Japan

A

Population Characteristics

Japan has a population of 127,467,970 (2007 estimate). The overall population density is about 340 people per sq km (881 per sq mi), though local density varies considerably due to the mountainous terrain, with very many high concentrations along the Tokyo-Osaka metropolitan corridor and much lower densities in northern Honshu and Hokkaido.

B

Political Divisions

Japan is divided into 47 prefectures. The prefectures include Okinawa, which was occupied by the United States after World War II and returned to Japan in 1972.

C

Principal Cities

Tokyo, the financial and commercial centre of the country, has a population of 8,273,907 (2006). Other leading cities, with their population figures, are Yokohama, 3,544,104 (2006), a leading seaport and shipbuilding and industrial centre, with manufactures including chemicals, machinery, and metal and petroleum products; Osaka, 2,506,456 (2006), an important seaport and airline terminus and one of Japan’s largest financial centres; Nagoya, 2,145,208 (2006), a manufacturing centre noted for its lacquerware, textiles, and pottery; Kyoto, 1,392,746 (2006), the historical capital, famed for the manufacture of art goods, including silk brocades and textiles, and a centre of heavy industry; and Kōbe, 1,498,805 (2006), a leading seaport and shipbuilding and transport centre devastated in the January 1995 earthquake. More than 75 other cities have populations exceeding 250,000.

D

Religion

The principal religious faiths of Japan are Shinto, a polytheistic religion based on ancestor and nature worship, with about 200 sects and denominations; and Buddhism, with about 207 sects and denominations. Christianity—represented in Japan by the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Greek Orthodox faiths—is practised by less than 4 per cent of the population. Virtually all the Japanese engage in Shinto ceremonies, and the majority of Shintoists are also Buddhists. In the latter half of the 19th century Shinto was made a state religion, stressing worship of the emperor as a divinity and the unique divine origin of the Japanese; all Japanese, regardless of their religious affiliation, were obliged to worship at Shinto shrines. In 1946 the Allied occupation authorities ordered Shinto disestablished and reduced it to the level of a sect. On January 1, 1946, Emperor Hirohito renounced all claim to divinity. The constitution promulgated in 1947 re-established absolute freedom of religion and ended state support of Shinto.

E

Language

The Japanese language is the official language of Japan, spoken throughout the country. Its precise family descent is unclear, though it may be one of the Altaic languages and some experts believe it to be related to the Austronesian languages. Others put it in a family of its own (titled Japanese) with 11 other languages. Japanese is written with three different scripts: modified Chinese characters (Kanji) and two syllabic scripts, Hiragana and Katakana, used respectively for phonetic rendering of ordinary Japanese words and for emphasis and foreign words. Despite the extreme complexity of this writing system, Japan has achieved almost universal literacy. Thirteen other indigenous languages are spoken, including Central Okinawan and Korean, nearly all of which are from the Japanese language family. English is spoken by some, as is Chinese.