Japan, a constitutional monarchy situated off the east coast
of Asia, has an area of 145,809 sq. mi. (377,835 sq. km.) and a
population of 123.2 million. Capital: Tokyo. Japan, one of the
major industrial nations of the world, exports machinery, motor
vehicles, electronics and chemicals.
Japan, founded (so legend holds) in 660 B.C. by a direct
descendant of the Sun Goddess, was first brought into contact
with the west by a storm-blown Portuguese ship in 1542. European
traders and missionaries proceeded to enlarge the contact
until the Shogunate, sensing a military threat in the foreign presence,
expelled all foreigners and restricted relations with the outside
world in the 17th century. After Commodore Perry´s U.S. flotilla
visited in 1854, Japan rapidly industrialized, abolished the
Shogunate and established a parliamentary form of government,
and by the end of the 19th century achieved the status of a modern
economic and military power. A series of wars with China and
Russia, and participation with the allies in World War I, enlarged
Japan territorially but brought its interests into conflict with the Far
Eastern interests of the United States, Britain and the Netherlands,
causing it to align with the Axis Powers for the pursuit of
World War II. After its defeat in World War II, General Douglas
MacArthur forced Japan to renounce military aggression as a
political instrument, and he instituted constitutional democratic
self-government. Japan quickly gained a position as an economic
world power.
Japanese coinage of concern to this catalog includes those
issued for the Ryukyu Islands (also called Liuchu), a chain of
islands extending southwest from Japan toward Taiwan (Formosa),
before the Japanese government converted the islands
into a prefecture under the name Okinawa. Many of the provinces
of Japan issued their own definitive coinage under the Shogunate.
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