Question: How many consecutive losses has the Liberal party faced since the 2002 election?
Answer: a record five

Question: During what years did the dismantling of the Playmander begin?
Answer: 1968 election to the 1970 election

Question: What was William Scott Wilson's occupation?
Answer: translator

Question: What are samurai usually called in Japanse?
Answer: bushi (武士?, [bu.ɕi]) or buke (武家?)

Question: Where is the first known use of 'samurai'?
Answer: Kokin Wakashū

Question: When is the first known use of 'samurai'?
Answer: 905–914

Question: What did samurai mean nearly the same thing as?
Answer: bushi

Question: What were samurai affiliated with?
Answer: a clan

Question: How much of Japan were samurais?
Answer: less than 10%

Question: Where do samurais' teachings live on?
Answer: everyday life and in modern Japanese martial arts

Question: What class were samurais?
Answer: middle and upper echelons of the warrior class

Question: When was the Battle of Hakusukinoe?
Answer: 663 AD

Question: Who was the Battle of Hakusukinoe against?
Answer: Tang China and Silla

Question: What was the effect of the Battle of Hakusukinoe?
Answer: a Japanese retreat from Korean affairs

Question: Who led the Taika Reform?
Answer: Prince Naka no Ōe (Emperor Tenji)

Question: When was the Taika Reform?
Answer: 646 AD

Question: In what period did Emperor Kammu rule?
Answer: early Heian period

Question: When was the early Heian?
Answer: the late 8th and early 9th centuries

Question: Who did Kammu fail to conquer?
Answer: Emishi

Question: What was the full title for Shogun?
Answer: sei'i-taishōgun

Question: Who introduced the Shogun concept?
Answer: Emperor Kammu

Question: When was the Genpei war?
Answer: late 12th century

Question: Who was given the right to appoint shugo?
Answer: Minamoto no Yoritomo

Question: What was Minamoto's position?
Answer: clan leader

Question: Who opened the Kamakura Bakufu Shogunate?
Answer: Minamoto no Yoritomo

Question: When did the Kamakura Bakufu Shogunate open?
Answer: 1192

Question: What rebellion happened in 1160?
Answer: Heiji Rebellion

Question: Who fought in the Heiji Rebellion?
Answer: the rival Minamoto and Taira clans

Question: How long were the toryos' terms supposed to be?
Answer: four-year

Question: What clans were most regional clans' chiefs also a member of?
Answer: Fujiwara, Minamoto, or Taira clans

Question: Who was the first warrior to become imperial advisor?
Answer: Taira no Kiyomori

Question: Who established the first samurai-led administration?
Answer: Taira no Kiyomori

Question: Who succeeded the Taira clan?
Answer: the Minamoto

Question: What role did the Emperor have in the samurai-controlled government?
Answer: figurehead

Question: How did the Taira clan expand power?
Answer: had its women marry Emperors

Question: When did the Gempei War begin?
Answer: 1180

Question: When did the Gempei War end?
Answer: 1185

Question: Which clans fought in the Gempei War?
Answer: The Taira and the Minamoto

Question: What does the Shimonoseki Strait divide?
Answer: Honshu and Kyushu

Question: When was the Kamakura Shogunate established?
Answer: 1192

Question: Which Chinese dynasty was founded by Mongols?
Answer: Yuan

Question: How many troops did the Yuan send to invade Japan?
Answer: 40,000

Question: How many ships did the Yuan send to invade Japan?
Answer: 900

Question: Where did the Yuan invade Japan?
Answer: northern Kyūshū

Question: How many samurai did Japan defeat the Yuan invasion with?
Answer: 10,000

Question: What was built around Hakata Bay?
Answer: a great stone barrier

Question: When did Japan begin building the Hakata Bay barrier?
Answer: 1276

Question: When did Japan finish building the Hakata Bay barrier?
Answer: 1277

Question: How long was the Hakata Bay barrier?
Answer: 20 kilometers

Question: What happened to diplomatic envoys the Mongols sent to Japan?
Answer: executed

