The United States is Japan's closest ally, and Japan relies on the U. S. for its national security to a high degree.

The Anti-Comintern Pact marked the beginning of the shift on Germany's part from China's ally to Japan's ally.

NOTE: Japan's distrust of Thailand extended to the point of rearming their ' ally ' with controlled munitions, including the famous Siamese Mauser, which was manufactured in an unusual caliber.

After the outbreak of World War II, the state was recognised by Slovakia ( 1 June 1940 ), France ( 12 July 1940 ), Romania ( 1 December 1940 ), Bulgaria ( 10 May 1941 ), Finland ( 18 July 1941 ), Denmark ( August 1941 ), Croatia ( 2 August 1941 )— all controlled or influenced by Japan's ally Germany — as well as by the China's Wang Jingwei government ( 30 November 1940 ), Thailand ( 5 August 1941 ) and the Philippines ( 1943 )— all under Japanese control.

On the nuclear attacks on Japan in WWII, he adhered to the view that " there was even less sign of a crack in Japan's determination to fight to the end with that of Nazi Germany, which is why nuclear arms were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to ensure a rapid Japanese surrender ", though believed there was an ancillary political, non-military reason for the bombings: " perhaps the thought that it would prevent America's ally the USSR from establishing a claim to a major part in Japan's defeat was not absent from the minds of the US government either.

When it became imminent the advancing Expedition forces would defeat Zhang and thus threaten Japanese interests in Manchuria, rogue elements within the Kantogun ( Japan's Army in Manchuria ) forcibly halted the Expedition in Ji ' nan and assassinated Zhang on the grounds he was an unreliable ally, hoping to capitalise on the confusion caused by his death.

After Japan's ally Germany declared war in the fall of 1939, the German government began sending technical assistance to upgrade their communications and cryptography capabilities.

Japanese aid for Jews would not be tolerated by Japan's ally, Nazi Germany, and Japanese attempts to shuttle Jews through the Soviet Union were halted when Germany launched its invasion of Russia.

Other problems with Japan's fighter aircraft also became apparent as the war progressed, such as their lack of armor and light armament, which made them inadequate as bomber interceptors or ground-attack planes — roles Allied fighters excelled at.

Television viewing spread so rapidly that, by 1987, 99 percent of Japan's households had color television sets and the average family had its set on at least five hours a day.

President Álvaro Obregón was awarded Japan's Order of the Chrysanthemum at a special ceremony in Mexico City.

The island is mountainous, and Japan's most active volcano, Mt Aso at, is on Kyushu.

The minimum demands included a halt to the economic and oil embargoes, withdrawal of political and economic support for the Chinese Nationalist government, agreement to keep Western military forces in the Pacific at their current level, and non-interference in Japan's attempts to bring " peace " to China.

The Marshall Islands were in an important geographical position, being the easternmost point in Japan's defensive ring at the beginning of World War II.

Many of Japan's wrestlers including top stars such as Shinya Hashimoto, Riki Choshu and Keiji Mutoh came from a legitimate martial arts background and many Japanese Pro Wrestlers in the 90's began to pursue careers in Mixed Martial Arts Organizations such as Pancrase and Shooto which at the time retained the original look of Puroresu but did not have predetermined outcomes to the matches.

He gave an enthusiastically-received lecture at the 2004 New Interfaces for Musical Expression ( NIME-04 ), held in Hamamatsu, Japan's " City of Musical Instruments ", in June, 2004.

In the aftermath of the Japanese occupation of Korea which ended with Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel north in accordance with a United Nations arrangement, to be administered by the Soviet Union in the north and the United States in the south.

After Japan's surrender to the Allied Powers, division at the 38th parallel marked the beginning of Soviet and U. S. trusteeship over the North and South, respectively.

* 1999 – Japan's second worst nuclear accident at a uranium reprocessing facility in Tōkai-mura, northeast of Tokyo.

The single largest undertaking by a Japanese filmmaker at the time, Seven Samurai was a technical and creative watershed that became Japan's highest-grossing movie and set a new standard for the industry.

In 2007 the population of the United States reached 300 million inhabitants, and Japan's population peaked at 127 million before going into decline.

Named after Henry L. Stimson, United States Secretary of State in the Hoover Administration ( 1929 – 1933 ), the policy followed Japan's unilateral seizure of Manchuria in northeastern China following action by Japanese soldiers at Mukden ( now Shenyang ), on September 18, 1931.

When the event debuted in the 1980s, the event was a 3 x 10 km team event, but that changed following Japan's successes at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1993 in Falun and the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer where the country won by almost four minutes and almost five minutes respectively.

Ukiyo-e, as practiced by artists like Shunshō, focused on images of the courtesans and Kabuki actors who were popular in Japan's cities at the time.

