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Selected articles list
Portal:Japan/Selected article/1
The
1995 Japanese Grand Prix (formally the
XXI Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) was a
Formula One motor race held on October 29, 1995 at the
Suzuka Circuit,
Suzuka. It was the 16th and penultimate race of the
1995 Formula One season. The race, contested over 53 laps, was won by
Michael Schumacher for the
Benetton team after starting from
pole position.
Mika Häkkinen finished second in a
McLaren, and
Johnny Herbert third in a Benetton.
Jean Alesi, driving for
Ferrari, started second alongside Schumacher. However, Alesi was forced to serve a
10-second stop-and-go penalty because his car moved forward before the start. Alesi climbed up to second, before retiring on lap 25. Schumacher's rival in the
Drivers' Championship,
Damon Hill, started fourth amidst pressure from the British media after poor performances at previous races. Hill moved up to second because of Alesi's retirement, but spun off the circuit on lap 40. Schumacher's win was his ninth of the season, matching
Nigel Mansell's record for
victories in a season that was set in
1992. Benetton were confirmed
Constructors' Champions as Williams could not pass Benetton's points total with only one race remaining. Heading into the penultimate race of the season,
Benetton driver
Michael Schumacher had already won the season's
Drivers' Championship, having clinched the title at the previous race, the
Pacific Grand Prix. Schumacher led the championship with 92 points;
Damon Hill was second with 59 points. A maximum of 20 points were available for the remaining two races, which meant that Hill could not catch Schumacher.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/2
The
Actions along the Matanikau in September and October 1942—sometimes referred to as the
Second and Third Battles of the Matanikau—were two separate but related engagements among a series of engagements between the
United States and
Imperial Japanese Navy and
Army forces around the
Matanikau River on
Guadalcanal during the
Guadalcanal campaign. These particular engagements, the first taking place between September 23 and 27, and the second between October 6 and 9, were two of the largest and most significant of the Matanikau actions. The Matanikau River area on Guadalcanal included a peninsula called Point Cruz, the village of Kokumbona, and a series of ridges and ravines stretching inland from the coast. Japanese forces used the area to regroup from attacks against U.S. forces on the island, to launch further attacks on the U.S. defenses that guarded the
Allied airfield (called
Henderson Field) located at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal, as a base to defend against Allied attacks directed at Japanese troop and supply encampments between Point Cruz and Cape Esperance on western Guadalcanal, and as a location for watching and reporting on Allied activity around Henderson Field. In the first action, elements of three
U.S. Marine battalions under the command of U.S. Marine
Major General Alexander Vandegrift attacked Japanese troop concentrations at several points around the Matanikau River.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/3
The
Boshin War was a
civil war in
Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling
Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the
imperial court. The war found its origins in dissatisfaction among many nobles and young
samurai with the shogunate's handling of foreigners following the
opening of Japan the prior decade. An alliance of southern samurai and court officials secured the cooperation of the young
Emperor Meiji, who declared the abolition of the two and a half century old shogunate. Military movements by imperial forces and partisan violence in
Edo led
Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the sitting shogun, to launch a military campaign to seize the emperor's court at Kyoto. The military tide rapidly turned in favor of the smaller but relatively modernized imperial faction, and after a series of battles culminating in the surrender of Edo, Yoshinobu personally surrendered. The Tokugawa remnant retreated to northern
Honshū and later to
Hokkaidō, where they founded the
Ezo republic. Defeat at the
Battle of Hakodate broke this last holdout and left the imperial rule supreme throughout the whole of Japan, completing the military phase of the
Meiji Restoration. Around 120,000 men were mobilized during the conflict, and of these about 3,500 were killed. In the end, the victorious imperial faction abandoned its objective to expel foreigners from Japan and instead adopted a policy of continued modernization with an eye to eventual renegotiation of the
Unequal Treaties with the Western powers.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/4
Comet Hyakutake is a
comet discovered on January 30, 1996, which passed very close to
Earth in March of that year. It was dubbed
The Great Comet of 1996; its passage near the Earth was one of the closest cometary approaches of the previous 200 years. Hyakutake appeared very bright in the night sky and was widely seen around the world. The comet temporarily upstaged the much anticipated
Comet Hale-Bopp, which was approaching the inner
solar system at the time. Scientific observations of the comet led to several discoveries. Most surprising to cometary scientists was the first discovery of
X-ray emission from a comet, believed to have been caused by ionised
solar wind particles interacting with neutral
atoms in the
coma of the comet. The
Ulysses spacecraft unexpectedly crossed the comet's tail at a distance of more than 500 million
km from the
nucleus, showing that Hyakutake had the longest tail known for a comet. Hyakutake is a
long-period comet. Before its most recent passage through the
solar system, its orbital period was about 17,000
years, but the
gravitational influence of the
giant planets has increased this period to 100,000 years. The comet was discovered on January 30, 1996, by Yuji Hyakutake an
amateur astronomer from southern
Japan. He had been searching for comets for years and had moved to
Kagoshima Prefecture partly for the dark skies in nearby rural areas. He was using a powerful set of
binoculars with six-
inch (152 mm)
