Interesting facts about Japanese culture. Interesting and unusual facts about Japan and the Japanese

Since the country was first mentioned in ancient Chinese chronicles, few places in the world can match Japan's colorful and interesting history. And while many people have heard about the stories of how the Mongol invasion was thwarted by a powerful tsunami or how Japan was cut off from the rest of the world for a long time during the Edo dictatorship, there are still many other little-known strange and wonderful stories from Japanese history.

10. Eating meat was illegal in Japan.

The Japanese government, which came to power in the mid-7th century, banned meat consumption. The taboo on it lasted almost 1200 years! Possibly inspired by Buddhist teachings that are against killing, in 675 AD. Emperor Tenmu issued a decree prohibiting, on pain of death, the eating of beef, monkey meat and other domestic animals.
Initially, the law covered the period from April to September, but later new laws and religious practices contributed to the complete taboo of meat as food, especially beef. Contact with Christian missionaries influenced Japan, and eating meat became common again as early as the 16th century. And although a new ban was imposed in 1687, some Japanese continued to eat meat.
By 1872, the Japanese authorities officially lifted the ban, and the emperor himself again became a meat eater. Although the abolition of the taboo was not greeted with ardent enthusiasm, especially by the monks, the ancient ban on meat soon disappeared from the lives of ordinary Japanese.

9. Kabuki theater was created by a woman who loved men's clothing.

Kabuki, one of the most iconic expressions of Japanese culture, is a vibrant form of dance theater in which female and male roles are performed only by men. However, at the very beginning, Kabuki was associated with the completely opposite sex. All roles were played only by women.
The founder of the theater was Izumo no Okuni, a priestess who became famous for performing dances and skits in men's clothing. Okuni's sensual and energetic performances became very popular, and other courtesans adopted her style in performances by entire female troupes. This “female Kabuki” became so popular that dancers were even invited to daimyo (feudal lords) to perform private shows in their castles. And while most viewers were just enjoying this new art form, the government was not as pleased with what was happening.
In 1629, following a raid on Kabuki performances in Kyoto, women were banned from performing on stage. Male actors replaced them, and Kabuki as we know it today has remained an immortalized form of male acting.

8. The surrender of the Japanese army during World War II might not have happened.

On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's unconditional surrender to the Allied Forces on the international Jewel Voice Broadcast. The recording was not broadcast live, but was recorded the evening before. Moreover, it was not conducted from the imperial palace.
On the same night that Emperor Hirohito recorded his speech, a group of Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender initiated a coup d'etat. Major Kenji Hatanaka, the leader of the riot, and his henchmen occupied the imperial palace for several hours. Hatanaka wanted to disrupt the Jewel Voice Broadcast. And although his soldiers meticulously searched the entire palace, the emperor was not found.
Miraculously, despite searches of everyone who left the palace, the recording was transferred outside in a laundry basket. But even then Hatanaka was not ready to give up. He left the palace and went to the nearest radio station on his bicycle.
Khatanka wanted to go live, but for technical reasons this did not happen. The amazed leader of the uprising returned to the palace, where he shot himself.

7. Samurai sometimes tested their swords by attacking random passers-by

In medieval Japan, it was considered inglorious and shameful if a samurai sword could not cut through the body of an enemy in one blow. It was extremely important for the samurai to know the quality of his weapon, and each new sword had to be tested before the start of the battle.
Samurai usually practiced cutting on the bodies of criminals and corpses. But there was another method called tsujigiri (killing at the crossroads), according to which warriors went out to crossroads at night and killed any random passerby.
Such tsujigiri were a rare occurrence. But over time, they still became such a big problem that the authorities had to ban this action in 1602. According to a report from the Edo period (1603–1868) describing the early years of that era, people were killed daily at the same specific intersection in modern Tokyo.