They performed overseas at the Download Festival with Linkin Park and System of a Down, and during Japan's Summer Sonic Festival on August 13 with Avril Lavigne, The Mars Volta, Ne-Yo, and the Strokes.

In her 2009 book, Japanese Society at War: Death, Memory and the Russo-Japanese War, Naoko Shimazu detailed Japan's response

U. S. cryptanalysts decrypted and translated Japan's 14-part message to its Washington Embassy ( ominously ) breaking off negotiations with the United States at 1 p. m. Washington time on 7 December 1941, before the Japanese Embassy in Washington had done so.

Electric Boat gained a reputation for unscrupulous arms dealing in 1904-05, when it sold submarines to Japan's Imperial Japanese Navy and Russia's Imperial Russian Navy, who were then at war.

It was a major key to have Matsushita on board because Matsushita was Japan's largest electronics manufacturer at the time.

According to records from Japanese documents, Mao Changxi ( 毛昶熙 ) and Dong Xun ( 董恂 ), the Qing ministers at Zongli Yamen ( 總理衙門 ) who handled the complaints from Japanese envoy Yanagihara Sakimitsu ( 柳原前光 ) replied first that they had heard only of a massacre of Ryūkyūans, not of Japanese, and quickly noted that Ryūkyū was under Chinese suzerainty, therefore this issue was not Japan's business.

Tange also enrolled in the film division at Nihon University's art department to dodge Japan's drafting of young men to its military and seldom attended classes.

According to Regan, the lopsided Japanese victory at Tsushima :... created a legend that was to haunt Japan's leaders for forty years.

But with a mixed command he was reorganizing and training up on the fly ( Many Australian units were drilling with wooden mockups of rifles in August 1942 ) before MacArthur's people could set up his planned defensive bases on the north coast of eastern Papua, the Japanese Army had moved in and taken both north-coast villages he'd targeted for bases as reinforcements and war materials finally began to trickle in from the States in July — Buna and Gona — several weeks before the forces and transports his staff was organizing could have reached them in strength — at a time when Japan's Navy and Air forces were dominant every where they chose to go.

Other Japanese taiko include the " uchiwa-daiko " ( 団扇太鼓 、 fan taiko ), " hira-daiko " ( 平太鼓, flat taiko ), " minariisa-daiko " ( fun time drum ), " konisawa-daiko " ( tight / hard / tense drum ) and a host of percussion instruments used in Japan's traditional noh, gagaku, and kabuki ensembles.

The profusion is due to many factors, including the length of time the archipelago has been inhabited, its mountainous island terrain, and Japan's long history of both external and internal isolation.

The International Settlement was occupied by the Japanese on 8 December 1941 and remained occupied until Japan's surrender in 1945, during which time war crimes were committed.

At the time, sake still made up an astonishing 30 % of Japan's tax revenue.

In 1820, Hokusai changed his name yet again, this time to " Iitsu ," a change which marked the start of a period in which he secured fame as an artist throughout Japan ( though, given Japan's isolation from the outside world during his lifetime, his fame overseas came after his death ).

Over time, the consequences of these battles would transform the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japan's recent entry onto the world stage.

This marked the first time Japan's tourism ministry had appointed a fictional character to the role.

One of old Japan's most important ancient roadways, the Tōkaidō, ran through it connecting Tokyo ( at that time called Edo ) and Kyoto, the old imperial capital.

The war was a clear indication of the failure of the Qing dynasty's attempts to modernize its military and fend off threats to its sovereignty, especially compared with Japan's successful post-Meiji restoration For the first time, regional dominance in East Asia shifted from China to Japan ; and the prestige of the Qing Dynasty, along with the classical tradition in China, suffered a major blow.

Japan's question time was closely modeled after that of the UK, and many Diet members travelled to the House of Commons to study the British application of the concept.

In an audience poll ( with 80, 402 voters ) of 100 best animations of all time, conducted by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2007, Castle in the Sky was the second highest-ranked animated film, and third highest-ranked animation overall on the list.

Japan's rulers of the time even petitioned the Chinese court for confirmation of royal titles.

In addition, the book of Song and the book of Sui can not be possible because many of the states considered to be Japan's vassal such as Chinhan and Mahan did not exist in the same time period as the vassal king of Yamato.

Middle-ranking officers of Army and Navy General Staff, and Army and Navy Ministry, met from time to time at middle-level liaison or study conferences to discuss Japan's strategic war plans, and especially, plans requiring cooperation between the two armed services, outside of the formal meeting in the presence of the Emperor.

* Japan's Sadaharu Oh retires from the Yomiuri Giants as the all time professional baseball home run king.

Japan's historical Shōsōin, which houses 8th-century artifacts including material from Japan's Tempyō period, contains an elaborate miniature display dating from this time.

It is the only time that a former president of the Bank of Japan has appeared on one of Japan's banknotes.