objective lenses to scan the skies on the night of the discovery.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/5 Serial Experiments Lain is an anime series directed by Ryutaro Nakamura, original character design by Yoshitoshi ABe, screenplay written by Chiaki J. Konaka, and produced by Yasuyuki Ueda (credited as production 2nd) for Triangle Staff. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo from July to September 1998. A PlayStation game with the same title was released in November 1998 by Pioneer LDC. Lain is influenced by philosophical subjects such as reality, identity, and communication. The series focuses on Lain Iwakura, an adolescent girl living in suburban Japan, and her introduction to the Wired, a global communications network similar to the Internet. Lain lives with her middle class family, which consists of her inexpressive older sister Mika, her cold mother, and her computer-obsessed father. The first ripple on the pond of Lain's lonely life appears when she learns that girls from her school have received an e-mail from Chisa Yomoda, a schoolmate who committed suicide. When Lain receives the message at home, Chisa tells her (in real time) that she is not dead, but has just "abandoned the flesh", and has found God in the Wired. From then on, Lain is bound to a quest which will take her ever deeper into both the network and her own thoughts. The series shows influences from topics such as philosophy, computer history, cyberpunk literature and conspiracy theory, and it was made the subject of several academic articles. English language anime reviewers found it to be "weird" and unusual, but reviews were still generally positive. Producer Ueda said he intended Japanese and American audiences to form conflicting views on the series, but was disappointed in this regard, as the impressions turned out to be similar.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/6
The
Heian Palace was the original imperial palace of
Heian-kyō, the capital of
Japan from 794 to 1227. In
Japan, this palace is called Daidairi. The palace, which served as the imperial residence and the administrative centre of
Japan for most of the
Heian Period, was located at the north-central location of the city in accordance with the
Chinese models used for the design of the capital. The palace consisted of a large rectangular
walled enclosure, which contained several ceremonial and administrative buildings including the government ministries. Inside this enclosure was the separately walled
residential compound of the
emperor or the
Inner Palace. In addition to the emperor's living quarters, the Inner Palace contained the residences of the imperial consorts, as well as certain official and ceremonial buildings more closely linked to the person of the emperor. The original role of the palace was to manifest the centralised government model adopted by
Japan from
China in the 7th century—the
Daijō-kan and its subsidiary Eight Ministries. The palace was designed to provide an appropriate setting for the emperor's residence, the conduct of great affairs of state, and the accompanying ceremonies. While the residential function of the palace continued until the 12th century, the facilities built for grand state ceremonies began to fall into disuse by the 9th century. This was due to both the abandonment of several statutory ceremonies and procedures and the transfer of several remaining ceremonies into the smaller-scale setting of the Inner Palace.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/7
The
Ehime Maru and USS Greeneville collision was a
ship collision between the
United States Navy submarine USS Greeneville (SSN-772) and the
Japanese fishing training ship
Ehime Maru on February 9, 2001, about 9 nautical miles (17 km) off the south coast of
Oahu,
Hawaii,
USA. In a demonstration for some civilian visitors,
Greeneville performed an emergency surfacing maneuver. As the submarine surfaced, it struck
Ehime Maru, a high-school fishing training ship from
Ehime Prefecture,
Japan. Within minutes of the collision,
Ehime Maru sank. Nine of its crewmembers were killed, including four
high school students. Many Japanese, including government officials, were concerned over news that civilians were present in
Greeneville's control room at the time of the accident. Some expressed anger because of a perception that the submarine did not try to assist
Ehime Maru's survivors and that the submarine's captain,
Scott Waddle, did not apologize immediately afterwards. The
United States Navy (USN) conducted a public court of inquiry, placed blame on Waddle and other members of
Greeneville's crew, and dealt
nonjudicial punishment or administrative disciplinary action to the captain and some crew members. In response to requests from the families of
Ehime Maru's victims and the government of Japan, the USN raised
Ehime Maru from the ocean floor in October 2001 and moved it to shallow water near Oahu. Once there, Navy and Japanese divers located and retrieved the remains of eight of the nine victims from the wreck.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/8
Manzanar is most widely known as the site of one of ten camps where over 110,000
Japanese Americans were imprisoned during
World War II. Located at the foot of the
Sierra Nevada in
California's
Owens Valley between the towns of
Lone Pine to the south and
Independence to the north, it is approximately 230 miles (370 km) northeast of
Los Angeles. Manzanar (which means “apple orchard” in
Spanish) was identified by the
United States National Park Service as the best-preserved of the former camp sites, and was designated the Manzanar National Historic Site. Long before the first prisoners arrived in March 1942, Manzanar was home to
Native Americans, who mostly lived in villages near several creeks in the area. Ranchers and miners formally established the town of Manzanar in 1910, but abandoned the town by 1929 after the
City of Los Angeles purchased the water rights to virtually the entire area. As different as these groups might seem, they are tied together by the common thread of
forced relocation. Since the last prisoners left in 1945, former prisoners and others have worked to protect Manzanar and to establish it as a
National Historic Site that preserves and interprets the site for current and future generations. The primary focus is the
Japanese American Internment era, as specified in the legislation that created the Manzanar National Historic Site. The site also interprets the town of Manzanar, the ranch days, the settlement by the Owens Valley
Paiute, and the role that water played in shaping the history of the Owens Valley.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/9
The
invasion of Tulagi, on May 3 and May 4, 1942, was part of
Operation Mo, the
Empire of Japan's strategy in the
South Pacific and
South West Pacific Area in 1942. The plan called for
Imperial Japanese Navy troops to capture
Tulagi and nearby islands in the
Solomon Islands Protectorate. The occupation of Tulagi by the Japanese was intended to cover the
flank of Japanese forces that were advancing on
Port Moresby in
New Guinea as well as to provide a base for Japanese forces to threaten and interdict the supply and communication routes between the
United States and
Australia and
New Zealand. Without the means to capably resist the Japanese offensive in the Solomons, the
British Resident Commissioner of the Solomon Islands protectorate and the few Australian troops assigned to defend Tulagi evacuated the island just before the Japanese forces arrived on May 3. The next day, however, a U.S.
