblest sorrows and the humblest joys. They attend the family repasts, watch over the well-being of the household, assist and rejoice in the prosperity of their descendants. They are present at the public pageants, at all the sacred festivals of Shinto, at the military games, and at all the entertainments especially provided for them. And they are universally thought of as finding pleasure in the offerings made to them or the honors conferred upon them.

Every morning, while ancient prayers are repeated, one member of the family places flowers and food-emblems as offerings of pious affection before the shrine to be found in most Japanese homes. On the shrine, beside the symbols of the sun-goddess and the tutelary god of the family, one finds the memorial tablets containing names, ages, and dates of death of members of the household. Stories circulate through the villages of the souls of ancestors taking material form and remaining visible through centuries.

In the month of July three days are set apart for the celebration of the Festival of the Dead. At this time it is thought that the disembodied souls return from the dismal region of the Shades to gaze for a while upon the beauty of their country and to visit their people. On the first morning, new mats are placed upon all altars and on the household shrine, while in the homes, tiny meals are prepared in readiness for the ghostly guests. The streets at night are brilliant with many torches. In front of the houses gaily-colored lanterns are lit in welcome. Those who have recently lost a relative go to the cemeteries to pray, burn incense, and leave offerings of water and flowers set in bamboo vases.

On the third day, the souls of those who are undergoing penance are fed, as are the souls of those who have no friends among the living to care for them. The evening of this day is the time of the ghosts' departure, and for this, thousands of little boats are fashioned and laden with food-offerings and tender messages of farewell. When the night falls, tiny lanterns are lit and hung at the miniature prows and the ghosts are supposed to step aboard. Then the craft are set free upon rivers, lakes, and seas, the water gleaming with the glow of thousands of lights. On this day no sailor dreams of going out to sea—for this one night belongs to the dead. It was believed that if a ship failed to come to port before the sailing of the ghost-fleet the dead arose from the deep and the sailors could hear their mournful whispering, while the white breakers were dead hands clutching the shores, vainly trying to return.

For the Japanese, land and life is sacred. In the Shinto pantheon, deities represent almost everything in heaven and earth, from the mountain of Fujiyama to the household kitchen. When infants were a week old they were taken to the temple and placed under the protection of some god chosen by the parents. In later years the child might choose a patron god for him or herself beside the tutelary one.

In remote parts of Japan traces may be found of an older form of Shinto in which phallic symbols represented life-giving power and therefore were used as a magical exorcism of evil influences, especially that of disease. In this connection a dwarf-god appears who is said to have first taught humankind the art of magic and medicine.

In Shinto there are no idols, their place being taken by shintia, god-bodies, concrete objects in which the divine spirit is supposed to dwell, such as the mirror, jewel, and sword of the sun-goddess, worshiped at the famous Ise shrine. Pilgrims from all parts of Japan made their way to this shrine, acquiring merit and purification thereby. These pilgrims received from the priests objects of talismanic properties called harai that also served as evidence of having been at the holy place. In former days they were recognized as passports.

The term harai signifies to "drive out" or "sweep away," and had reference to the purification of the individual from his sins. These objects were in the form of small envelopes or paper boxes, each containing shavings of the wands used by the Ise priests at the festivals held twice a year to purify the nation in general from the consequences of the sins of the preceding six months. The list of sins included witchcraft, wounding, and homicide, these latter being regarded more as uncleanness than as a moral stigma. On the pilgrim's return home, the harai were placed upon the "god's-shelf."

On certain festival days the ancient ordeals were practiced. These were three in number: the Kugadachi, in which priests, wrought to ecstatic frenzy by participation in a rhythmic dance, poured boiling water upon their bodies without receiving harm from the process; the Hiwatari, a fire ordeal consisting of walking barefoot over a bed of live coals in which both priests and people alike participated; and Tsurugiwatari, the climbing of a ladder of sword-blades. The tests were regarded as tests of purity of character-purity thought to confer an immunity from hurt in these ordeals. The attendant rites consisted of exorcism of evil spirits by the waving of wands and magical finger-knots, and invocation of the gods who were then believed to be actually present.

