Japan

This country is rooted in love of nature, art, and ritual.  However, Japan is the world’s largest and most advanced producer of motor vehicles and electronic equipment.  Many great and wonderful things come out of this tiny island.

Japan is located in Eastern Asia and is an island chain between the Sea of Japan and the North Pacific Ocean.  Though a small island, the population is 128,000,000 people with a density of 337/km2.  The size of the country is only 374,744 square kilometers with 3,091 square kilometers of regional water.  Monarchy is the form of government Japan uses. Currently, the Emperor is Akihito, and the Prime Minister is Junchiro Koizumi and the capital is Tokyo.  

Different from the government, the land of Japan has many characteristics.  Mostly characterized as rugged and mountainous, in some parts of Japan there are small forests.  The most common are subtropical moist broadleaf forests, temperate and mixed broadleaf forests, and temperate coniferous forests.  In contrast to the forests, there are mountains that provide an abundant supply of ore.  People can mine for bauxite, coal, diamonds, iron, precious metals, lead, lime stone, nickel, phosphate, rock salt, tin, and uranium. 

Not only is there an abundance of mining and forestry, but also agriculture. Japanese people grow rice, sugar, beats, vegetables, and fruits.  In addition pork and poultry are also bred.  Likewise, grain, whaling, eggs, dairy products, and fish are big agriculture products.  Additionally, Japan is the world’s largest and advanced producer of motor vehicles, electronic devices, machine tools, steel and other metals, ships, chemicals, textiles, and processed foods.  This little country is also the home of many manufacturers known here in America, such as Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Sony, Matsushita, Toshiba, Suzuki, and Hitachi.  Japan also has many ways of communication.  In 2002 there were a total of 71,149,000 home telephones, and in 2003 there were 86,658,600 mobile phones.  The internet is also another way to communicate.  In 2003 there were 12, 962, 065 internet hosts, and in 2002 there were 57,200,000 internet users.  Japan also has many tourists.  Many tourists go there to see the thousands of sight seeing spots.  These spots vary from national parks to ancient temples to high tech shopping centers.  There are multitudinous ways to travel to these spectacular sights. There are 147 airports, 15 heliports, 23, 577 kilometers of railways, 1,770 kilometers of waterways, and 702 merchant marine ships.