Question: When did Toyotomi Hideyoshi first send an army to Korea?
Answer: 1592

Question: When did Toyotomi Hideyoshi send an army to Korea a second time?
Answer: 1597

Question: How many troops did Toyotomi Hideyoshi send to Korea?
Answer: 160,000

Question: When was the Battle of Sacheon?
Answer: 1598

Question: When did Toyotomi Hideyoshi die?
Answer: 1598

Question: Which military leader avoided sending his soldiers to Korea?
Answer: Tokugawa Ieyasu

Question: What force were most commanders opposed to the Korea invasion part of?
Answer: Eastern Army

Question: Which commander loyal to Hideyoshi was in the Eastern Army?
Answer: Katō Kiyomasa

Question: Where did the Eastern and Western armies battle?
Answer: Battle of Sekigahara

Question: Which army won the Battle of Sekigahara?
Answer: Eastern Forces

Question: Who used arquebuses a lot?
Answer: Oda Nobunaga

Question: What did Oda Nobunaga value?
Answer: innovation

Question: Who disarmed Japan's Buddhist monks?
Answer: Oda Nobunaga

Question: When did Oda Nobunaga die?
Answer: 1582

Question: Who caused Oda Nobunaga's death?
Answer: Akechi Mitsuhide

Question: When were samurai becoming less warrior-like?
Answer: During the Tokugawa shogunate

Question: When had samurai last been used in battle?
Answer: the early 17th century

Question: What was another name for the Tokugawa era?
Answer: the Edo period

Question: What was the samurai's long sword called?
Answer: katana

Question: What was the samurai's short sword called?
Answer: wakizashi

Question: Who were most samurais' lords?
Answer: daimyo

Question: Whose teachings did all samurai read?
Answer: Confucius and Mencius

Question: What did Bushido transcend?
Answer: social class, time and geographic location

Question: When was Bushido formalized?
Answer: before the Edo Period

Question: Who formalized Bushido?
Answer: several influential leaders and families

Question: Which force invaded Japan in 1853?
Answer: U.S. Navy

Question: Who lead the US Navy's invasion of Japan?
Answer: Commodore Matthew Perry

Question: What was Perry's goal in Japan?
Answer: force Japan to open its borders to trade

Question: What technology helped the downfall of samurai?
Answer: arquebus

Question: When was the samurai military modernized?
Answer: 1854

Question: Where did Japan open a military school in 1855?
Answer: Nagasaki

Question: What kind of military school did Japan open in 1855?
Answer: Naval

Question: What nationality of engineers did Japan hire to build naval arsenals?
Answer: tradition

Question: How many steam warships did Japan have in 1867?
Answer: eight

Question: Who established a western-style army in Japan?
Answer: Emperor Meiji

Question: When was a western-style army established in Japan?
Answer: 1873

Question: What did samurai become in 1873?
Answer: Shizoku

Question: Who had samurai been allowed to kill?
Answer: commoners who paid them disrespect

Question: In what century were the Meiji reforms?
Answer: 19th

Question: What group made up most of Japan's first exchange students?
Answer: Samurai

Question: Who started Mitsubishi?
Answer: Iwasaki Yatarō

Question: What was Iwasaki's relationship to samurai?
Answer: great-grandson of a samurai

Question: What kind of schools did samurai start?
Answer: private schools for higher educations

Question: Who did samurai write for?
Answer: newspaper companies

Question: What philosophies were the samurai influenced by?
Answer: Buddhism and Zen, and to a lesser extent Confucianism and Shinto

Question: What type of meditation did samurai do?
Answer: Zen

Question: What caused some samurai to stop fighting?
Answer: The Buddhist concept of reincarnation and rebirth

Question: What was the contribution of Confucianism to samurai?
Answer: to stress the importance of the lord-retainer relationship

Question: When was Hojo Shigetoki born?
Answer: 1198

Question: When did Hojo Shigetoki die?
Answer: 1261

Question: What were gunki?
Answer: 13th and 14th century warrior writings

Question: When was Shiba Yoshimasa born?
Answer: 1350