Possession by Divinities

In connection with some of the Shinto sects, occult rites were practiced to bring about possession of a selected person by the actual spirits of the gods. Priests and laymen alike developed and practiced this art, undergoing a period of purification by means of various austerities. Prophecy, divination, and the cure of disease were the objects of these rites. The ceremony took place in a temple or ordinary house where the "gods' shelf" made the shrine. In the rites, the gohei, Shinto symbols of consecration, were used; the pendant form was utilized for purification and exorcism of evil influences; an upright gohei affixed to a wand signifying the shintai, or god-body, was the central object.

The medium, called nakaza, took his seat in the midst. Next to him in importance was the functionary, the maeza, who presided over the ceremony. It was he who built the magical pyre in a brass bowl and burned in the flames strips of paper inscribed with characters, effigies of disease and trouble. There was a clapping of hands to call attention to the gods, and chants were intoned, accompanied by the shaking of metal-ringed crosiers and the tinkle of pilgrim bells.

After the fire burned out, the bowl was removed and sheets of paper placed in symbolic form, upon which was then put the upright gohei wand. There was further chanting. The medium closed his eyes and clasped his hands, into which the maeza thrust the wand. All awaited the advent of the god, which was indicated by the violent shaking of the wand and convulsive throes on the part of the medium, who was now considered to have become the god. The maeza reverently prostrated himself before the entranced nakaza, and asked the name of the god who had deigned to come. This done and answered, he next offered his petitions, to which the god replied. The ceremony concluded with a prayer and the medium was awakened by beating his back and massaging his limbs out of their cataleptic contraction. These possession rites were also conducted by the pilgrims who ascended the mountain of Ontaké.

Buddhist Sects

Buddhism shared with Shinto the devotions of Japan, enjoining meditation as a means of attaining supernatural knowledge and occult power. It was said that to those who in truth and constancy put into force the doctrines of Buddha the following ten powers would be granted: (1) They know the thoughts of others. (2) Their sight, piercing as that of the celestials, beholds without mist all that happens in the Earth. (3) They know the past and present. (4) They perceive the uninterrupted succession of the ages of the world. (5) Their hearing is so fine that they perceive and can interpret all the harmonies of the three worlds and the ten divisions of the universe. (6) They are not subject to bodily conditions and can assume any appearance at will. (7) They distinguish the shadowing of lucky or unlucky words, whether they are near or far away. (8) They possess the knowledge of all forms, and knowing that form is void, they can assume every sort or form; and knowing that vacancy is form, they can annihilate and render nought all forms. (9) They possess a knowledge of all laws. (10) They possess the perfect science of contemplation.

Methods were known by which it was possible to so radically change the psychological condition of the individual that he or she would be enabled to recognize the character of the opposition between subjective and objective. These two extremes were reconciled in a higher condition of consciousness, a higher form of life, and a more profound and complete activity that concerns the inmost depths of the self. Such beliefs parallel Hindu yoga philosophy, and may have been imported into Japan from India by Buddhist influence during the twelfth and fourteenth centuries C.E. Early Buddhist influence in Japan from the sixth century on was from China.

Zen Buddhism in Japan belongs to the later period of the twelfth century. Zen monasteries were instituted where anyone so inclined could retire for temporary meditation and for the development of special faculties. These were produced by entering a calm mental state, not exactly passive, but in which the attention is not devoted to any one thing, distributed in all directions, producing a sort of void and detachment. The spirit thus obtains entire repose and a satisfaction of the thirst for the ideal. This mystical retirement was sought by politicians and generals, by business, scientific, and professional people, and it was believed that the force that accumulated within them by practicing the Zen was effective even in practical life.

