Major Powers of Asia: Japan

Flashcards covering the geography, history, geopolitics, political system, and social movements of Japan. Includes key events such as the Meiji Restoration, World War II, and modern political issues.

The four main islands that mainly comprise the archipelago of Japan, stretching from north to south, are _.

Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu

The Japanese archipelago is divided into 47 prefectures, which are divided up into 4 categories: _.

Ken, Dō, To, and Fu

In 645 AD the __ rose and would last until the first shogunate.

Fujiwara clan

__ won the Genpei war after defeating the Taira clan in 1185 and established the Kamakura Shogunate in 1192.

Minamoto Yoritomo

__ dealt with civil wars and militant sects as he emerged as the most powerful daimyo at the time and toppled the Ashikaga Shogunate.

Oda Nobunaga

After Hideyoshi’s death, an ally of his and Nobunaga's successor was __ , which leads to the Edo or Tokugawa period.

Tokugawa Ieyasu

The Heian period was marked by the transfer of the imperial capital to __ and was a period of flourishing culture and the rise of court aristocracy.

Heian Kyo (present day Kyoto)

In 1633, Iemitsu implemented the __ , which was a series of directives that restricted Japan and enforced the self-isolation of the country.

Sakoku Policy

In 1853, the United States returned with more force when __ arrived in Japan bringing four warships.

Commodore Matthew C. Perry

The Tokugawa Shogunate signed the __ , also known as the Perry Convention, enabling the U.S. to exploit Japan’s strategic location.

Treaty of Kanagawa

Following the ousting of the last Tokugawa Shogun, the __ period occurred.

Meiji Restoration

The Japanese adopted the slogan, __, which meant, “Enrich the country, strengthen the army.”

Fukoku Kyohei

On December 7, 1941, Japan officially joined World War II by attacking __ .

Pearl Harbor

After the surrender, Japan became an Allied occupied state of which was headed by __, who was the Supreme Commander for Allied Powers (SCAP).

General Douglas MacArthur

Russia and Japan’s reluctance to sign a formal peace treaty to end World War II boils down to their dispute over a group of islands commonly known as the __.

Kuril Islands

Between Japan and South Korea, there are two small islands called __.

Dokdo (by the Koreans), Liancourt Islands (by the international community), and Takeshma (by the Japanese)

The __ are an uninhabited chain of Islands South of Okinawa found in the East China Sea Claimed by China, Taiwan, and Japan.

Diaoyu Islands, or the Senkaku

Legislative powers are vested in the diet, who are popularly elected and consists of two houses (_).

bicameral

The __ was formed in 2017 when it split from the Democratic Party.

Constitutional Democratic Party

In 2015, tens of thousands of protesters gathered near Japan’s parliament building to oppose legislation allowing the Japanese military to fight overseas for the first time since World War II during the __.

Anti-Security Law Protests

The _ was started by a Japanese Actress, Freelance Writer, and Part-time Funeral Parlor worker, Yumi Ishikawa, in 2019 to protest the requirement for women to wear heels in the workplace.

KuToo Movement