Economy

The LDP government, through institutions such as MITI, encouraged Japanese industrial development overseas while restricting foreign companies' business within the country. These practices, coupled with a reliance on the United States for defense, allowed Japan's economy to increase exponentially during the Cold War. By 1980, many Japanese products, particularly automobiles and electronics, were being exported around the world, and Japan's industrial sector was the second-largest in the world after the U.S. This growth pattern continued unabated until the 1990s, when the Japanese economy finally slumped.

The 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo are often said to mark the re-emergence of Japan in the international arena: Japan's postwar development was showcased through innovations such as the Shinkansen high speed rail network.

The high economic growth and political tranquillity of the mid to late 1960s were tempered by the quadrupling of oil prices by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1973. Almost completely dependent on imports for petroleum, Japan experienced its first recession since World War II.

Foreign relations

Despite its wealth and central position in the world economy, Japan has had little or no influence in global politics for much of the postwar period.

Japan's biggest postwar political crisis took place in 1960 over the revision of the Japan-United States Mutual Security Assistance Pact. As the new Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security was concluded, which renewed the United States role as military protector of Japan, massive street protests and political upheaval occurred, and the cabinet resigned a month after the Diet's ratification of the treaty. Thereafter, political turmoil subsided. Japanese views of the United States, after years of mass protests over nuclear armaments and the mutual defense pact, improved by 1972, with the reversion of United States-occupied Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty and the winding down of the Second Indochina War (1954-75).

Japan had reestablished relations with the Republic of China after World War II, and cordial relations were maintained with the nationalist government when it was exiled to Taiwan, a policy that won Japan the enmity of the People's Republic of China, which was established in 1949. After the general warming of relations between China and Western countries, especially the United States, which shocked Japan with its sudden rapprochement with Beijing in 1971 (the Ping Pong diplomacy), Tokyo established relations with Beijing in 1972. Close cooperation in the economic sphere followed.

Japan's relations with the Soviet Union continued to be problematic long after the war. The main object of dispute was the Soviet occupation of what Japan calls its Northern Territories, the two most southerly islands in the Kurils (Etorofu and Kunashiri) and Shikotan and the Habomai Islands (northeast of Hokkaido), which were seized by the Soviet Union in the closing days of World War II.

Under the prime ministership of Tanaka Kakuei (1972-74), Japan took a stronger but still low-key stance by steadily increasing its defense spending and easing trade frictions with the United States. Tanaka's administration was also characterized by high-level talks with United States, Soviet, and Chinese leaders, if with mixed results. His visits to Indonesia and Thailand prompted riots, a manifestation of long-standing anti-Japanese sentiments.

Several cordial visits between Prime Minister Nakasone and United States president Ronald Reagan were aimed at improving relations between their countries. Nakasone's more strident position on Japanese defense issues made him popular with some United States officials but not, generally, in Japan or among Asian neighbors. Although his characterization of Japan as an "unsinkable aircraft carrier," his noting the "common destiny" of Japan and the United States, and his calling for revisions to Article 9 of the Constitution (which renounced war as the sovereign right of the nation), among other prorearmament statements, produced negative reactions at home and abroad, a gradual acceptance emerged of the Self-Defense Forces and the mutual security treaty with the United States in the mid-1980s.

Another issue in Japanese-American relations was Japan's growing trade surplus, which reached record heights during Nakasone's first term. The United States pressured Japan to remedy the imbalance, demanding that Tokyo raise the value of the yen and open its markets further to facilitate more imports from the United States. Because the Japanese government aids and protects its key industries, it was accused of creating an unfair competitive advantage. Tokyo agreed to try to resolve these problems but generally defended its industrial policies and made concessions on its trade restrictions very reluctantly.

Post-occupation culture

Japan continued to experience Westernization in the postwar era, much of which came about during the occupation, when American soldiers were a common sight in many parts of the country. American music and movies became popular, spurring a generation of Japanese artists who built on both Western and Japanese influences.

During this period, Japan also began to emerge as an exporter of culture. Young people across the world began consuming kaiju (monster) movies, anime (cartoons), manga (comic books), and other modern Japanese culture. Japanese authors such as Yasunari Kawabata and Yukio Mishima became popular literary figures in America and Europe. American soldiers returning from the occupation brought with them stories and artifacts, and the following generations of U.S. troops in Japan contributed to a steady trickle of martial arts and other culture from the country.

