250 Interesting Facts About Japan
Japan is located in an area known as 'The Ring of Fire' in the Pacific.
Ramen noodles are a popular food in Japan and it is widely believed extensive training is required to make a delicious soup broth. This is the subject of the movies Tampopo (1985) and The Ramen Girl (2008).
In mainland of Japan and in Okinawa there are approximately 90 US military bases, 37 which are in Okinawa, occupying 20% of the landsize.
Japanese celebrate Christmas, but it is more like Valentine's Day in the western world.
When you go to a funeral or a wedding you must take a gift of money.
Aspiring young Japanese musicians play on street corners and in subway stations hoping to get discovered
The literacy rate in Japan is almost 100%.
The bathroom is not where the toilet is found in a Japanese home.
Tea is so important in the Japanese diet that there is a famous Japanese poverb which says "If a man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty".
Japanese use a lot of fish, beef, pork, chicken and variety of seafood in their cooking. Most of their dishes are mildly spiced, flavored with a variety of soy sauces.
Japan's giant company "Nintendo" translates into English as “leave luck to heaven”. The company first started trading in 1889, making hanafuda, a type of Japanese playing card.
Japan has the oldest surviving monarchy in the world. The first historical emperor of Japan was Ojin, reigning from year 270 to 310, and deified as Hachiman. Legend has it that the very first emperor was Jinmu, who would have reigned 1000 years earlier.
Japan has the longest reigning monarchy in the world.
Many Japanese teachers think that Japanese parents are lazy.
Japan currently ranks 8th in HDI (Human Development Index), and is widely known as one of the principals in the world of technology and robotics.
Kendo, meaning "the way of the sword’, is Japan’s oldest form of martial arts.
Everyone in Japan hangs their clothes outside to dry.
Japan is the only major country (let's say with a population of over 5 million) that still hunts whales. Whale meat has been promoted by the government by adding it to public school menus. Dolphin meat is also eaten in Japan (notably in Shizuoka), but in a much smaller quantity.
Japan is the only country in the world ever attacked by atomic weapons.
The US has almost 90 military bases in Japan.
Japanese still rarely use a seatbelt while riding in the backseat of a car.
Japan has a high rate of smokers, with almost 60% of the population indulging in smoking.
In Japan, flower arranging is an art.
Raised floors help indicate when to take off shoes or slippers. At the entrance to a home in Japan, the floor will usually be raised about 6 inches indicating you should take off your shoes and put on slippers. If the house has a tatami mat room its floor may be rasied 1-2 inches indicating you should to take off your slippers.
In the Japanese language, it is considered rude to say the word "no" directly.
Japan has the oldest surviving monarchy, which happens to be the oldest continuous hereditary in the world.
In Japan a watermelon costs about 250 - 300 USD and a musk-melon costs around 100 USD.
The Japanese language incorporates four different forms of writing.
Snowmen in Japan are made of two large snowballs instead of three.
Crime is lower in Japan than in most other first world countries.
Despite Japan being the world's second largest economy, Japanese people only enjoy the 17th highest GDP per capita, or 24th when adjusted for PPP. (2009 data)
Japan's male population is 62165974 and female is 65048525 as of 2008.
Approximately 85% of Japanese people have never tasted turkey.
Land Size of Japan is 374,744 sq km.
The name “Tokyo” when broken down into kanji means “east” and “capital”.
Origami is an ancient Japanese art of paper folding.
Inventions falsely attributed to Japan include the Quartz Watch (invented by the Canadian Warren Marrison, but first commercialised by Seiko in 1969), the walkman (Sony, who claimed the invention in 1979, admitted in 2003 that German citizen Andreas Pavel came with the idea 2 years earlier), video games (an invention claimed by both Britain and the USA), mobile phones (invented by AT&T in 1947), or comic books (first published in Europe in the early 1800's).
Japanese people, in general, can't drive very well.
