Japan

Japan (Japanese: ??, Nihon or Nippon) is a country on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. Known as the "Land of the Rising Sun", Japan lies to the east of the Asian continent, and is composed of over 3,000 islands. The largest and main islands are, from north to south, Hokkaid?, Honsh? (the largest island), Shikoku, and Ky?sh?. The Ryukyu Islands, including Okinawa, are southwest of the main islands.

Further reading

• The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Japan, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993 (ISBN 0521403529)
• De Mente, The Japanese Have a Word For It, McGraw-Hill, 1997 (ISBN 0844283169)
• Henshall, A History of Japan, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001 (ISBN 0312233701)
• Jansen, The Making of Modern Japan, Belknap, 2000 (ISBN 0674003349)
• Japan At A Glance, Kodansha, 1998 (ISBN 4770020805)
• Johnson, Japan: Who Governs?, W.W. Norton, 1996 (ISBN 0393314502)
• Lonely Planet Japan, Lonely Planet Publications, 2003 (ISBN 1740591623)
• Reischauer, Japan: The Story of a Nation, McGraw-Hill, 1989 (ISBN 0075570742)
• Sugimoto et al., An Introduction to Japanese Society, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003 (ISBN 0521529255)
• Totman, A History of Modern Japan, 2d ed., Blackwell, 2005 (ISBN 1405123591)
• Van Wolferen, The Enigma of Japanese Power, Vintage, 1990 (ISBN 0679728023)