By: Paige Riehl

Location Japan is an island nation in east Asia, called an archipelago (large group of islands). The four main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. The surrounding waters are the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean. Some surrounding countries are South and North Korea, China and Russia.

JAPANESE LANGUAGE The national language is Japanese. Many Japanese learn the English language. Good morning! Ohayou gozaimasu. おはようございま す。

Customs and Celebrations One celebration is the Emperors birthday as a national holiday. This is an important celebration because in 1950 his father Hirohito started the tradition of meeting the people. Right now the celebration is on December 23 because it is Emperor Akihito’s birthday. January 1 st, is New Years Days, which is an important holiday to the Japanese. They consider it a “fresh” start just like Americans. They send out New Year cards eat special foods and go to pray at the shrines. It is best started be watching the first sunrise, which symbolizes its country. On the second Monday of January they celebrate another national holiday. The Coming of Age is when men and woman who are 20 years old celebrate the end of their teen years. Women can buy their first quality Kimono. Both men and women can drink and vote.

TOURIST ATTRACTIONS One of the most important attractions is the temples were they go to pray. A popular tourists visit is the Todaiji; Great Eastern Temple in Nara. It is the largest in the country and has the biggest Buddha statue. Mt Fuji, the highest mountain, is popular for people to view from far away and for athletes to try to climb it. Nikko National Park is home of the Buddhist shrines, many lakes, and the beautiful mountains.

Important Historical Events On December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor whichthen brought America into World War II (WWII) and made usenemies with Japan. This was the first time America had beenattacked. One reason Japan attacked was because our governmentstopped exporting them supplies. Japan was the first country to be hit by atomic bombs by the U.S. inWWII. The cities of Hiroshima and Nagaski were destroyed and200,000 were killed. This helped end our war with Japan. In March of 2011 a tsunami hit the coast of northeast Japan. Itcaused massive destruction of many cites and towns. Japan is stillrecovering today.

MAJOR RESOURCES Japan has very few natural resources but it’s economic strength comes from its car industry and its business economy. Honda and Toyota are driven all over the world. A second major resource for their economy is their stock market making them the 3 rd richest economy in the world. Japan is still strong country but right now it is struggling to recover from the recent tsunami.

Japanese Flag The red circle in the middle of the flag represents the sun. The flag is called Hinomaru which means “circle of the sun”. In English we call it the “rising sun”. “This flag has been used for over a thousand years, and no one knows who designed it or when. It was officially adopted as the flag of Imperial Japan on January 27, 1870.” /flag/

BIBLIOGRAPHY National-Park/d334-a220 chool/japan/flag/