Customs and Occult Lore

Many of the customs of the Japanese have a magical significance. At the Festival of the New Year, extending over three days, it is considered the highest importance to ensure good luck and happiness for the coming year by means of many traditional observances. Houses are thoroughly cleansed materially and spiritually, and evil spirits are expelled by throwing beans and peas out the open slides of the houses. The gateways are decorated with straw ropes made to represent the lucky Chinese numbers of three, five, and seven. Mirror cakes, associated with the sun-goddess, are eaten, as are lobsters, longevity being symbolized by their bent and ancient appearance. The pine-tree branches used for decoration at this time also signify long life.

Divination was performed by various methods: by divining-rods, by the reading of lines and cracks in the shoulder-blade of a deer, and by the classical form taken from the Confucian I Ching or Book of Changes, this involving the use of eight trigrams and sixty-four diagrams.

One method of "raising spirits" used by the Japanese, especially by girls who had lost their lovers by death, was to put into a paper lantern a hundred rushlights and repeat an incantation of a hundred lines. One of these rushlights was taken out at the end of each line and the would-be ghost-seer then went out in the dark with one light still burning and blew it out when the ghost ought to appear.

Charms used to be popular, fashioned of all substances and in all forms, such as strips of paper bearing magical inscriptions to avert evil, fragments of temples, carved rice grains representing the gods of luck, sutras (sacred texts) to frighten the demons, and copies of Buddha's footprint. Paper tickets bearing the name of a god were often affixed outside the doors of houses to combat the god of poverty.

Nature and her manifestations are the result of indwelling soul-life. The Japanese mind, imbued with this belief, peopled nature with multiform shapes. There were dragons with lairs in ocean and river that could fly abroad in the air, while from their panting breath came clouds of rain and tempests of lightning. In the mountains and forests were bird-like gnomes who often beset wayfaring men and women and stole away their wits. There were also mountain men, huge hairy monkeys, who helped the woodcutters in return for food, and mountain-women, ogres with bodies grown over with long white hair, who flitted like evil moths in search of human flesh.

Legend also told of the Senrim, hermits of the mountains, who knew all the secrets of magic. They were attended by wise toads and flying tortoises, could conjure magical animals out of gourds, and could project their souls into space.

Supernatural powers were also ascribed to animals. The fox was believed to possess such gifts to an almost limitless extent, for the animal had miraculous vision and hearing, could read the innermost human thoughts, and could be transformed, assuming any shape at will. He loved to delude humans and work destruction, often taking the form of a beautiful and seductive woman whose embrace meant madness and death. This animal was attributed demoniacal possession.

The cat was not regarded with any kindly feeling by the Japanese, because this animal and the serpent were the only creatures who did not weep at Buddha's death. Cats also had the power of bewitchment and possessed vampire proclivities. Yet among sailors the cat was held in high estimation, for it was thought to possess the power of warding off the evil spirits that haunt the sea.

The images of animals were also thought to be endowed with life. There are tales of bronze horses and deer, huge carved dragons, and stone tortoises wandering abroad at night, terrorizing the people and only laid to rest by decapitation. Butterflies were thought to be the wandering souls of the living who might be dreaming or sunk in reverie; white butterflies were the souls of the dead. Fireflies kept evil spirits afar, and an ointment compounded of their delicate bodies defied any poison.

Trees occupied a foremost place in the tradition and legends of Japan. The people regarded them with great affection, and there are stories of men who, seeing a tree they loved withering and dying, committed suicide before it, praying to the gods that their life so given might pass into the tree and give it renewed vigor. The willow is one of the most eerie of trees; the willow-spirit often became a beautiful maiden and wedded a human lover. The pine tree brought good fortune, especially in the matter of happy marriage. It was also a token of longevity. Tree spirits could sometimes be inimical to man and it is recorded that to stay the disturbing wanderings of one it was necessary to cut it down, at which time a stream of blood flowed from the stump.

The element of fire figured large in the Japanese world of marvels. It was worshiped in connection with the rites of the sun-goddess and even the kitchen furnace became the object of a sort of cult. There is the lamp of Buddha. Messages from Hades came to this world in the shape of fire wheels, phantom fires flickered about, flames burnt in the cemeteries, and there were demon-lights, fox-flames, and dragon-torches. From the eyes and mouths of certain birds such as the blue heron, fire darted forth in white flames. Globes of fire, enshrining human faces and forms, sometimes hung like fruit in the branches of the trees.

