This is Japan's highest honor for someone who is not a head of state.

File: Thomas Blake Glover. jpg | Merchant Thomas Blake Glover was a British merchant in Bakumatsu and received Japan's second highest order from Emperor Meiji in recognition of his contributions to Japan's industrialization.

It is the second oldest Japanese university, one of the highest ranked universities in Asia and formerly one of Japan's Imperial Universities.

After Japan's victory, Emperor Meiji elevated him to the rank of, the highest rank of the Empire of Japan.

Yakushima is Japan's wettest place, and precipitation in Yakushima is one of the world's highest at 4, 000 to 10, 000 mm.

Tajami set the record for Japan's highest recorded daytime temperature of 40. 9 ˚ Celsius, which happened in Tajimi on August 16, 2007.

The period from 2000 to 2012 has included Sorayama's organic design of Sony AIBO robotic pet dog co-winning ( with Sony ) Japan's Grand Prize of best design awards ( the highest design award conferred by Japan ); Sorayama's Sony AIBO robotic pet design was placed into the permanent collections of MOMA and the Smithsonian Institute Museum ; MOMA's published book " Objects of Design " by Paola Antonelli included Sorayama's and Sony's AIBO along with other noteworthy designs where form and function combine in harmony.

JR Central is Japan's most profitable and highest throughput high speed rail operator, carrying 138 million high speed rail passengers in 2009, considerably more than the world's largest airline.

* Misaki lighthouse A lighthouse in the Japan's highest place.

Land prices in Japan were the highest in the world at the time, and Kisho Kurokawa, one of Japan's most famous architects, has said that staggeringly ambitious buildings employing highly sophisticated engineering are still cheap, because companies pay 90 % of the cost for the land and only 10 % for the building.

Most major league players start off their careers by working their way up the minor league system, from the lowest ( Rookie ) to the highest ( AAA ) classification, with the rare exceptions usually being those players signed from Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball.

is Japan's highest order.

* Tamagawa, Akita, location of Japan's highest flow rate hot spring, the Tamagawa Hot Springs, in Akita Prefecture

Japan's highest level single seater championship is Formula Nippon, which is equivalent to GP2 and its predecessors.

Japan's highest mountain, Mount Fuji, has long symbolized the world axis in Japanese culture.

Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award, the Fellowship is the United States ' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.

One theory suggests that this combination is lucky because Mount Fuji is Japan's highest mountain, the hawk is a clever and strong bird, and the word for eggplant ( nasu or nasubi 茄子 ) suggests achieving something great ( nasu 成す ).

With leading producer's Tetsuya Komuro's assistance, Avex became Japan's leading dance record company during the 1990s, and continues producing and recording some of Japan's most famous pop singers such as Japan's highest selling solo musician, Ayumi Hamasaki.

It is also a traditional mountain retreat of Japan's imperial family.

This mountain range includes Mount Kita, Japan's second-highest mountain, as well as a number of other mountains that top 3, 000 meters.

Mount Fuji, Japan's tallest mountain, may also be seen from Numazu on clear days.

The Iga province is a small mountain ringed basin ( the Ueno basin ) in the center of Japan's Kansai region, on the island of Honshū.

Others occur in Subtropical-Moist Climates: South Africa's Knysna-Amatole coastal forests, the Colchian rain forests of the eastern Black Sea region ( Turkey and Georgia ), the Caspian temperate rainforests of Iran and Azerbaijan, the mountain temperate rainforests along eastern Taiwan's Pacific Coast, southwest Japan's Taiheiyo forests, Australia's coastal New South Wales and New Zealand's North Island.

A traditional garden will usually have an irregular-shaped pond, or, in larger gardens, two or more ponds connected by a channel or stream, and a cascade, a miniature version of Japan's famous mountain waterfalls.

It is also a traditional mountain retreat of Japan's imperial family.

* 1869 – Japan's samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system ( Shinōkōshō ) is abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms.

* 1885 – Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.

* 1945 – An assassination attempt is made on Japan's prime minister, Kantarō Suzuki.

Baseball is the leading team sport in both Japan and Cuba, and the top level of play is similarly split between two leagues: Japan's Central League and Pacific League ; Cuba's West League and East League.

Japan's Seventeen-article constitution written in 604, reportedly by Prince Shōtoku, is an early example of a constitution in Asian political history.

He is considered Japan's earliest cyborg superhero, before even Kamen Rider ( the same year, Shotaro Ishinomori created Cyborg 009 ), and was the inspiration for RoboCop.

* 1968 – Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved " 300 million yen robbery ", is carried out in Tokyo.

Hachijō-daiko is a unique style of Japanese drumming originating on Japan's Hachijo Island ( Hachijō-jima ), located in the Pacific some 287 kilometers south of Tokyo.

In the Japanese language, the word tennō is restricted to Japan's own monarch ; kōtei ( 皇帝 ) is used for foreign emperors.

It is assumed that this was Japan's first large-scale engineering works undertaking.

So Japan's currency code is JPY — JP for Japan and Y for yen.

In total, as of 2006, Japan's territory is, of which is land and water.

About 73 percent of Japan's area is mountainous, and scattered plains and intermontane basins ( in which the population is concentrated ) cover only about 25 percent.

According to U. N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, the approved expansion is equal to about 82 % of Japan's total land area.

As of the most recent census ( October 2010 ), Japan's population is 128, 057, 352 ; for March 2012 the estimated population is 127, 650, 000 making it the world's tenth most populated country.

In a strong move, on 8 August 2005, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called for a snap election to the lower house, as threatened, after LDP stalwarts and opposition DPJ parliamentarians defeated his proposal for a large-scale reform and privatisation of Japan Post, which besides being Japan's state-owned postal monopoly is arguably the world's largest financial institution, with nearly 331 trillion yen of assets.

In South Asia, Japan's role is mainly that of an aid donor.

According to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's arc of freedom theory, it is in Japan's interests to develop closer ties with India, world's most populous democracy, while its relations with China remain chilly.

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