aircraft carrier task force enroute to resist the Japanese forces advancing on Port Moresby (that resulted in the
Battle of the Coral Sea) struck the Japanese Tulagi landing force in an air attack, destroying or damaging several of the Japanese ships and aircraft involved in the landing operation. Nevertheless, the Japanese troops successfully occupied Tulagi and began the construction of a small naval base. Over the next several months, the Japanese established a naval refueling, communications, and
seaplane base on Tulagi and the nearby
islets of
Gavutu and Tanambogo and, in July 1942, began to build a large airfield on nearby
Guadalcanal. The Japanese activities on Tulagi and Guadalcanal were observed by Allied
reconnaissance aircraft, as well as by Australian
coastwatcher personnel stationed in the area.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/10
Yotsuya Kaidan, the story of Oiwa and Iemon, is a tale of betrayal, murder and
ghostly revenge. Arguably the most famous
Japanese ghost story of all time, it has been adapted for film over 30 times and continues to be an influence on
Japanese horror today. Written in 1825 by
Tsuruya Nanboku IV as a
kabuki play, the original title was
Tōkaidō Yotsuya Kaidan. It is now generally shortened, and loosely translates as
Ghost Story of Yotsuya. First staged in July of 1825,
Yotsuya Kaidan appeared at the Nakamuraza theater as a
double-feature with the immensely popular
Kanadehon Chushingura. Normally, with a Kabuki double-feature, the first play is staged in its entirety, followed by the second play. However, in the case of Yotsuya Kaidan it was decided to interweave the two dramas, with a full staging on two days: the first day started with
Kanadehon Chushingura from Act I to Act VI, followed by
Tōkaidō Yotsuya Kaidan from Act I to Act III. The following day started with the Onbo canal scene, followed by
Kanadehon Chushingura from Act VII to Act XI, then came Act IV and Act V of
Tōkaidō Yotsuya Kaidan to conclude the program. The play was incredibly successful, and forced the producers to schedule extra out-of-season performances to meet demand. The story tapped into people’s fears by bringing the ghosts of Japan out of the temples and aristocrats' mansions and into the home of common people, the exact type of people who were the audience of his theater.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/11
Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu, originally called Daitō-ryū
Jujutsu, is a
Japanese martial art that first became widely known in the early 20th century under the
headmastership of
Takeda Sokaku. Takeda had extensive training in several martial arts (including
Kashima Shinden Jikishinkage-ryū and
sumo) and referred to the style he taught as "Daitō-ryū" (literally, "Great Eastern School"). Although the school's traditions claim to extend back centuries in Japanese history there are no known extant records regarding the
ryū before Takeda. Whether he is regarded as the restorer or founder of the art, the known history of Daitō-ryū begins with Takeda Sokaku. The origins of Daitō-ryū maintain a direct lineage extending approximately 900 years, originating with
Shinra Saburō Minamoto no Yoshimitsu, who was a
Minamoto clan samurai and member of the
Seiwa Genji (the branch of the Minamoto family descending from 56th imperial ruler of Japan,
Emperor Seiwa). Daitō-ryū takes its name from the mansion that Yoshimitsu lived in as a child, called "Daitō", in
Ōmi Province (modern day
Shiga Prefecture). According to the legend, Yoshimitsu
dissected the corpses of men killed in battle, studying their anatomy for the purpose of learning techniques for
joint-locking and vital point striking (
kyusho-jitsu).
Portal:Japan/Selected article/12
Ten-gō sakusen, also known as
Ten-ichi-go, was the last major
Japanese naval operation in the
Pacific Theater of
World War II. In April 1945, the Japanese
battleship Yamato, the largest battleship in the world, along with nine other Japanese
warships, embarked from Japan on a deliberate
suicide attack upon
Allied forces engaged in the
Battle of Okinawa. The Japanese force was attacked, stopped, and almost completely destroyed by
United States (U.S.)
carrier-borne aircraft before reaching
Okinawa.
Yamato and five other Japanese warships were sunk. The battle demonstrated U.S.
air supremacy in the
Pacific theater by this stage in the war and the vulnerability of
surface ships without air cover to aerial attack. The battle also exhibited Japan's willingness to sacrifice large numbers of its people in
desperate attempts to slow the Allied advance on the
Japanese home islands. By early 1945, following the
Solomon Islands campaign, the
Battle of the Philippine Sea and the
Battle of Leyte Gulf, the once formidable
Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet was reduced to just a handful of operational warships and a few remaining aircraft and aircrew. Most of the remaining Japanese warships in the Combined Fleet were stationed at ports in Japan, with most of the large ships at
Kure, Hiroshima. With the invasions of
Saipan and
Iwo Jima, Allied forces began their campaign against the Japanese homeland. As the next step before a
planned invasion of the Japanese
mainland, Allied forces
invaded Okinawa on April 1, 1945.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/13
Sakurajima is an active
volcano and a former island (now connected to the mainland) of the same name in
Kagoshima Prefecture in
Kyūshū,
Japan. It is a
stratovolcano with the
summit split into three
peaks,
Kitadake (northern peak),
Nakadake (central peak) and
Minamidake (southern peak) which is active now. The surface of the island is about 77 km². Its North Peak is Sakurajima's highest peak, rising to 1,117 metres above
sea level. The mountain is located in a part of Kagoshima Bay known as Kinkō Bay. The former island is part of the
city of
Kagoshima. In 1914, a great eruption occurred, burying the straits with
lava, thus connecting the former island to the
Osumi Peninsula, so that Sakurajima is no longer an island. The volcanic activity still continues, dropping large amounts of
volcanic ash on the surroundings. Earlier eruptions built the white sands highlands in the region. Sakurajima is located in the
Aira caldera, formed in an enormous eruption 22,000 years ago. Several hundred
cubic kilometres of
ash and
pumice were ejected, causing the
magma chamber underneath the erupting vents to collapse. The resulting caldera is over 20 kilometers across.
