50 FUN FACTS ABOUT JAPAN

1. In Japanese, the name “Japan” is Nihon or Nippon, which means “Land of the Rising
Sun.” It was once believed that Japan was the first country to see the sun rise in the
East in the morning.

2. Japan has the third longest life expectancy in the world with men living to 81 years old
and women living to almost 88 years old. The Japanese live on average four years
longer than Americans.

3. Japan consists of over 6,800 islands.

4. Home to 33 million people, the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area is the largest

populated metropolitan region in the world.

5. Each spring, Japan has a festival that celebrates both the penis and female fertility
called Kanamara Matsuri, or “Festival of the Steel Phallus.”

6. Twenty-one percent of the Japanese population is elderly (over the age of 65), the
highest proportion in the world. There are more elderly than there are children in Japan
today.

7. The Japanese eat more fish than any other people in the world, about 17 million tons per
year. Japan is the world’s largest importer of seafood with shrimp comprising about one
third of the total, about four million tons a year. More than 20% of Japanese protein is
obtained through fish and fish products.

8. Over two billion manga, Japanese comic books or graphic novels, are sold in Japan
each year

9. Sushi has been around since about the second century A.D. It started as a way to
preserve fish in China and eventually made its way to Japan. The method of eating raw
fish and rice began in the early 17th century. Sushi does not mean raw fish in Japanese.
It actually means rice seasoned with vinegar, sugar, and salt. Raw fish sliced and served
alone without rice is called sashimi.

10. Japan has around 5.5 million vending machines with one on almost every street corner.
There are vending machines that sell beer, hot and cold canned coffee, cigarettes, wine,
condoms, comic books, hot dogs, light bulbs, bags of rice, toilet paper, umbrellas, fish
bait, fresh eggs, porn magazines, and even used women’s underwear.

11. Japan has the second lowest homicide rate in the world, but it also home to the spooky
“suicide forest” Aokigahara at the base of Mt. Fuji. It is the second most popular place in
the world for suicides after San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

12. Cherry blossoms (sakura) are Japan's national flower.

13. Japanese ganguro (“black face”) fashion was started in the 1990s and has young
women tanning their skin as dark as possible, bleaching their hair, and using extremely
colorful makeup in contrast to the traditional Japanese pale-skinned, dark-haired
standard of beauty
14. The world’s shortest escalator is in the basement of More’s department store in
Kawasaki, Japan; it has only 5 steps and is 32.8 inches (83.3 cm) high.

15. Yaeba, or crooked teeth, are considered attractive in Japan—so much so that girls go to
the dentist to have their teeth purposefully unstraightened.

16. Haiku poetry, which was invented in Japan, consists of only three lines and is the world’s
shortest poetic form.

17. Women in ancient Japan blackened their teeth with dye as white teeth were considered
ugly. This practice, called ohaguro, continued until the late 1800s.

18. Shinjuku station, Tokyo’s main train station, is the busiest in the world with over 2 million
people passing through it every day.

19. Anime, or animated Japanese films and television shows, account for 60% of the world’s
animation-based entertainment. Animation is so successful in Japan that there are
almost 130 voice-acting schools in the country.

20. Ninety percent of all mobile phones sold in Japan are waterproof because youth like to
use them even while showering.

21. The sole Japanese man who survived the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 1914, Masabumi
Hosono, was called a coward in his country for not dying with the other passengers.

22. In Japan, it is acceptable to take a nap, called inemuri, on the job—it is viewed as
evidence of exhaustion from working very hard.

23. When Japanese people meet, they traditionally bow instead of shake hands, and the
lowest bow shows the deepest respect. When bowing, keep enough distance to avoid
bumping heads

24. During World War II, Japan bombed China with fleas infested with Bubonic plague.

25. In Japan, Kit Kat candy bars come in flavors like grilled corn, Camembert cheese, Earl
Gray tea, grape, and wasabi. The Japanese pronounce Kit Kat like “Kitto Katsu,” which
sounds like “You are sure to pass” in Japanese, and so they make a popular gift to
students during entrance exam season.

26. In Japan, black cats are considered good luck charms or omens of good luck.

27. In Japan, Kentucky Fried Chicken is a typical Christmas Eve feast.

28. In Japan, there is an island full of rabbits called Ōkunoshima. They were brought there
during World War II to test the effects of poison gas.

29. The biggest Japanese community outside of Japan is in Brazil.

30. Sumo wrestling in Japan can be traced back 1,500 years. Wrestlers weigh 300 pounds
or more and train in a heya (room, stable) operated by former sumo champions.
Younger sumo wrestlers are traditionally required to clean and bathe the veteran
wrestlers, including all the hard-to-reach places.