The dolls of Japanese children were believed to be endowed with life, deriving a soul from the love expended upon them by their human possessors. Some of these dolls were credited with supernatural powers. They could confer maternity upon a childless woman, and they could bring misfortune upon any who ill-treated them. When old and faded these dolls were dedicated to Kojin the many-armed who dwelt in the enokie tree, and they were reverently laid upon his shrine, bodies which once held a tiny soul.

New Religions in Japan

The ancient beliefs and superstitions confronted the tremendous pressures changing Japan in the decades following World War II. Although Shinto and Buddhist religions still predominate, an astonishing number of new religions, most variations of the older religions, have arisen. Many combine original Shinto and/or Buddhist beliefs with elements of Christianity. The defeat of Japan in the war was a crushing blow to national morale and weakened belief in traditional religion, especially Shintoism. Again, the post-war arrival of high technology and the intensification of industrialization created further receptivity to new directions in religious life. Many saw a need for updating and streamlining religious belief and practice. In modern times, hundreds of new religions have been registered officially, two-thirds of them developments of Shinto or Buddhism, with a combined following in the millions.

Among these sects is a group known as Omoto (Teaching of the Great Origin), which originally began in 1892 as a Messianic sect, founded by a farmer woman named Deguchi Nao. The sect was developed by Deguchi Onisaburo and featured the healing of diseases by mystical power. By 1934, it had some 2.5 million followers. Then in 1935, the Japanese government turned on the group and imprisoned the founders and leading followers; their headquarters were dynamited and for all practical purposes the group was destroyed. Not until after World War II was Omoto revived, now under the name of Aizen-en (Garden of Divine Love). Onisaburo died in 1948, but the movement continued to flourish and also gave rise to various splinter sects.

Counted in the unrelated new religions is Tensho Kotai Jingu Kyo, more generally known as Odoru Shukyo (The Dancing Religion) founded by Kitamura Sayo, a farmer's wife regarded by followers as divinely inspired. She is addressed as "Goddess" and her son as "Young God." She is believed to have prophetic insight and power to heal diseases.

Psychical Research & Parapsychology

Although little has been published in Western countries about Japan in relation to paranormal phenomena, Japanese interest in the subject goes back to the last century. As already mentioned, shamanistic techniques and mediumistic faculty were characteristic of some Japanese religions, and from the middle of the nineteenth century on, such phenomena began to be studied objectively. One early investigator was Atsutane Hirat (1776-1843) who was a pioneer in drawing attention to reported cases of reincarnation and poltergeists.

Chikaatsu Honda (1823-1889) studied the techniques of Chinkon, a method of meditation involving revelation through divine possession, becoming mediumistic himself. His techniques were later developed by Deguchi Onisaburo (1871-1948), the leading figure of Omoto. The Chinkon Kishin technique involved spirit communication, and Wasaburo Asano, then a member of Omoto, perceived that this had much in common with European Spiritualism. He subsequently became independent of Omoto and promoted the study of Spiritualism.

A pioneer of psychical research was Enryo Inoue (1858-1919) who founded Fushigi Kenkyukai (the Society for Anomalous Phenomena) at the University of Tokyo in 1888. Another early investigator was Toranosuke Oguma of Meiji University, who studied abnormal psychology, hypnosis, and dreams, and who began to make Western psychical research known in Japan. Oguma published several books on psychical science.

Another pioneer was Tomobichi Fukurai (1869-1952) of the University of Tokyo, whose experiments on clairvoyance and psychic photography (which he called "thoughtography") commenced in 1910. An English translation of his book Clairvoyance and Thoughtography (1913) was published in 1921. His experiments in thoughtography were a remarkable anticipation of the phenomena of Ted Serios in modern times, investigated by Jule Eisenbud. Unfortunately Fukurai's experiments caused dissension at Tokyo University, and he was obliged to resign. He went to the Buddhist University of Kohyassan where he became president of The Psychical Institute of Japan. He also published a second book, Spirit and Mysterious World (1932), in which he attempted to reconcile psychical phenomena with Buddhism. Today, the Fukurai Institute of Psychology that studies paranormal phenomena pursues their work in his name. Fukurai died in 1952.