6. Japanese soldiers once cut off their noses and ears as war trophies.

During the reign of legendary leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Japan invaded Korea twice from 1592 to 1598. Although Japan eventually withdrew its troops from foreign territory, its raids were very brutal and claimed almost a million Korean lives.
Japanese warriors often cut off the heads of defeated enemies as war trophies, but transporting them to their homeland turned out to be difficult, and the aggressors began to cut off ears and noses, because it was much more convenient.
At home in Japan, entire monuments were erected in honor of these terrible trophies, which were nicknamed “ear tombs” and “nose tombs.” One such monument in Kyoto, Mimitsuka, yielded tens of thousands of trophies. Another monument in Okayama contained 20,000 noses, which were returned to Korea in 1992.

5. The father of all kamikazes committed seppuku (suicide) to atone for the death of the killed pilots

In October 1944, Vice Admiral Takihiro Onishi believed that the only way for Japan to win World War II was to launch the infamous Operation Kamikaze, in which Japanese pilots attacked enemy aircraft of the Combined Forces, shooting them down with their own fighters and sacrificing their lives. Onishi hoped that the shock of such attacks would force the US to surrender the war. He was so desperate that he was ready to sacrifice 20 million Japanese lives for the sake of victory.
Upon hearing Emperor Hirohito's announcement of surrender in August 1945, Onishi was distraught at the thought that he had sacrificed thousands of kamikaze pilots for nothing. He decided that suicide was the only way out, and committed seppuku (suicide by cutting open the abdomen) on August 16, 1945. In his suicide note, the vice admiral asked for forgiveness from the “grieving families” and implored the younger generation to fight for peace on Earth.

4The First Japanese Christian Convert Was A Murderer On The Run

In 1546, 35-year-old samurai Anjiro was on the run from the law. Wanted for killing a man during a fight, he hid in the Kagoshima trading port to avoid punishment. There he met the Portuguese, who took pity on Anjiro and sent him to Malacca.
While on their ship, Anjiro learned Portuguese and was baptized with the name Paulo De Santa Fe, becoming the first Japanese Christian. He also met the famous missionary Francisco Xavier, a Jesuit priest who sailed with Anjiro on the same ship to evangelize Japan in the summer of 1549. The mission turned out to be a failure, and the friends went their separate ways. The Portuguese priest tried to continue his work in China.
And although the evangelization of Japan was not as successful as Francis would have liked, he was canonized and declared the patron saint of Christian missionaries. Anjiro, who supposedly died as a pirate, was forgotten.

3. The Portuguese Slave Trade Led to the Abolition of Slavery in Japan

Soon after the Western world's first contact with Japan in the 1540s, the Portuguese began actively purchasing Japanese slaves. Slaves sold to the Portuguese by other Japanese were sent to Portugal and other parts of Asia. The slave trade eventually grew so large that even Portuguese slaves in Macau became masters for the unfortunate Japanese slaves.
Jesuit missionaries were unhappy with this state of affairs. In 1571, they persuaded the King of Portugal to stop enslaving the Japanese, although the Portuguese colonists resisted and ignored the new ban.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Japanese commander-in-chief and leader, was furious about the slave trade. And although at the same time Hideyoshi was not embarrassed by the slave trade of the Koreans he captured during the raids of the 1590s, the Japanese leader openly spoke out against the trade in Japanese slaves.
In 1587, he imposed a ban, outlawing the slave trade, although the sale of Japanese slaves continued for some time after that.

2. About 200 Japanese high school girls became nurses during the Battle of Okinawa

In April 1945, the Combined Forces began their invasion of Okinawa. The three-month bloodbath claimed the lives of 200 thousand people, 94 thousand of whom were Okinawa civilians. Among the civilians killed was the Himeyuri Student Unit, a group of 200 schoolgirls aged 15 to 19 who were forced by the Japanese to serve as nurses during the battle.
At first, girls from Himeyuri worked in a military hospital. But they were then moved to dugouts and trenches as the bombardment of the island intensified. They fed wounded Japanese soldiers, participated in amputations and buried the bodies of the dead. Even though the Americans were clearly winning, the girls were forbidden to give up. Instead, they were instructed to commit suicide by detonating hand grenades.
Some girls committed suicide, others died in battle. In one incident, known as the "Dugout of the Virgins", 51 schoolgirls were killed by gunfire in the cave in which they were hiding. After the war, a monument and museum were built here in honor of the Himeyuri girls.

