The Empire of The Nippon Teikoku

**The Nippon Teikoku** *(Japanese:日本帝国)* also known as **Nippon** or **Nihon** *(日本)* and its anglicized name **Japan**, is an East-asian island-nation located in the Northwest Pacific Ocean. It is bordered on the North by the Sea of Okhotsk and the Kamchatka Peninsula, on the East by the Pacific Ocean; to the South by Taiwan and the East China Sea, and to the West by the Sea of Japan. Spanning over more than 7000 islands comprising 465,075 square kilometers, The Nippon Teikoku is part of the Ring of Fire. Its main islands are Karafuto, Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is the Capital of the Nippon Teikoku, with other major cities including Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe and Kyoto. Furthermore, the Nippon Teikoku occupies an artificial orbital planetoid, High Charity II, which represents the Empire's largest city.

126 million people live in the Nippon Teikoku, making it the eight most populous nation in the world, and among the most populous not to own significant Outer Space holdings other than High Charity II. This high population to surface ratio makes the Nippon Teikoku one of the most densely populated and urbanized countries in the world, a fact exacerbated by the fact more than two-thirds of its landmass is mountainous, concentrating its vast population on very narrow plains occupied by bustling metropolises. The Nippon Teikoku is subdivided into 17 Prefectures.

The islands known today as the Nippon Teikoku have been inhabited since the Upper Paleolithic period (30,000 BC), though the first mentions of the archipelago appear in Wu chronicles from the 1st century AD. Between the 4th and 9th centuries, the Kingdoms of Japan became unified under an emperor and his imperial court based in Heian-kyō. Beginning in the 12th century, political power was held by a series of military dictators (shōgun) and feudal lords (daimyō), and enforced by a class of warrior nobility (samurai). After a century-long period of civil war, the country was reunified in 1603 under the Tokugawa shogunate, which enacted an isolationist foreign policy. In 1854, a United States fleet forced Japan to open trade to the West, which led to the end of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial power in 1868. In the Meiji period, the Empire of Japan adopted a Western-styled constitution and pursued a program of industrialization and modernization. In 1937, Japan invaded China; in 1941, it entered World War II as an Axis power. After suffering defeat in the Pacific War and two atomic bombings, Japan surrendered in 1945 and came under a seven-year Allied occupation, during which it adopted a new constitution. Becoming a Constitutional Monarchy, Japan reached a period of prosperity before falling back into such a decline that, by the advent of the Third World War in the 2030's, the Japanese people had grown disillusioned in a democratic system that had in practice only allowed mono-partisanism. The state was reconsolidated into The Nippon Teikoku. Seeking to restore the Absolute Monarchy of its more prosperous years, the custodians of the Chrysanthemum Throne were ultimately replaced by the Kawashima family, that had developed national admiration for its humble background and its service to the country under the leadership of Eiji Kawashima, famous for his efforts integrate the Karafuto islands to the Empire. Eiji Kawashima reigned as the first Emperor of the new dynasty before his death in an automobile accident in 2147, leading to the coronation of Empress Momo Kawashima, the current Empress of the Nippon Teikoku.

In modern times, the Nippon Teikoku is recognized as a cultural, economic, and political great power of Asia. Its territorial domination over islands encompassing a sizeable part of the Asian portion of the Pacific rim has made it a respected state in the region. Furthermore, a powerhouse service-based economy word $10.5 trillion allows The Nippon Teikoku's largest cities to be considered worldwide business hubs and promotes the legitimacy of the Yen as an international currency.

The Nippon Teikoku has earned worldwide recognition for its language, art, culture, cuisine, music, games industry, and a powerful animation industry.