Tephra fell as far as 1000 km from the volcano. Sakurajima was formed by later activity within the caldera, beginning about 13,000 years ago. It lies about 8 kilometers south of the centre of the caldera. Its first eruption in recorded history occurred in 963 AD. Most of its eruptions are
strombolian, affecting only the summit areas, but larger
plinian eruptions have occurred in 1471-1476, 1779-1782 and 1914.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/14
The
Michael Brown Okinawa assault incident was an attempted indecent assault by
U.S. Marine Corps Major Michael Brown on a
Filipina bartender, Victoria Nakamine, in
Okinawa,
Japan on November 2, 2002. The case received extensive attention in the
Japanese media, especially on
Okinawa, and the crime sparked a public debate over the
U.S. military presence in Japan, the fairness of the
Japanese legal system, and the practices of the
Japanese police. The case involved the
Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan and the
U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement, the
Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Japan and the United States. On July 8, 2004, after a 19-month trial, Brown was convicted by a Japanese court of attempted
indecent assault and destruction of private property and received a one-year
suspended prison
sentence. Based on this incident and others involving crimes committed by
U.S. military personnel in Japan, both countries entered into negotiations aimed at modifying the SOFA in July 2003; however, as of 2007, no changes had been made. Early in the morning of November 2, 2002, a female employee of the
Camp Courtney officers' club on Okinawa drove up to the Courtney main gate and reported to base security personnel that a Marine Corps major had just attempted to
sexually assault her in her car on a deserted road near the back gate of the base. She stated that during the assault the major threw her mobile phone into the nearby Tengan River.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/15
Kitsune is the Japanese word for
fox. Foxes are a common subject of
Japanese folklore. Stories depict them as intelligent beings and as possessing
magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. Foremost among these is the ability to
assume human form. While some folktales speak of
kitsune employing this ability to trick others—as foxes in folklore often do—others portray them as faithful guardians, friends, lovers, and wives. Foxes and human beings lived in close proximity in
ancient Japan; this companionship gave rise to legends about the creatures.
Kitsune have become closely associated with
Inari, a
Shinto kami or spirit, and serve as his messengers. This role has reinforced the fox's supernatural significance. The more tails a
kitsune has—they may have as many as nine—the older, wiser, and more powerful it is. Because of their potential power and influence, some people make
offerings to them as to a deity. It is widely agreed that many fox myths in Japan can be traced to
China,
Korea, or
India. Chinese folk tales tell of
fox spirits that may have up to nine tails. Many of the earliest surviving stories are recorded in the
Konjaku Monogatari, an 11th-century collection of Chinese, Indian, and Japanese narratives. There is debate whether the
kitsune myths originated entirely from foreign sources or are in part an indigenous Japanese concept dating as far back as the fifth century BC.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/16
Carlson's patrol, also known as
The Long Patrol or
Carlson's long patrol, was an operation by the
2nd Marine Raider Battalion under the command of
Evans Carlson during the
Guadalcanal Campaign against the
Imperial Japanese Army from November 6 to December 4, 1942. In the operation, the 2nd Raiders attacked forces under the command of
Toshinari Shōji, which were
escaping from an attempted encirclement in the Koli Point area on
Guadalcanal and attempting to rejoin other Japanese army units on the opposite side of the U.S. Lunga perimeter. In a series of small unit engagements over 29 days, the 2nd Raiders killed almost 500 Japanese soldiers while suffering only 16 killed. The raiders also captured a Japanese artillery cannon that was delivering harassing gunfire on
Henderson Field, the
Allied airfield at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal. On August 7, 1942, Allied forces (primarily
US Marines) landed on Guadalcanal,
Tulagi, and
Florida Islands in the
Solomon Islands. Their mission was to deny the Japanese use of the islands as
bases for threatening the
supply routes between the U.S. and
Australia, and to secure the islands as starting points for a
campaign to isolate the major Japanese base at
Rabaul while also supporting the Allied
New Guinea campaign. The landings initiated the six-month-long
Guadalcanal Campaign. The Japanese were taken by surprise, and by nightfall on August 8 the 11,000 Allied troops, under the command of
Lieutenant General Alexander Vandegrift,
secured Tulagi and nearby small islands as well as an airfield under construction at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/17
Kimi ga Yo, often translated as "May your reign last forever" is
Japan's
National Anthem, and is also one of the world's shortest
national anthems in current use. The
lyrics are based on a
Waka poem written in the
Heian Period, sung to a melody written in the later
Meiji Era. The current melody was chosen in 1880, replacing an unpopular melody composed eleven years earlier. Although
Kimi ga Yo has long been Japan's
de facto national anthem, it was only legally recognized as such in 1999 with the passing of the
Law Concerning the National Flag and Anthem. After its adoption, there was controversy over the performance of the anthem at public school ceremonies. Along with the
national flag,
Kimi ga Yo was considered to be a symbol of
imperialism and
militarism in wartime. The lyrics first appeared in a poem anthology,
Kokin Wakashū, as an anonymous poem. While anonymous poems were not uncommon at that time, and the author may have been in fact known, the anonymity might be because the author belonged to one of the lower classes. The poem was also included in a lot of anthologies, and in a later period used as a celebration song by people of all walks of life. Unlike the current anthem, the poem began with "
Wa ga Kimi wa" ('you, my lord') instead of "
Kimi ga Yo wa" ('your reign'). The change of the lyrics occurred during the
Kamakura period.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/18
The
posting system is a
baseball player transfer system currently in effect between
Japan's
Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and the
United States'
Major League Baseball (MLB). NPB players have never been eligible to be obtained through the traditional means of the
Rule 4 Draft, and since there were no set legal rules in place to govern the process, problems arose. The system was implemented for two reasons. First, the NPB players