1. Japan Had Its Own Nuclear Weapons Program During World War II

In August 1945, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki shocked Japan and the world, but one Japanese scientist was not as surprised as the rest. Nuclear physicist Yoshio Nishina had been worried about the possibility of such attacks since 1939. Nishina was the head of Japan's first nuclear program, which began research in April 1941.
By 1943, a committee headed by Nishina concluded that the creation of nuclear weapons was possible, but too difficult even for the United States. The Japanese continued their research in another program called the F-Go Project, led by physicist Bunsaku Arakatsu.
And although the Arakatsu program was not a success, who knows what story World War II would have followed if the Japanese had been the first to create atomic weapons? According to writer Robert K. Wilcox, Japan had all the knowledge to create an atomic bomb, but lacked the resources. In May 1945, the US Navy intercepted a German submarine that was supposed to deliver 540 kg of uranium oxide to Tokyo.

Japan is a very developed country, but its people are known to us for their oddities that only the Japanese themselves can understand. A lot of oddities are associated with the traditions of this people, as evidenced by the interesting facts about ancient Japan that await you further.

For more than two and a half centuries, Japan was a closed country.

In 1600, after a long period of feudal fragmentation and civil wars, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder and first head of the Edo shogunate, came to power in Japan. By 1603, he finally completed the process of unifying Japan and began to rule with an iron fist. Ieyasu, like his predecessor, supported trade with other countries, but was very suspicious of foreigners. This led to the fact that in 1624 trade with Spain was completely prohibited. And in 1635, a decree was issued banning the Japanese from leaving the country and banning those who had already left to return. Since 1636, foreigners (Portuguese, later Dutch) could only stay on the artificial island of Dejima in Nagasaki harbor.

The Japanese were short because they didn't eat meat.

From the 6th to the 19th centuries, the average height of Japanese men was only 155 cm. This is due to the fact that it was in the 6th century that the Chinese “neighbourly” shared the philosophy of Buddhism with the Japanese. It is not clear why, but the new worldview appealed to the ruling circles of Japanese society. Vegetarianism began to be considered a path to the salvation of the soul and better reincarnation. Meat was completely excluded from the Japanese diet and the result was not long in coming: from the 6th to the 19th centuries, the average height of the Japanese decreased by 10 cm.

Trade in “Night Gold” was widespread in ancient Japan.

Night gold is a phraseological unit that denotes a product of human activity, his feces, used as a valuable and balanced fertilizer. In Japan, this practice was used quite widely. Moreover, the waste of rich people was sold at a higher price, because their diet was plentiful and varied, so more nutrients remained in the resulting “product”. Various historical documents dating back to the 9th century detail procedures for toilet waste.

Pornography has always flourished in Japan.

Sexual themes in Japanese art arose many centuries ago and go back to ancient Japanese myths, among which the most famous is the myth about the emergence of the Japanese islands as a result of the sexual relationship of the god Izanagi and the goddess Izanami. There is no hint of a disapproving attitude towards sex in the ancient monuments. “This frankness in the story about sex and literary materials,” writes Japanese cultural anthropologist Toshinao Yoneyama, “has been preserved right up to the present day... In Japanese culture there was no consciousness of original sin in relation to sex, as was the case in Christian cultures.”

Fishermen in ancient Japan used domesticated cormorants.

It all happened something like this: at night, fishermen went out to sea in a boat and lit torches to attract fish. Next, about a dozen cormorants were released, which were tied to the boat with a long rope. At the same time, the neck of each bird was slightly intercepted by a flexible collar so that it could not swallow the caught fish. As soon as the cormorants had full crops, the fishermen pulled the birds onto the boat. For their work, each bird received a reward in the form of a small fish.

In ancient Japan there was a special form of marriage - tsumadoi.

