Japan

State · Capital: Tokyo

Japan is an island country in East Asia consisting of four major islands alongside over 14,000 smaller islands, with a population of almost 123 million as of 2026; Tokyo is its capital and largest city. After an American fleet forced Japan to open trade in 1853, the shogunate ended and imperial power was restored in 1868; the Meiji period then saw rapid industrialization, modernization, militarism, and overseas colonization, including the annexation of Taiwan in 1895 and Korea in 1910. In 1937 Japan invaded China and in 1941 attacked the U.S. and European colonial powers, entering World War II as an Axis power; after defeat and the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered in 1945 and came under Allied occupation until 1952. It is a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature known as the National Diet.