Japan
South Africa to Japan or Japan to Southern Africa?
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Japan is a country in East Asia. It consists of a land mass islands in the Pacific, east of the Korean peninsula. The name is often translated as “the rising sun country”, comes from China, and refers to Japan’s eastern position relative to the Asian continent. Before Japan had relations with China, it was known as Yamato. Wa was a name early China used to refer to Japan in the “three kingdoms” period.
Japan consists of a chain of islands. The largest of them, running from south to north: Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu and Hokkaido.
The first census in Japan’s history took place in 1920. The census showed then 56 million inhabitants. In 2000 the figure was 126,925,843.
The Japanese names for Japan are Nippon and Nihon, the first one, Nippon, is used in most official respects, for example on money, stamps and at international sporting events. Nihon is more colloquial name for Japan. For example, call themselves Japanese Nihon-jin and language Nihongo, which literally translated means “Japan-People” and “Japanese language”. The Danish name for Japan came to the West via the early trade routes. The early Chinese word for Japan which was written down by Marco Polo was Cipangu. However, the Cantonese name for Japan, as the word probably comes from Japan, Jatbun.
In Malaysia, it was Cantonese word for Japan, and it is assumed that it was brought to Europe by Portuguese traders in Malacca in the 16th century. It was first seen in English in 1577 spelled Giapan.
Shinto and Buddhism are the two main religions in Japan. Dress costume kimono has its origins in Japan
History of Japan
Archaeological research suggests that Japan has already been inhabited by humans for at least 200,000 years ago, during the Palaeolithic period. During several ice ages over the last one million years, Japan was frequently associated with the Asian continent via the land bridge (Sakhalin in the north, and probably Kyushu in the south). It made it easy for people, animals and plants to spread to the Japanese archipelago from the area, which now represents China and Korea.
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