NAME: Japan

LOCATION: In Asia. Japan's neighbours include the Republic of Korea, China, and Russia.

LANGUAGE: Kanji was the first language of Japan, which actually came from China where
they are said to have been created thousands of years ago. They began as just pictures then
over time, the pictures changed into symbols.

Japanese has two sets of phonetic scripts, hiragana and katakana which both developed
from kanji. Each set has 46 characters, which stand for groups of letters such as ‘ka’.

Basic words:

Konnichiwa (A simple hello but usually used as good afternoon)

Hai (Yes)
Iie (No)

CURRENCY: Unit of currency-yen

TYPE OF GOVERNMENT: The Japanese government came to be in the year 1946. The
parliament is called the diet which consists of 480 members which have all been elected by
Japanese residents.

FLAG: Japan’s national flag is called the Hinomaru. It has a red dot surrounded by a white
background. This dot represents the sun. They used the sun in the flag because Japan is
known as the land of the rising sun. It is known as that because Japan is located in the far
east where the sun rises.

CLIMATE:

Japan often suffers from natural disasters such as typhoons, volcanic eruptions and
earthquakes. The most recent earthquake was October 2004.

CLOTHING: People in Japan just wear every-day normal clothes but on special occasions
such as Shichi-Go-San festival, weddings and graduation ceremonies , they wear the
traditional dress of Japan called the kimono. Kimonos, which are generally made of silk,
have large sleeves and reach from the shoulders all the way down to the heels. They are tied
with a large belt called an obi.

TRADITIONS: There are many Japanese traditions and one of them is the tea ceremony
which is also known as the ‘Way of tea’. It is the preparation and presentation of matcha,
powdered green tea. This is also one of the many cultural practice.

OTHER INFO: The capital of Japan is Tokyo, other wise known as the ‘Game World’. Many
video games came from Tokyo. A type of art that is used a lot in games is called manga. This
art is also used in books.