Hideo Nomo and
Alfonso Soriano used loopholes to void contracts and leave for the MLB - possibly taking fans with them. Second, NPB player
Hideki Irabu had very little negotiating power when it came to his trade deal between NPB and MLB teams. By creating a system that requires MLB teams to pay NPB teams transfer fees while allowing players the power to negotiate their own trade deals, the posting system presumably was meant to solve both problems. As of 2008, twelve Japanese players have been "posted" using the system. Of these, seven were immediately signed to Major League contracts, three were signed to
minor league contracts and two were unsuccessful in drawing any MLB interest. The two highest-profile players that have been acquired through the posting system are
Ichiro Suzuki and
Daisuke Matsuzaka. Respectively, they attracted high bids of $13.125 million and $51.1 million and have enjoyed highly successful careers in the MLB.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/19
Ikata is a small
town located in
Nishiuwa District,
Ehime,
Japan. Following a recent
merger with the neighboring towns of
Misaki and
Seto, the town now spans the mountainous
Sadamisaki Peninsula, the narrowest peninsula in Japan and the westernmost point on the island of
Shikoku. This unique geography has greatly influenced Ikata's growth. On the one hand, it has presented significant challenges to urban development that were not overcome until recently in the town's long history. On the other, the peninsula is what gives the town its beautiful mountain and ocean scenery which, bolstered by significant investments in infrastructure and tourist facilities, has formed the basis for a burgeoning tourism industry. In addition to the beauty of its rugged, natural landscape, Ikata has long been known for fishing and
mikan orange farming. In recent years Ikata has also become a hotspot of modern energy production—the
Ikata Nuclear Power Plant produces much of Shikoku's electricity, and the town's windy mountains are dotted by dozens of windmills.The
Sadamisaki Peninsula area has been inhabited since at least the
Jōmon Period (10,000–300 BC), as evidenced by the discovery of stone tools and
earthenware pots in the Misaki and Kushi neighborhoods. In 1963 a local man discovered a stone ax dating back to the mid-
Yayoi Period (300 BC–250 AD) in his farm plot in the Kawachi neighborhood. Upon further investigation by the Japan Archaeological Society in 1986, the area was recognized as containing the remains of a highland settlement.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/20
The
Imperial Japanese Navy, also known as the
Japanese Navy was the
navy of the
Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional
renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes. It was the third largest navy in the world by 1920 behind the
United States Navy and
Royal Navy. It was supported by the
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service for aircraft and airstrike operation from the fleet. It was a major force in the
Pacific War. The origins of the Imperial Japanese Navy trace back to early interactions with nations on the
Asian continent, beginning in the early
medieval period and reaching a peak of activity during the 16th and 17th centuries at a time of
cultural exchange with
European powers during the
Age of Discovery. After two centuries of stagnation during the country's ensuing
seclusion policy under the
shoguns of the
Edo period, Japan's navy was comparatively backward when the country was forced open to trade by
American intervention in 1854. This eventually led to the
Meiji Restoration. Accompanying the re-ascendance of the
Emperor came a period of frantic
modernization and
industrialization. The navy's history of successes, sometimes against much more powerful foes as in the 1895
Sino-Japanese war and the 1905
Russo-Japanese War, ended in almost complete annihilation during the concluding days of
World War II. The IJN was officially dissolved in 1947.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/21
Aikido is a
Japanese martial art developed by
Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, philosophy, and religious beliefs. Aikido is often translated as "the Way of unifying (with)
life energy" or as "the Way of harmonious spirit." Ueshiba's goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker from injury. Aikido is performed by blending with the motion of the attacker and redirecting the force of the attack rather than opposing it head-on. The
aikidōka (aikido practitioner) "leads" the attacker's
momentum using entering and turning movements. The techniques are completed with various
throws or
joint locks. Aikido can be categorized under the general umbrella of
grappling arts. Aikido derives mainly from the martial art of
Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu, but began to diverge from it in the late 1920s, partly due to Ueshiba's involvement with the
Ōmoto-kyō religion. Ueshiba's early students' documents bear the term
aiki-jūjutsu. Many of Ueshiba's senior students have different approaches to aikido, depending on when they studied with him. Today aikido is found all over the world in a number of styles, with broad ranges of interpretation and emphasis. However, they all share techniques learned from Ueshiba and most have concern for the well-being of the attacker. This attitude has been at the core of criticisms of aikido and related arts.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/22
Botan Dōrō is a
Japanese ghost story that is both romantic and horrific; it involves sex with the dead and the consequences of loving a ghost. It is sometimes known as
Kaidan Botan Dōrō, based on the
kabuki version of the story. Most commonly translated as
Tales of the Peony Lantern, it is one of the most famous
kaidan in
Japan.
Botan Dōrō entered the Japanese psyche in the 1600s, through a translation of a book of
Chinese ghost stories called
Jian Deng Xin Hua (
New Tales Under the Lamplight). The collection was
didactic in nature, containing
Buddhist moral lessons on
karma. On the first night of
Obon, a beautiful woman and a young girl holding a
peony lantern stroll by the house of the widowed
samurai Ogiwara Shinnojo. Ogiwara is instantly smitten with the woman, named Otsuyu, and vows an eternal relationship. From that night onward, the woman and the girl visit at dusk, always leaving before dawn. An elderly neighbor, suspicious of the girl, peeks into his home and finds Ogiwara in bed with a skeleton. Consulting a
Buddhist priest, Ogiwara finds that he is in danger unless he can resist the woman, and he places a protection charm on his house. The woman is then unable to enter his house, but calls him from outside. Finally, unable to resist, Ogiwara goes out to greet her, and is led back to her house, a grave in a temple. In the morning, Ogiwara's dead body is found entwined with the woman's skeleton.