The Japanese will shop daily for their meat, fish and vegetable requirements, as they like all their food fresh and unpreserved. This is one of the prime reasons that small and medium sized refrigerators are sold the most in Japan.
Japanese drive on the left, and have their steering wheels on the right, exactly opposite of what it is in America.
While smoking is allowed practically anywhere in Japan, you are not allowed to smoke in local trains. Long distance trains have got designated smoking zones.
Raw horse meat is a popular food in Japan.
National holiday in Japan is the Birthday of the Emperor, 23 December (1933).
Japan has the world’s largest budget in the defense department. And if this wasn't enough to satisfy, this little giant is also an active member of the United Nations, G8 and other “Elite” groups.
Instead of “Ohayo Gozaimasu” (good morning), Japanese youngsters often say “Oha!”.
Honshu is the largest island, almost 80 percent of the Japanese population lives there.
Japan's GDP is $3.567 trillion (2003 est.).
Officially the first novel of Japan, The Tale of Genji in 1007 was written by a Japanese woman Murasaki Shikibu.
The currency of Japan is Yen (JPY) .
Japan's national anthem, Kimi Ga Yo, is the world's oldest anthem, although it was only officially recognised as such in 1999. It is based on a 9th century poem.
Sumo wrestlers eat a stew called Chankonabe to fatten up. Many restaurants in the Ryogoku district of Tokyo serve this nabe (Japanese word for stew).
Kimigayo, which means "The Emperor's Reign", is Japan’s national anthem. The lyrics are from a 5-line, 31-syllable poem written in the tenth century. The music was composed in 1880 by an Imperial Court musician Hiromori Hayashi and later harmonized according to the Gregorian mode.
It is a Japanese custom to remove your shoes before entering a house or other building in Japan. This is because the floors are covered with straw mats which are called tatamis. In order to keep the tatamis clean for sitting upon, the Japanese take their shoes off.
In Japan, young women will hand you toilet paper outside of train stations.
Japanese constitution has Article 9 which defines renunciation of war.
Japan annexed Okinawa and Taiwan in 1895, then Korea in 1910, and kept them as part of the territory of the Japanese Empire until 1945. Okinawa still belongs to Japan.
The Japanese love corn, sesame seeds, and mayonnaise on their pizza.
It is usually mandatory to give a landlord a gift of money of $1,000-$2000 when moving into his apartment building.
In the UK most people judge your expression by the mouth, while in Japan, they judge it by the eyes. That’s why our emotions look like this :o) or :-( and Japanese ones look like this: ^_^ or ;_;
Poorly written English can be found everywhere, including T-shirts and other fashion items.
A earth tremor happens in Japan at the least every five minutes.
Japan has numerous volcanoes, about two hundred, and many earthquakes. In fact, Japan has about three minor earthquakes every day of the year. Japan does have severe earthquakes too, such as the Great Kanto Earthquake that shook the country in 1923. This historic disaster demolished the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama and more than one hundred and twenty thousand lives were lost at that time. Japan is home to ten percent of the world's active volcanoes.
Sometimes the trains are so crowded railway staff are employed to cram passengers inside.
Geisha means "person of the arts" and the first geisha were actually men.
The sun is red in Japan and the country itself is referred to by Japanese people as "the land of the rising sun".
The Japanese think that Americans eat corn and potatoes every day.
On Respect for the Aged Day, tobacco companies will hand out free cigarettes to the elderly outside of train stations and department stores.
The “WALK” lights on Japanese street corners make a chirping sound so that the blind can know when to cross the street.
Sumo is Japan’s national sport.
The world's largest fish market is the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo.
There are over 25,000 love hotels in Japan, generating a staggering 4 trillion yen in revenues per year.
Japan has the longest life expectancy (82 years) of any advanced country in the world.
The prefecture of Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the Japanese capital Tokyo, is the largest metropolitan area in the world.
Internet country code of Japan is .jp.
