Japan Wikipedia

The Jinshin War of 672, a bloody conflict between Prince Ōama and his nephew Prince Ōtomo, became a major catalyst for further administrative reforms. The true aim of the reforms was to bring about greater centralization and to enhance the power of the imperial court, which was also based on the governmental structure of China. It nationalized all land in Japan, to be distributed equally among cultivators, and ordered the compilation of a household registry as the basis for a new system of taxation.
The country attracted 36.9 million international tourists in 2024, and was ranked eleventh in the world in 2019 for inbound tourism. Other human rights issues include the treatment of marginalized groups, such as ethnic minorities, refugees and asylum seekers. However, it lacks any laws against discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity and does not have a national human rights institution. Japan’s constitution prohibits racial and religious discrimination, and the country is a signatory to numerous international human rights treaties. The military is governed by the Ministry of Defense, and primarily consists of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. It spent 1.4% of its total GDP on its defense budget and maintained the tenth-largest military budget in the world in 2025.
It is thought to be one of the earliest predators, catching small prey with its nematocysts as modern cnidarians do. The apparent suddenness of the event may however be an artefact of the fossil record, rather than showing that all these animals appeared simultaneously. The first body fossils of animals appear in the Ediacaran, represented by forms such as Charnia and Spriggina.

Foreign relations

• Once considered the strongest in the world, the Japanese consumer electronics industry is in a state of decline as regional competition arises in neighboring East Asian countries such as South Korea and China.
• Japan is widely considered to be a great power due to its economic power and political, cultural, and military influence.
• Japan ranked seventh in the world in tonnage of fish caught and captured 3,167,610 metric tons of fish in 2016, down from an annual average of 4,000,000 tons over the previous decade.
• Animals such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster serve a major role in science as experimental models.
• Most appear to belong to two major lineages, the protostomes and the deuterostomes.
• Japan has close economic and military relations with the United States, with which it maintains a security alliance.

In 1185, following the defeat of the Taira clan by the Minamoto clan in the Genpei War, samurai Minamoto no Yoritomo established a military government at Kamakura. In 784, Emperor Kanmu moved the capital, settling on Heian-kyō (modern-day Kyoto) in 794. The period is characterized by the appearance of a nascent literary culture with the completion of the Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (720), as well as the development of Buddhist-inspired artwork and architecture. The Nara period (710–784) marked the emergence of a Japanese state centered on the Imperial Court in Heijō-kyō (modern Nara).

Numbers and habitats of major phyla

For sexual reproduction, most sponges are hermaphrodites, they produce both egg and sperm cells. In addition to sponges, Placozoa has no symmetry and was often considered a “missing link” between protists and multicellular animals. Extant phyla in these rocks include molluscs, brachiopods, onychophorans, tardigrades, arthropods, echinoderms and hemichordates, along with numerous now-extinct forms such as the predatory Anomalocaris.
The Pacific coast features a humid subtropical climate that experiences milder winters with occasional snowfall and hot, humid summers because of the southeast seasonal wind. The mountains of the Chūgoku and Shikoku regions shelter the Seto Inland Sea from seasonal winds, bringing mild weather year-round. The northernmost region, Hokkaido, has a humid continental climate with long, cold winters and very warm to cool summers. The basswin climate of Japan is predominantly temperate but varies greatly from north to south. It has the 17th highest natural disaster risk as measured in the 2016 World Risk Index.

• The following table lists estimated numbers of described extant species for the major animal phyla, along with their principal habitats (terrestrial, fresh water, and marine), and free-living or parasitic ways of life.
• Japan is the most successful Asian Rugby Union country and hosted the 2019 IRB Rugby World Cup.
• The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is considered the oldest extant Japanese narrative.
• The country attracted 36.9 million international tourists in 2024, and was ranked eleventh in the world in 2019 for inbound tourism.
• In contrast, the cells of other multicellular organisms (primarily algae, plants, and fungi) are held in place by cell walls, and so develop by progressive growth.
• That’s why we add new animals for you to discover – each and every day!

Japan is the second highest-ranked Asian country in the 2025 Global Peace Index. Japan has close economic and military relations with the United States, with which it maintains a security alliance. Statutory law originates in the legislature, and the constitution requires that the emperor promulgate legislation passed by the Diet without giving him the power to oppose legislation.

Red-Billed Quelea Bird

In contrast, the cells of other multicellular organisms (primarily algae, plants, and fungi) are held in place by cell walls, and so develop by progressive growth. Development in Bilateria and Cnidaria is controlled by Hox genes, which signal the times and places to develop structures such as body segments and limbs. The biological definition includes all members of the kingdom Animalia. Non-human animals are also an important element of human culture, having appeared in cave arts and totems since the earliest times, and are frequently featured in mythology, religion, arts, literature, heraldry, politics, and sports.

In the classical era, Aristotle divided animals,d based on his own observations, into those with blood (roughly, the vertebrates) and those without. The chordates are dominated by the vertebrates (animals with backbones), which consist of fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Most protostomes have schizocoelous development, where cells simply fill in the interior of the gastrula to form the mesoderm. Most appear to belong to two major lineages, the protostomes and the deuterostomes.

Japanese animated films and television series, known as anime, were largely influenced by Japanese manga and have become highly popular globally. Japanese comics, known as manga, developed in the mid-20th century and have become popular worldwide. Many Japanese media franchises have gained considerable global popularity and are among the world’s highest-grossing media franchises.