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Curse of the Colonel refers to an
urban legend regarding a reputed
curse placed on the Japanese
Kansai-based Hanshin Tigers baseball team by deceased
KFC founder and
mascot Colonel Harland Sanders. The curse was said to be placed on the team because of the Colonel's anger over treatment of one of his store-front statues. As is common with
sports-related curses, the Curse of the Colonel is used to explain the
Japan Championship Series drought that the Hanshin Tigers have had to endure since their first and only victory in the 1985 Japan Championship. The curse is a classic example of a
scapegoat. The
Hanshin Tigers are located in
Kansai, the second largest metropolitan area in
Japan. They are considered the eternal underdogs of
Nippon Professional Baseball, in opposition to the
Yomiuri Giants of
Tokyo, who are considered the kings of Japanese baseball. The devoted fans flock to the stadium no matter how badly the Tigers play in the league. Comparisons are often made between the Hanshin Tigers and the
Boston Red Sox, who were also said to be under a curse, the
Curse of the Bambino, until they won the
World Series in 2004. In 1985, much to Japanese people's surprise, the Hanshin Tigers faced the
Seibu Lions and took their first and only victory in the
Japan Series, largely due to star slugger
Randy Bass, a
gaijin (foreigner) player for the team.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/24 The Asama-Sansō incident was a hostage crisis and police siege in a mountain lodge near Karuizawa, Nagano prefecture, Japan that lasted from February 19, 1972 to February 28, 1972. The police rescue operation on the final day of the standoff was the first marathon live broadcast in Japan, lasting 10 hours and 40 minutes. The incident began when five members of the United Red Army (URA), following a bloody purge that left 14 members of the group plus one bystander dead, broke into a holiday lodge below Mount Asama, taking the wife of the lodge-keeper as a hostage. A standoff between police and the URA radicals took place, lasting ten days. The lodge was a natural fortress, solidly constructed of thick concrete on a steep hillside with only one entrance, which, along with their guns, enabled the hostage-takers to keep police at a distance. On February 28, the police stormed the lodge. Two police officers were killed in the assault, but the hostage was rescued and the URA radicals were taken into custody. The incident contributed to a decline in popularity of leftist movements in Japan. Japan's leftist student movement in the 1960s pervaded Japan's universities, and, by late in the decade, had become very factionalized, competitive, and violent. After a series of incidents in which leftist student groups attacked and injured or killed law enforcement officials and the general public, Japan's national police agency cracked down on the student groups, raiding their hideouts and arresting dozens in 1971 and 1972. Attempting to escape from the police, a core group of radicals from the URA retreated to a compound in Gunma Prefecture during the winter of 1972.
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A
tsunami is a series of
waves created when a body of water, such as an
ocean, is rapidly displaced.
Earthquakes,
mass movements above or below water, some
volcanic eruptions and other
underwater explosions,
landslides, underwater
earthquakes, large
asteroid impacts and testing with
nuclear weapons at sea all have the potential to generate a tsunami. The effects of a tsunami can be devastating due to the immense volumes of water and energy involved. Since
meteorites are small, they will not generate a tsunami. The
Greek historian
Thucydides was the first to relate tsunamis to submarine quakes, but understanding of the nature of tsunamis remained slim until the 20th century and is the subject of ongoing research. Many early geological, geographic, oceanographic etc; texts refer to "
Seismic sea waves"—these are now referred to as "tsunami." Some
meteorological storm conditions - deep
depressions causing
cyclones,
hurricanes; can generate a
storm surge which can be several metres above normal tide levels. This is due to the low
atmospheric pressure within the centre of the depression. As these
storm surges come ashore the surge can resemble a tsunami, inundating vast areas of land. These are not tsunami. Such a storm surge inundated
Burma (
Myanmar) in May 2008.
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The
Charter Oath was promulgated at the enthronement of
Emperor Meiji of
Japan on April 7, 1868. The Oath outlined the main aims and the course of action to be followed during Emperor Meiji's reign, setting the legal stage for Japan's modernization. It remained influential, if less for governing than inspiring, throughout the
Meiji era and into the twentieth century, and can be considered the first
constitution of modern Japan. The first draft of the Oath was written by junior councilor
Yuri Kimimasa in January 1868, containing progressive language that spoke to the frustrations that the radical but modestly born Meiji leaders had experienced in "service to hereditary incompetents." Yuri's language was moderated by his colleague
Fukuoka Takachika in February to be "less alarming," and
Kido Takayoshi prepared the final form of the Oath, employing "language broad enough to embrace both readings." The Oath was read aloud by
Sanjo Sanetomi in the main ceremonial hall of the
Kyoto Imperial Palace in the presence of the Emperor and more than 400 officials. After the reading, the
nobles and
daimyo present signed their names to a document praising the Oath, and swearing to do their utmost to uphold and implement it. Those not able to attend the formal reading afterward visited the palace to sign their names, bringing the total number of signatures to 767.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/27 Ran is a 1985 film written and directed by Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. It is a jidaigeki (Japanese period drama) depicting the fall of Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadai), an aging Sengoku-era warlord who decides to abdicate as ruler in favor of his three sons. The story is based on legends of the daimyo Mori Motonari, as well as on the Shakespearean tragedy King Lear. Ran was Kurosawa's last epic. With a budget of $12 million, it was the most expensive Japanese film ever produced up to that time. Kurosawa directed three other films before he died, but none on so large a scale. The film was hailed for its powerful images and use of color—costume designer Emi Wada won an Academy Award for Costume Design for her work on Ran. The distinctive Gustav Mahler-inspired film score, written by Toru Takemitsu, plays in isolation with ambient sound muted. According to Stephen Prince, Ran is "a relentless chronicle of base lust for power, betrayal of the father by his sons, and pervasive wars and murders that destroy all the main characters." It is a tale about the downfall of the once-powerful Ichimonji clan after its patriarch Hidetora decides to give control of his kingdom up to his three sons: Taro, Jiro, and Saburo. Taro, the eldest, will receive the prestigious First Castle and become leader of the Ichimonji clan, while Jiro and Saburo will be given the Second and Third Castles. Jiro and Saburo are to support Taro, and Hidetora illustrates this by using a bundle of arrows. Hidetora will remain the titular leader and retain the title of Great Lord.