Timeline (–1989)

    * 1952: Allied occupation ends (April 28).
    * 1954: the Japan Self-Defense Forces established.
    * 1955: the Liberal Democratic Party formed.
    * 1956: Japan joins the United Nations.
    * 1960: labor strikes and student protests held across the country.
    * 1964: Olympic Games held in Tokyo. Shinkansen trains begin service.
    * 1965: Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea signed. Shin'ichiro Tomonaga awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
    * 1968: the nuclear aircraft carrier Enterprise arrives in Sasebo amid controversy. Itai-itai disease is formally recognized as a public hazard disease. Ogasawara Islands revert to Japanese control. Yasunari Kawabata receives the Nobel Prize in Literature. A man, disguised as a police officer, steals ?300 million (still at large as of 2003).
    * 1969: Prime Minister Eisaku Sato and U.S. President Richard Nixon meet. The date for the return of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty set for sometime in 1972.
    * 1970: a World Exposition (EXPO 70) held in Osaka.
    * 1971: the yen moves to a floating exchange rate, contributing to a short slump in Japan's economic boom.
    * 1972: control of Okinawa reverts to Japan.
    * 1980: annual car production tops 10 million units, making Japan the world's largest car producer after the USA. Yomiuri Giants' Sadaharu Oh ends his career.
    * 1981: Kenichi Fukui awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
    * 1982: the Tohoku Shinkansen extended to Morioka from Omiya.
    * 1983: Mt. Oyama volcano on Miyakejima, one of the Izu Islands, erupts. A color wall painting of Genbu is discovered in the Kitora Kofun at Asuka-mura. Kakuei Tanaka sentenced to four years in jail.
    * 1984: the president of Ezaki Glico Co., Ltd., a manufacturer of sweets, is abducted and held for ?10 billion and 100 kg gold ransom, but he escapes. Later, an extortionist threatens to poison the company's products unless paid ?60 million (later raised to ?120 million). The culprit is never captured. New banknotes issued with the likeness of Fukuzawa Yukichi on the ?10,000 bill, Inazo Nitobe on the ?5,000 bill, and Natsume Soseki on the ?1,000 bill.
    * 1985: the first AIDS patient is officially recognized. Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Omitaka-yama, breaking the record for aircraft-crash casualties with 520 dead and only 4 survivors.
    * 1986: Mount Mihara (Miharayama) on Izu Ohshima erupts, but the island's population is evacuated beforehand.
    * 1987: Japanese National Railways is privatized and split into the five JR (Japan Railway) companies, for regional companies and one freight. Actor Yujiro Ishihara dies.
    * 1988: the Seikan Tunnel connecting Hokkaido and Honshu completed. The Nadashio, a Maritime Self Defense Force submarine, collides with the Dai Ichi Fujimaru, a fishing vessel.
    * 1989: The Showa Emperor dies on January 7. Akihito ascends to the throne the next day and a new reign name, Heisei, is declared.

Heisei

Heisei is the current era name in Japan. The Heisei era started on January 8, 1989. In 1989, Akihito, the current emperor of Japan succeeded to the throne, after the death of his father, Hirohito, the Showa Emperor. Thus that year corresponds to Heisei 1 (known as heisei gannen in Japanese: Gannen is the first year of an era). 2006 is Heisei 18.

Meaning

The name "Heisei" is taken from two ancient Chinese history and philosophy books, namely Records of the Grand Historian (Shiki) and the Classic of History (Shokyo). In Shiki, the sentence (peace inside and prosperity outward) appears in the part honoring the wise rule of the legendary Chinese Emperor Shun. In Shokyo, the sentence (land is peaceful and sky is clear) appears. By combining both meanings, Heisei is to mean "peace everywhere".

Events

1989 marked one of the most rapid economic growth spurts in Japanese history. With a strong yen and a favorable exchange rate with the dollar, the Bank of Japan kept interest rates low, sparking an investment boom that drove Tokyo property values up sixty percent within the year. Shortly before New Year's Day, the Nikkei 225 reached its record high of 39,000. By 1991, it had fallen to 15,000, signifying the end of Japan's famed "bubble economy." Since then Japan had experienced "Great Slump in Heisei", for almost a decade. Recently, however, more and more people in Japan has come to think Japan is getting somewhat better compared with the slump.

The Recruit Scandal of 1988 had already eroded public confidence in the Liberal Democratic Party, which had controlled the Japanese government for 38 years. In 1993, the LDP was ousted by a coalition led by Morihiro Hosokawa. However, the coalition collapsed as parties had gathered to simply overthrow LDP and lacked an unified position on almost every social issue. The LDP returned to the government in 1996, when it helped to elect Social Democrat Tomiichi Murayama as prime minister.

In 1995, there was a large earthquake in Kobe (see Great Hanshin earthquake). The same year, there was a sarin gas terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway system by the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo (see Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway).

The Heisei period also marked Japan's reemergence on the world stage as a world military power. In 1991, Japan pledged billions of dollars to support the Gulf War but constitutional arguments prevented a participation in or support of actual war. Iran criticised Japan for just pledging money and didn't appreciate the way Japan co-operated in the Gulf War. Mine sweepers were sent after war as a part of reconstruction effort. Following the second invasion of Iraq, in 2003, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet approved a plan to send total of about 1,000 soldiers of the Japan Self-Defense Forces to help in Iraq's reconstruction, the biggest overseas troop deployment since World War II without the sanction of the United Nations. These troops were deployed in 2004.

On September 23, 2004, the Heisei 16 Niigata Prefecture Earthquakes rocked the Hokuriku region, killing 32 and injuring hundreds.

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Japan