60 Amazing Japan Facts that will fascinate you ( Part I ) | Amazing Facts 4U
Land & Geography
- The Japanese name for Japan is “Nippon” which means “sun origin”. Japan is nicknamed the “Land of the Rising Sun”.
- Japan belongs to the continent of Asia. Japan is an island nation surrounded by the Sea of Japan to the East and the Pacific Ocean to the West.
- The four main islands, from north to south, are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu which comprise 97% of Japan’s total land area.
- The amazing fact is that Japan is made up of 6,852 islands.
- Capital Tokyo’s population is 13 million. It is the 2nd most expensive city to live in the world. The greater Tokyo area is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 35 million people.
- Japan suffers 1,500 earthquakes every year. Japan has more than 200 active volcanoes.
- The highest point in Japan is Mount Fuji, which stands at 3,776m (12,388ft).
- The lowest is Hachiro-gata, at 4 meters below sea level (-12 feet).
- Amazingly almost three-quarters of Japan’s land is either forest or mountains and is difficult to be made into farms, industrial or residential areas.
- Siraitia grosvenorii is a fruit that is grown widely in Japan. Its extract is 300 times sweeter than sugar and is used for treating diabetes/obesity.
- There are giant hornets in Japan whose venom is potent enough to dissolve human flesh.
- There’s an island in Japan called Okunoshima located in Japan’s Inland Sea that’s full of rabbits.
- Macaque monkeys of Japan have taught themselves to steal wallets and purses and take out the coins from them to buy drinks and snacks from vending machines.
History
- Japan has been inhabited since 30,000 B.C.
- The amazing fact is that Japan has the longest reigning monarchy in the world. The founding of Japan and the imperial line dates back to 660 BC beginning with Emperor Jimmu. Since then 124 recognized monarchs have reined. The current emperor is Emperor Akihito who has reigned since 1989.
- National Foundation Day is a national holiday celebrated on February 11th corresponding with the founding of the monarchy.
- Amazingly in Japan, there is a family that has run the same hotel for nearly 1,300 years or 46 generations.
- In feudal Japan, merchants were placed in the lowest class because unlike farmers and artisans, they didn’t actually produce anything.
- Japan is the only country in the world that has had atomic weapons used against it which were dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki by the USA during world war II which led to the defeat of Japan and the end of the war.
- The amazing fact is that during WWII, Japan bombed China with fleas infected with bubonic plague.
- Amazingly Japan and Russia still haven’t signed a peace treaty to end World War II due to the Kuril Islands dispute.
- The Ryukyu chain to the southwest was U.S.-occupied from 1945 to 1972, when it reverted to Japanese control.
- Seismometers along Japan’s coast detected the 2011 earthquake and they stopped all bullet trains from operating. Only one train, a test train without passengers, derailed.
Places / Architecture
- Tsukiji Market in Tokyo is the world’s largest fish market and the majority of fish in the world go through here.
- The Flame of Peace in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park has burned since 1964 in honor of the A-bomb victims and will be extinguished only when all nuclear weapons are removed from the world and the earth is free from any nuclear threat.
- The 16-storey Gate Tower Building in Osaka, Japan has a highway passing through its fifth, sixth, and seventh floors.
- Tokyo has more neon signs than any city in the world.
- There are more than 1,600 temples in Kyoto.
- In Japan, they have an amazing indoor man made beach.
Politics
- There is a multi-party parliamentary democratic Constitutional monarchy in Japan where the Emperor acts effectively as the symbolic Head of state, and the Prime Minister acts as the Head of government.
- Japan’s bicameral legislature is made up of a 480 seat House of Representatives, and a 242 seat House of Councillors.
- Japan has a four-tier court system, headed by the 15 member Supreme Court. The country has a European style civil law system.
- Amazingly the Japanese national anthem has only four lines.
- While Christians account for only 1% of the Japanese population, Japan has had seven Christian Prime Ministers.
- In Japan, they have something called the “Happy Monday System” where they aim to place as many state holidays as possible on Mondays in order to give those with a five-day workweek three-day weekends.
Legal
- In Japan, both old drivers above 75 and new drivers in the first year have to sport a caution badge on their cars!
- Japanese police often declare unsolved murders as suicides to save face and keep murder statistics artificially low.
- Late-night dancing is illegal in Japan.
- The amazing fact is that in Japan if you commit suicide by jumping in front of a Train, Rail Companies charge your family a fee. Japan Rail, in fact, routinely charges families of suicide victims a fee depending on the severity of disrupted traffic which may be up to the US $2 million as disruption fee.
- Japan has a conviction rate of more than 99%.
- In Japan, when a death order is issued to a condemned prisoner, he is informed of it only on the morning of his/her execution, and their family is not informed until afterward.
- The amazing fact is that in Japan gambling is illegal, the way they get around the law is to give out prizes instead of cash, which the winner can then sell back to the establishment for cash.
- In Japan, a husband can legally divorce his wife for sex neglect, but wives cannot make the same claim about their husbands.
- Although whaling is banned by the IWC, Japan still hunts whales under the premise of research. The harvested whale meat ends up in restaurants and supermarkets.
Economy / Finance
- The fact is that a 1 yen coin floats on water.
- Japan exports automobiles, consumer and office electronics, steel, and transportation equipment. It imports food, oil, lumber, and metal ores.
- The amazing fact is that Japan has to import 99.8% of its oil requirements to meet its daily needs.
- Japan has 5.5 million vending machines. Japanese vending machines contain batteries, beer, wine, condoms, cigarettes, comic books, hot dogs, lightbulbs, crepes, soft drinks, coffee, juice, noodles, eggs, sandwiches, and toys etc
- Japan is a world leader in robotics.
- Around 25 billion pairs of chopsticks are used in Japan each year.
- Japan’s Shinkansen high-speed rail system has never had a fatal accident in its five decades of service.
- Annual revenues from the pachinko machines in Japan are $ 300 billion which is 4 times the total profit of world-wide legal casino gambling, twice the annual turnover of Japan’s automobile industry, and equivalent to the estimated yearly profit of the global narcotics trade.
Corporates
- Amazingly the world’s oldest company Kongō Gumi, a construction company operated in Japan from 578 A.D. to 2006. It was liquidated in 2006.
- Some of the most well-known companies in the world are Japanese such as Toyota, Honda, Sony, Canon, Panasonic, Toshiba, and Sharp.
- Amazingly one Japanese company, YKK or Waikeikei Gurūpu, manufactures 90% of all the zippers in the world.
- Japanese people traditionally eat KFC for Christmas dinner. KFC is so amazingly popular that customers must place their Christmas orders 2 months in advance.
- There are more than 5000 companies worldwide that are older than 200 years. More than 3000 of them are located in Japan.
- In Japan, Wakayama Railway Company employs a cat as the “Super Station Master”. She is the only female employee in a managerial position.
Sports
- Sumo is Japan’s national sport, although baseball is also very popular.
- Younger sumo-wrestlers are traditionally required to clean and bathe the veteran sumo-wrestlers at their wrestling “stables” including all the hard-to-reach places.
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