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/28 The Mana series, known in Japan as Seiken Densetsu, is a console role-playing game series from Square Enix, created by Koichi Ishii. The series began as a handheld side story to Square's flagship franchise Final Fantasy, although most Final Fantasy-inspired elements were subsequently dropped, starting with the second installment, Secret of Mana. It has since grown to include games of various genres within the fictional world of Mana, with recurring stories involving a world tree, its associated holy sword, and the fight against forces that would steal their power. Several character designs, creatures, and musical themes reappear frequently. In 2003, the series comprised five games; since 2006, it has experienced a revival through the World of Mana campaign, with five new games released in the span of one year. As of 2008, the Mana series comprises eight console games and two mobile games, in addition to four manga and one novelization. The Mana series reception has been very uneven, with Secret of Mana earning wide acclaim, such as being rated 78th in IGN's yearly "Top 100 Games of All Time", and being highly praised for its musical score, while the games from the World of Mana series have been rated considerably lower. Square trademarked the title Seiken Densetsu: The Emergence of Excalibur in 1987, intending to use it for a game project led by Kazuhiko Aoki for the Famicom Disk System. According to early advertisements, the game would consist of an unprecedented five floppy disks, making it one of the largest titles developed for the Famicom up until that point. Although Square solicited pre-orders for the game, Kaoru Moriyama, a former Square employee, affirms that management canceled the ambitious project before it advanced beyond the early planning stages.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/29 X Japan is a popular Japanese band founded in 1982 by Toshimitsu "Toshi" Deyama and Yoshiki Hayashi. Originally named X, the group achieved its breakthrough success in 1989 with the release of their second album Blue Blood. They started out as a power/speed metal band and later gravitated towards a progressive sound, at all times retaining an emphasis on ballads. After three more albums, X Japan disbanded in 1997. Besides being one of the first Japanese acts to achieve mainstream success while on an independent label, the group is widely credited for pioneering the visual kei movement, though most of the group's members toned down their on-stage attire in later years. As of 2007, the band has sold over twenty million records and over two million home videos. On June 4, 2007, it was announced the band would reunite with a new song released via digital download in January 2008 and live performances scheduled for March and May. X was founded in 1982 while vocalist Toshi and drummer Yoshiki were attending high school together. The band began to actively perform live in the Tokyo area in 1985, its lineup at that time being completed by a number of changing support musicians. A first single, titled "I'll Kill You" was released on Dada Records in June and in November of the same year, the group contributed the song "Break the Darkness" to the samplers Heavy Metal Force III. To ensure a continuous outlet for the band's publications, Yoshiki founded the independent label Extasy Records in the following year on which a second single, "Orgasm", was released.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/30 The Japanese language has a highly regular agglutinative verb morphology, with both productive and fixed elements. Typologically, its most prominent feature is topic creation: Japanese has prominent topics (although it is possible for topics and subjects to be distinct). Grammatically, Japanese is an SOV dependent-marking language, with verbs always constrained to the sentence-final position, except in some rhetorical and poetic usage. The word order is free as long as the order of dependent-head is maintained among all constituents: the modifier or relative clause precedes the modified noun, the adverb precedes the modified verb, the genitive nominal precedes the possessed nominal, and so forth. Thus, Japanese is a strongly left-branching language; to contrast, Romance languages such as Spanish are strongly right-branching, and Germanic languages such as English are weakly right-branching. Text is composed of sentences, which are in turn composed of phrases, which are its smallest coherent components. Like Chinese and classical Korean, written Japanese does not typically demarcate words with spaces; its agglutinative nature further makes the concept of a word rather different from words in English. Word divisions are informed by semantic cues and a knowledge of phrase structure. Phrases have a single meaning-bearing word, followed by a string of suffixes, auxiliary verbs and particles to modify its meaning and designate its grammatical role.
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Gifu is a
city located in the south-central portion of
Gifu Prefecture,
Japan, and serves as the prefectural capital. The city has played an important role in Japan's history because of its location in the middle of the country. During the
Sengoku period, various warlords, including
Oda Nobunaga, used the area as a base in an attempt to unify and control Japan. Gifu continued to flourish even after Japan's unification as both an important
shukuba along the
Edo period Nakasendō and, later, as one of Japan's fashion centers. Before becoming a modern city, it was part of the former Atsumi District, but it has since been designated a
core city by the national government. Located on the
alluvial plain of the
Nagara River, Gifu has taken advantage of the surrounding natural resources to create both traditional industries (including
Mino washi and agriculture) and tourism opportunities like
cormorant fishing.
Mount Kinka, one of the city's major symbols, is home to a nationally-designated forest and
Gifu Castle, a replica of Nobunaga's former castle. Gifu also hosts many festivals and events throughout the year. Two major rail lines connect Gifu to Japan's national and international transportation infrastructure.