The population growth rate is 0.2% (1999 est.), the birth rate is 10.48 births/1,000 population (1999 est.) and death rate is 8.12 deaths/1,000 population (1999 est.).
Tokyo can choose where to dine from over 200,000 restaurants - a world record.
Japan is made up of 6,852 islands, although just four – Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and Honshu – make up 97 per cent of the land area.
Some of the oldest pottery in the world comes from Japan's Jomon Period (10,000 - 300 BC).
You can catch a train to and from Nagoya every 15 minutes. You can catch a subway train every three minutes in Nagoya.
Japan experiences around 4 mild earthquakes every day.
A prostitute is not looked down upon in Japanese Society.
A musk melon (similar to a cantaloupe) can sell for over 31,473 yen ($300.00).
21% of the Japanese population is elderly, the highest proportion in the world.
Japan is the largest consumer of timber imported from the Amazon rain forests.
Tea is served with practically all meals.
Karate was developed in Okinawa because the Chinese conquerors of the island prohibited the use of weapons by the Okinawans.
In Japan, if you want to buy a Coca-Cola can from a vending machine, it would cost more than a dollar.
There are 54 pagodas in Japan. The official top three pagodas are those of the Daigo-ji Temple in Kyo-to, the Ho-ryu--ji Temple in Nara, and the Ruriko--ji Temple in Yamaguchi.
At McDonalds the hamburgers are the same size as in America, but the drink sizes are one size smaller.
More than 70% of Japan consists of mountains, including more than 200 volcanoes.
Japanese TV programs and mass media are funded by American companies, such as Aflac. Aflac duck is one of America's Favorite Advertising icons.
Japan is a heavily entertainment-based society, with probably more restaurants, cafés, bars, clubs, karaoke, game centres, manga cafés, massage parlours and relaxation centres per square kilometer than anywhere else on earth.
It is nearly impossible to become a naturalized citizen of Japan.
Japan won her Independence in 660 BC (founded by Emperor Jimmu).
Japan's biggest export "Sony" was founded in 1946 as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation). This was cumbersome so in 1955 co-founder Akio Morita came up with Sony, which combined sonus, Latin for sound, with Sonny, an American term of endearment for a little boy. Sony’s products would, he claimed, combine excellent sound and small size.
After breaking up with their boyfriends, Japanese girls usually cut their hair.
Japanese food is considered the most healthiest food in the world.
A top Sumo wrestler is more popular than any other celebrity in Japan.
There’s no such thing as central heat and air in Japan.
The green traffic light in Japan is called "blue".
One US dollar is approximately 120 yen.
Golden Retrievers are the most popular pets in Japan.
Men shave their heads as a form of apology to someone, in Japan.
A traditional Japanese breakfast is steamed rice topped with natto (fermented soy beans).
Highways in Japan span an astounding total of 1.16 million km.
Apart from the four main islands, Japan is composed of over 3,000 smaller isles.
Animated Japanese films and television shows (.i.e.: Anime) account for 60% of the world’s animation-based entertainment. So successful is animation in Japan, that there are almost 130 voice-acting schools in the country.
Some traditional Japanese companies conduct a morning exercise session for the workers to prepare them for the day's work.
Japan's most famous contributions to modern technology are the VHS tape (developed by JVC in 1976), the Compact Disk and the CD-ROM (both developed by Sony in collaboration with the Dutch company Philips).
One of the major attractions in Tokyo is participating in a Shinto wedding at Meiji Jingu Shrine.
Okinawa has more people over 100 years old per 100,000 population than anywhere else in the world.
Sushi which is popular worldwide, is a Japanese delicacy of rice and fish dipped in vinegar, wrapped in seaweed.
Gas station attendants will bow as the car pulls out of the station.
It is socially acceptable to pick your nose in public and urinate at the side of the road, but you cannot blow your nose in public.
In Japanese, the word for “wrong” and “different” are the same.
Compiled by Savio DSilva
Facts About Japan Page 2
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