About japan history

It is not known when humans first settled on the Japanese archipelago. It was long believed that there was no Paleolithic occupation in Japan, but since World War II thousands of sites have been unearthed throughout the country, yielding a wide variety of Paleolithic tools. These include both core tools , made by chipping away the surface of a stone, and flake tools , made by working with a stone flake broken off from a larger piece of stone. There is little doubt that the people who used these implements moved to Japan from the Asian continent. The Paleolithic Period in Japan is variously dated from 30, to 10, years ago, although the argument has been made for a Lower Paleolithic culture prior to 35, bce. Nothing certain is known of the culture of the period, though it seems likely that people lived by hunting and gathering, used fire, and made their homes either in pit-type dwellings or in caves.

Japan , island country lying off the east coast of Asia. It consists of a great string of islands in a northeast-southwest arc that stretches for approximately 1, miles 2, km through the western North Pacific Ocean. Honshu is the largest of the four, followed in size by Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku. In addition, there are numerous smaller islands, the major groups of which are the Ryukyu Nansei Islands including the island of Okinawa to the south and west of Kyushu and the Izu , Bonin Ogasawara , and Volcano Kazan islands to the south and east of central Honshu. The Japanese landscape is rugged, with more than four-fifths of the land surface consisting of mountains. Abundant precipitation and the generally mild temperatures throughout most of the country have produced a lush vegetation cover and, despite the mountainous terrain and generally poor soils, have made it possible to raise a variety of crops.

Note: Many dates are approximate. Some developments emerged over a period of years, and precise dates for events before A. Notice how long the prehistorical era was compared to other periods.

Few nations on Earth have had a more colorful history than Japan. Settled by migrants from the Asian mainland back in the mists of prehistory, Japan has seen the rise and fall of emperors, rule by samurai warriors , isolation from the outside world, expansion over most of Asia, defeat, and rebirth. One of the most war-like of nations in the early 20th century, Japan today often serves as a voice of pacifism and restraint on the international stage. Capital: Tokyo. Japan has a constitutional monarchy , headed by an emperor.