JR Central's
Tōkaidō Main Line runs through the city, connecting it with
Nagoya, one of Japan's largest cities, and the surrounding area. The city has a direct train route to
Chūbu Centrair International Airport and facilities capable of hosting international events. Gifu has active relationships with six
sister cities.
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The national
flag of Japan is a white flag with a large red disc (representing
the rising sun) in the center. The flag's official name in
Japanese is
Nisshōki but the flag is more commonly known as
Hinomaru. The
Hinomaru was widely used on military banners in the
Sengoku (Warring States) period of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the
Meiji Restoration the flag was officially adopted for use as the
civil ensign by Proclamation No. 57 on February 27, 1870 (27 January, Meiji 3 in the
Japanese calendar). However, the flag was not adopted nationally until August 13, 1999, by the
Law Concerning the National Flag and Anthem. Along with the national anthem
Kimi ga Yo, the
Hinomaru is considered a controversial symbol of the
militaristic past of the country. Use of the
Hinomaru was also severely restricted during the early years of the
American occupation of the country after
World War II, although restrictions were later relaxed. Japanese law did not designate any particular flag as the national flag from 1885 until 1999, although the
Hinomaru was legally the national flag for the brief period from 1870 until 1885. Despite this, several
military banners of Japan are based on the design of the
Hinomaru, including the sun-rayed Naval Ensign. The
Hinomaru was used as a template to design other Japanese flags for public and private use.
Portal:Japan/Selected article/33 Branded to Kill is a 1967 Japanese yakuza film directed by Seijun Suzuki and starring Joe Shishido, Koji Nanbara, Annu Mari and Mariko Ogawa. It was a low budget, production line number for the Nikkatsu Company. The story follows Goro Hanada in his life as a contract killer. He falls in love with a woman named Misako, who recruits him for a seemingly impossible mission. When the mission fails, he becomes hunted by the phantom Number One Killer, whose methods threaten his sanity as much as his life. The studio was unhappy with the original script and called in Suzuki to rewrite and direct it at the last minute. Suzuki came up with many of his ideas the night before or on the set while filming, and welcomed ideas from his collaborators. He gave the film a satirical, anarchic and visually eclectic bent which the studio had previously warned him away from. After its release Suzuki was fired for making "movies that make no sense and no money". Suzuki successfully sued Nikkatsu with support from student groups, like-minded filmmakers and the general public and caused a major controversy through the Japanese film industry. Suzuki was blacklisted and did not make another feature film for 10 years but became a counterculture hero. The film drew a strong following which expanded overseas in the 1980s and has established itself as a cult classic. Film critics and enthusiasts now regard it as an absurdist masterpiece. It has been cited as an influence by filmmakers such as Jim Jarmusch, John Woo, Chan-wook Park and Quentin Tarantino. Thirty-four years after Branded to Kill, Suzuki filmed Pistol Opera (2001) with Nikkatsu, a loose sequel to the former. The company has also hosted two major retrospectives spotlighting his career.
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There are two styles of
toilets commonly found in
Japan. The oldest type is a simple
squat toilet, which is still common in
public conveniences. After
World War II, modern Western-type
flush toilets and
urinals became common. The current state of the art for Western-style toilets is the
bidet toilet, which, as of 2004, are installed in more than half of Japanese households. In Japan, these bidets are commonly called Washlets, a brand name of
Toto Ltd., and include many advanced features rarely seen outside of Asia. Depending on the exact model, these bidets are designed to open the lid when they sense a user nearby, wash the
anus or
vulva of the user (including a number of pulsating and massaging functions), dry afterwards with warm air, flush automatically and close the lid after use. During the
Jōmon period, settlements were built in a horseshoe shape, with a central plaza in the middle and garbage heaps around the settlement. In these garbage heaps, calcified fecal remains of humans or dogs, so called
coprolites, were found, indicating that these garbage dumps were also used as toilets. The earliest
sewer systems are from the
Yayoi period (300 BC to A.D. 250). These systems were used in larger settlements, probably in combination with toilets. A possible ritual site, that may also have been a toilet using flowing water, dating back to the early 3rd century was found in
Sakurai, Nara. Another cesspit analyzed by archaeologists in detail was found at the site of the
Fujiwara Palace in
Kashihara, Nara, the first location of the imperial city from 694 to 710. This toilet was constructed over an open pit similar to an
outhouse.
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The
National Diet of Japan is
Japan's
bicameral legislature. It is composed of a
lower house, called the
House of Representatives, and an
upper house, called the
House of Councillors. Both houses of the
Diet are directly elected under a
parallel voting system. In addition to passing laws, the Diet is formally responsible for selecting the
Prime Minister. The Diet was first convened as the
Imperial Diet in 1889 as a result of adopting the
Meiji constitution. The Diet took its current form in 1947 upon the adoption of the
postwar constitution and is considered by the Constitution to be the highest organ of state power. The
National Diet Building is located in
Nagatachō,
Chiyoda, Tokyo. The houses of the Diet are elected under a parallel voting system. This means that the seats to be filled in any given election are divided into two groups, each elected by a different method; the main difference between the houses is in the sizes of the two groups and how they are elected. Voters are also asked to cast two votes: one for an individual candidate in a constituency, and one for a party list. Any citizen of Japan at least twenty years of age (the
age of majority in Japan) may vote in these elections. Japan's parallel voting system is not to be confused with the
Additional Member System used in many other nations. The
Constitution of Japan does not specify the number of members of each house of the Diet, the voting system, or the necessary qualifications of those who may vote or be returned in
parliamentary elections, thus allowing all of these things to be determined by law. However it does guarantee universal adult suffrage and a secret ballot. It also insists that the electoral law must not discriminate in terms of "race, creed, sex, social status, family origin, education, property or income".
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