In 1923, the Japanese Society for Psychic Science was founded at Tokyo, under the presidency of W. Asano. Progress in psychical research was slow. After the war, J. B. Rhine 's book The Reach of the Mind (1947) was translated into Japanese and stimulated investigation of ESP. Meanwhile Fukurai, who had removed to Sendai in Honshu, organized a research group of psychologists and engineers for the study of parapsychology. Another organization formed for the purpose of investigating psychical research was the Institute for Religious Psychology, founded by Hiroshi Motoyama.

After a visit to Japan by J. G. Pratt of Duke University Parapsychology Laboratory in 1963, a Japanese Society for Parapsychology was officially foudned in 1968 through the initiative of Soji Otani, who visited Duke University and studied the techniques of the researchers there. The previous year, in 1967, the society held a conference of parapsychologists in Tokyo, when Oguma lectured on the history of parapsychology in Japan. Parapsychology has since become a recognized area for research at various Japanese universities.

The showing of a program featuring psychic Uri Geller on Japanese television stimulated interest in the phenomena of psychokinesis. In 1977, experiments were reported with a 17-year-old boy, Masuaki Kiyota, who claimed unusual faculties in metal bending and in thoughtography (now investigated as "nengraphy"). Some of these experiments were filmed and shown on American television in 1977. Kiyota has since confessed that he produced the results by fraud.

Addresses for Japanese organizations concerned with parapsychological investigations are as follows:

International Association for Religion & Parapsychology, 4-11-7 Inokashira, Mitaka, Tokyo 181.

Japan Nengraphy Association, Awiji-cho 2-25, Kannda, Chioda, Tokyo.

Japan Association for Psychotronic Research, c/o 284-6 Anagawa-cho. Chiba-shi.

Japanese Society for Parapsychology, 26-14 Chuo 4-chrome, Nakano, Tokyo 164.

Psi Science Institute of Japan, Shibuya Business Hotel 6F, 12-5 Shibuya 1-chrome, Shinjuki-ku, Tokyo 150.

Sources:

Anesaki, Masaharu. History of Japanese Religion. London: Kegan Paul, 1930.

Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.

Davis, F. Hadland. Myths and Legends of Japan. London: Harrap, 1912.

Deguchi, Onisaburo. Memoirs. Japan: Kameoka, 1957.

Fukurai, Tomokichi. Clairvoyance and Thoughtography. London: Rider, 1931. Reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1975.

Hearn, Lafcadio. Kokoro: Hints & Echoes of Japanese Inner Life. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1906.

International Society of Life Information Science, Tokyo. http://wwwsoc.nacsis.ac.jp/islis. June 6, 2000.

Japanese Society for Parapsychology. http://www.jspp.ne.jp/. June 6, 2000.

Lowell, Percival. Occult Japan. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1895.

Offner, C. B., and H. van Straelen. Modern Japanese Religions. Leyden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1963.

Thomsen, Harry. The New Religions of Japan. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1963.

Uphoff, Walter, and Mary Jo Uphoff. Mind Over Matter: Implications of Masuaki Kiyota's PK Feats with Metal and Film. Ore. : New Frontiers Center; London: Colin Smythe, 1980.

Kimi gayo wa
Chiyo ni yachiyo ni
Sazareishi no
Iwao to narite
Koke no musumade

English Version

May the Emperor's rule last
Till a thousand years, then eight thousand years to come
Till sand, pebbles, and rocks
To be united as a ledge
Till moss grows on it

For a list of words related to Japan, see:

• Nations of the World - Japan: Nippon; in E Asia; capital Tokyo; area 145,882 sq. mi., pop. 123,778,000; Japanese; Shinto and Buddhist; yen

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