A full-fledged small family - in the form of living together - was not a typical form of marriage in Ancient Japan. The basis of family relationships was a special Japanese marriage - tsumadoi, in which the husband freely visited his wife, maintaining, in fact, a separate residence with her. For the bulk of the population, marriage took place upon reaching adulthood: at 15 for a boy and at 13 for a girl. Marriage presupposed the consent of numerous relatives, including grandparents on the wife’s side. Tsumadoi marriage did not imply monogamy, and a man was not forbidden to have several wives, as well as concubines. However, a free relationship with their wives, leaving them without a reason to marry a new wife, was not allowed by law.

There were and still are quite a lot of Christians in Japan.

Christianity appeared in Japan in the mid-16th century. The first missionary to preach the Gospel to the Japanese was the Basque Jesuit Francis Xavier. But the missionary work did not last long. Soon the shoguns began to see Christianity (as the faith of foreigners) as a threat. In 1587, the unifier Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned the presence of missionaries in the country and began oppressing believers. To justify his actions, he pointed out that some Japanese converts had desecrated and destroyed Buddhist and Shinto shrines. The repressive policy was continued by Hideyoshi's political successor, Tokugawa Ieyasu. In 1612, he banned the practice of Christianity in his domains, and in 1614 he extended this ban to all of Japan. During the Tokugawa era, about 3,000 Japanese Christians were martyred, while the rest suffered imprisonment or exile. Tokugawa policy required all Japanese families to register with the local Buddhist temple and obtain a certificate that they were not Christians.

Japanese prostitutes were divided into several ranks.

In addition to the well-known geishas, ​​who by and large were simply masters of ceremonies, there were also courtesans in Japan, who in turn were divided into several classes depending on cost: tayu (the most expensive), koshi, tsubone, santya and the cheapest - street girls, bath attendants, servants, etc. The following agreement existed unspoken: once you had chosen a girl, you had to stick with her, “settle down.” Therefore, men often kept their own courtesans. Girls of Tayu rank cost 58 momme (about 3,000 rubles) at a time, and this does not count the mandatory 18 momme for servants - another 1,000 rubles. Prostitutes of the lowest rank cost approximately 1 momme (about 50 rubles). In addition to direct payment for services, there were also associated expenses - food, drink, tips for many servants, all this could reach up to 150 momme (8000 rubles) per evening. Thus, a man supporting a courtesan could easily shell out about 29 kemme (about 580,000 rubles) in a year.

The Japanese often committed couple suicides out of unhappy love.

After the “reorganization” of prostitution in 1617, all non-family intimate life of the Japanese was moved to separate quarters like the “red light district”, where girls lived and worked. The girls could not leave the quarter unless wealthy clients bought them as wives. It was very expensive and more often than not it happened that lovers simply could not afford to be together. Despair drove such couples to “shinju” - couple suicides. The Japanese did not see anything wrong with this, because they had long revered rebirth and were completely confident that in the next life they would definitely be together.

Torture and execution have long been written into law in Japan.

To begin with, it should be said that in the Japanese legal system of the Tokugawa era there was no presumption of innocence. Every person who went to trial was considered guilty in advance. With the rise of the Tokugawa, only four types of torture remained legal in Japan: scourging, squeezing with stone slabs, tying with a rope, and hanging by a rope. Moreover, torture was not a punishment in itself, and its purpose was not to cause maximum suffering to the prisoner, but to obtain a sincere confession of the crime committed. It should also be noted here that torture was allowed only to those criminals who faced the death penalty for their actions. Therefore, after a sincere confession, the poor fellows were most often executed. Executions were also very different: from the banal beheading to the terrible boiling in boiling water - this was the punishment for ninjas who failed a contract killing and were captured.

At the end of the 19th century, the West became seriously ill with the “Japanese disease.” Fashion led to the fact that everyone began to replace doors with partitions and ate while sitting on the floor at low tables. A noticeable easing occurred in 2006. Why did “Japan mania” actually arise? What is unique about Japanese interiors? Interesting facts about Japan They will tell you why the example to follow was not China (an older and richer civilization), but Japan.