31. Hello Kitty was born in Japan in 1974 as a plastic coin purse. More than 20,000 Hello
Kitty products are on the market today, including toasters, instant noodles, credit cards,
and toilet paper. To her Japanese fans, she is known as Kitty Chan.
32. It is appropriate to slurp noodles, especially soba (buckwheat), when eating in Japan.
Slurping indicates the dish is delicious. It also cools down the hot noodles.

33. Japan is the largest automobile producer in the world, and the Japanese company
Toyota is the third largest automaker in the world. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda
who changed the “da” for “ta” because it sounds clearer. Also, written in Katakana script,
“Toyota” uses 8 brush strokes, a number considered to be lucky in Japan.

34. Mt. Fuji, or Fujisan or Fujiyama, is the tallest mountain in Japan at 12,388 feet (3,776 m).
It is considered a sacred mountain to many Japanese. More than one million people
climb Mt. Fuji every year during the official climbing season of July and August. Mount
Fuji is one of Japan's "Three Holy Mountains"

35. Hadaka Matsuri, or Naked Festival, is a kind of festival where thousands of Japanese
men remove their clothing in public due to the belief that a naked man has a greater
ability to absorb evil spirits. Only the most intimate parts of the body are covered with a
cloth called a fundoshi.

36. The green traffic light in Japan is called ao shingō, or “blue.”

37. In Japan, it is considered rude to tear the wrapping paper off of a gift.

38. The Japanese have more pets than children.

39. In a traditional Shinto wedding, the bride wears a special head covering called
a tsunokakushi (horn cover) to cover the “horns of jealously” she is thought to have for
her husband.

40. The Japanese word banzai literally means “10 thousand years” and was traditionally
used to wish the emperor a long life. Today, it is closer to a cheer like “Hip Hip Hooray!”
Travelers are often given a sendoff at the train station or airport by a group of coworkers
shouting, “Banzai!” three times while raising their arms over their heads. This chant is
also used at celebrations.

41. The Japanese avoid the number four (shi) because it sounds the same as the word for
death. Tall buildings do not have a fourth floor. Tea and sake sets are sold with five
cups. Three or five is the desirable number of guests in a traditional Japanese tea
ceremony. As a rule, odd numbers are preferred over even numbers in Japan. [15]

42. While Westerners regard the heart as the center of emotions, the Japanese regard
the hara (belly) as the center of emotions and thoughts. They value silent
communication, which they call haragei (“speaking from the belly”).[15]

43. The Japanese word horenso (“spinach”) is similar to the word for horeru (“to fall in love”
or “secret love”). When a Japanese person gives another person a gift that is wrapped in
the same color green as spinach, he or she is expecting love without using words.[15]

44. At midnight on Shōgatsu (New Year’s Eve), the Buddhist temples of Japan ring their
bells 108 times to ring in the New Year and drive away the 108 evil desires that humans
fall prey to. This event is called Joya no Kane and is carried on Japanese radio.[8]

45. Japanese imperial court orchestra and dance forms, known as gagaku and bugaku, are
the oldest continuous music and dance traditions in the world. They were introduced
from the Chinese imperial court in the 7th and 8th century A.D. and are still performed in
Tokyo by members of the Imperial Court Orchestra today.
46. Karate is perhaps the best known martial arts form to have come out of Japan. It
originated in China but was refined in Okinawa. It literally means “empty hands” and
uses trained movements of the hands, arms, and legs for self-defense. An estimated 50
million people worldwide practice karate.

47. The term harakiri may be familiar to Westerners as a gruesome Japanese method of
suicide which literally means “cutting the belly.” The proper term for suicide performed by
cutting one’s abdomen open with a knife is seppuku. According to Bushidō, the code of
the warrior, a samurai facing defeat was supposed to save his honor by committing
seppuku rather than surrendering to his enemy.

48. The Japanese word for a dog’s barking sound is wan-wan instead of “bow-wow.”
Japan’s Akita breed was developed in the 1600s and was once called the royal dog
because the emperors kept Akitas as pets. The most famous of all Akitas was Hachikō.
Legend has it he waited 10 years at the Shibuya train station in Tokyo for his master
who had died while at work. A statue of Hachikō now stands outside the station as a
tribute to his loyalty.

49. The Japanese religion of Shinto is one of the few religions in the world with a female
solar deity.

50. Many Japanese babies are born with a Mongolian spot (mokohan) on their backs. This
harmless birthmark usually fades by the age of 5. It is common in several Asian
populations and in Native Americans.