Japan

Second Russo-Japanese War

World War III

**Japan** (Japanese: **日本**) is an island nation in East Asia. The country was formerly a member of the Axis Powers of World War II before being defeated by the United States and remade as a thriving democracy and major economic power. The nation has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament.

Japan has been inhabited since the Upper Paleolithic period (30,000 BC), though the first written mention of the archipelago appears in a Chinese chronicle (the *Book of Han*) finished in the 2nd century AD. Between the 4th and 9th centuries, the kingdoms of Japan became unified under an emperor and the 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-modeled constitution and pursued a program of industrialization and modernization. Amidst a rise in militarism and overseas colonization, Japan invaded China in 1937 and entered World War II as an Axis power in 1941. 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 and began a military alliance with the United States. Under the 1947 constitution, Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature, the National Diet.

Japan is a highly developed country, and a great power in global politics. Its economy is the world's third-largest by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by PPP. Although Japan has renounced its right to declare war, the country maintains Self-Defense Forces that rank as one of the world's strongest militaries. After World War II, Japan experienced record growth in an economic miracle, becoming the second-largest economy in the world by 1972 but has stagnated since 1995 in what is referred to as the Lost Decades. Japan has the world's highest life expectancy, though it is experiencing a decline in population. A global leader in the automotive, robotics and electronics industries, the country has made significant contributions to science and technology. The culture of Japan is well known around the world, including its art, cuisine, music, and popular culture, which encompasses prominent comic, animation and video game industries. It is a member of numerous international organizations, including the United Nations (since 1956), OECD, G20 and Group of Seven.

In late 2022-2023, Japan was attacked by the Russian Federation; a team of rogue Russian soldiers executed an unsanctioned invasion of the Kuril Islands, escalating the intense Kuril Islands Dispute into a full-scale war, thus starting the Second Russo-Japanese War between the two nations.

## History

### Second World War

During the Second World War, Japan, then known as the Imperial Japanese Empire, was one of the Axis Powers. Most engagements involved territories and occupied locations by the Imperial Japanese Empire.

### Second Russo-Japanese War

In late 2022-2023, Japan found itself fighting a new war against an old enemy: the Russian Federation. On December 7, 2022, a team of Russian Spetsnaz operatives launched an unsanctioned invasion of the Kuril Islands, escalating the intense Kuril Islands Dispute into a full-scale war and, in effect, starting World War III. Japan, caught off guard, immediately mobilized military soldiers to repel the invading Russians, and declared war on Russia. This attack also provoked the wrath of the United States, which officially entered the war against Russia to aid both Ukraine and Japan in repelling both invasions.

## Notable locations

### Cities

* Tokyo
* Numazu
* Fukuoka
* Osaka
* Kyoto