Today marks the National Foundation Day of Japan, which is celebrated annually on February 11.
Japan is an island-nation located in the Pacific Ocean with dense cities, imperial palaces, mountainous national parks and thousands of shrines and temples. Known as the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan is a strato-volcanic archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, which make up about 97 per cent of land area and often are referred to as home islands.
The country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions, with Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one.
Japan has the world’s 10th largest population with 127 million people and about 9.1m live in Tokyo.
The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most highly educated countries in the world, with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree.
Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world.
Japan is renowned for its historical and extensive cinema, rich cuisine and its major contributions to science and modern-day technology.
Japan’s geographical features divide it into six principal climatic zones: Hokkaido, Sea of Japan, Central Highland, Seto Inland Sea, Pacific Ocean and Ryukyu Islands. The northernmost zone, Hokkaido, has a humid continental climate with long, cold winters and very warm to cool summers.
The country has over 90,000 species of wildlife, including the brown bear, the Japanese macaque, the Japanese raccoon dog, the large Japanese field mouse, and the Japanese giant salamander.
A large network of national parks has been established to protect important areas of flora and fauna as well as 37 Ramsar wetland sites.
Four sites have been inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List for their outstanding natural value.
Japan is home to some of the largest and most technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronics, machine tools, steel and non-ferrous metals, ships, chemical substances, textiles and processed foods. Agricultural businesses cultivate 13pc of Japan’s land and Japan accounts for 15pc of the global fish catch. Unemployment rates are as low as four pc and as of 2016 Japan’s labour force consisted of some 65.9m workers.
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