Readers interested in scholarly presentations about Japan can select from an array of references, ranging from internationally renowned tomes to specialist books about the most obscure aspects of Japanese history and culture. Travellers wanting a thorough description of places worth visiting, staying at and eating in have excellent, highly detailed guide books and websites to choose from. There are also any number of publications about niche topics, each important in its own right, such as shopping and eating, pastimes including sumo and pachinko, linguistic quirks of the Japanese language, … [Read more...]
General Information About Japan
The country Japan is a crescent-shaped archipelago, extending 3,000 kilometres from top to bottom, and made up of four main islands: Hokkaido in the north, the central and largest island of Honshu, Shikoku to the south east of Honshu, and Kyushu to its south. There are about 2,450 smaller islands, the largest being Okinawa to the south of Kyushu. The capital of Japan, Tokyo, lies at 140 degrees east longitude, and 36 degrees north latitude, and is 7,830 kilometres from Sydney. Administratively the country is organised into 47 prefectures (ken). These are all broken down into a further … [Read more...]
Sport
The three most popular and visible professional sports in Japan are baseball, J-League soccer and sumo. Other popular individual participatory sports, in some cases seasonal, include angling, volleyball, long-distance running, cycling, horse racing, motorsport, athletics, tennis, table tennis, badminton, bush-walking, trekking, mountaineering, ice skating, swimming, skiing, tennis, golf, kendo, kyudo, (archery), judo, boxing, rugby union, basketball, handball and pro wrestling (puroresu). A look at the medals tally of recent Olympics shows at the highest international level Japan is … [Read more...]
Social Themes and Issues
There are many subtle and obvious differences between Japanese society and that of Western countries. In making observations about the former, it must be born in mind that the Japanese land mass, of which over 80% is mountainous, is small and houses a population of around 126 million. These features have had profound formative effects on life in Japan, and the way society works. Visitors to Japan soon notice that despite large numbers of people in most urban areas, movement is orderly. People are used to queuing and waiting, whether as pedestrians or motorists, and do so patiently. Pushing … [Read more...]
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