Japanese and Chinese

If you delve into history, you can draw an analogy: the Japanese and Chinese are a kind of Greeks and Romans or Americans and Europeans. It is the Chinese who are original, while the Japanese concepts are limited. The Chinese are responsible for so many discoveries: they invented paper, compass, gunpowder, varnish, wallpaper, fan, tea, porcelain, watches, silk fabrics. However, all designers are chasing Japanese interiors. Why? Interesting fact about Japan- instead of walls, the Japanese home is decorated with paper, and the entire architecture is a wooden frame. In a traditional house there is always a lot of morning and evening light due to the plumb roof, which reaches a meter.

Strictness and clarity of lines

Interesting fact about Japan- the interior space of the home is strictly organized. In a Japanese traditional home there is no place for most of the things that Westerners are used to. A stepped cabinet or tokonoma niche stores everything you need.

Tatami mats are a favorite floor covering that covers the entire space of the home: from the hallway to the living room. They should be replaced after a few years when the mats darken and lose their beautiful light green color. Such carpets are not afraid of mold and bugs, because they are lined with igus grass.

Japanese religions

Interesting facts about Japan concern the religion of this country. There are two main religions in Japan - Buddhism and Shinto. Shinto emphasizes harmony with nature and connection with ancestors. Buddhism teaches enlightenment and achieving harmony in life. Tourists can see the ceremonial holidays associated with these religions. They do not end all year long, including the Flower Festival on Buddha's birthday, the Water Taking Ceremony at Todaiji Temple, etc.

Who are geishas

The image of a geisha in films is significantly embellished and romanticized. The path of a professional geisha in Japan is not like a holiday. First, all types of arts are studied, which the applicant must master perfectly (traditional dance, singing, playing the lute, poetry, painting, calligraphy). And the initiation rite involves changing your hairstyle five times. So today meeting a real geisha is a rarity for a tourist, but you can always take a photo with disguised extras.

Deadly dish

Deadly fish season begins in November. Fugu is a delicacy, dishes from which are incredibly expensive, more expensive than many types of fish. Some organs of this fish contain poison; if prepared incorrectly, death will not take long to occur. First there will be a slight tingling sensation on the fingertips, then paralysis. But tourists are not afraid to try fugu. But you need to go to restaurants that have official permission to prepare fugu dishes.

Fuji

This is the most beautiful volcano in the world and the highest mountain, which reaches 3776 m. Respectfully, the Japanese call it Fuji-san (although many thought it was Fuji). But "yama" means mountain in Japanese. Fuji is a shrine, a symbol of the country, to which excursions are allowed only from July 1 to August 31. There is a sign that whoever Fuji shows its “face” from the clouds will be happy.

Kimono

Everyone wears kimonos: stylists, tourists, Japanese women, and sumo wrestlers, wearing it on their wedding day. Few people know why you can’t wear a kimono from right to left and how to choose a belt for a kimono. To understand all these subtleties, you can join the de Ginza kimono club.

1. Eating meat was once illegal in Japan.

In the mid-7th century, the Japanese government introduced a ban on eating meat. This law was in effect for 1200 years. In 675, Emperor Temmu, who was probably influenced by Buddhist precepts against taking anyone's life, signed a decree banning the consumption of beef, as well as the meat of monkeys and domestic animals. Those who dared to violate it faced the death penalty.

Initially, the law was supposed to be observed between April and September, but later religious practices turned eating meat (especially beef) into a strict taboo. In the 16th century, eating meat began to gain popularity again in Japan, mainly due to the establishment of connections with Christian missionaries.

In 1687, the Japanese were again banned from eating meat, but many continued to do so anyway. After 185 years, the law was finally repealed.

2. Kabuki theater was created by a woman who dressed up as men.

Kabuki theater, one of Japan's most famous cultural symbols, is a colorful synthesis of singing, music, dance and drama. All roles in kabuki (both male and female) are performed exclusively by men. However, initially only women were actors in this type of theater.

The founder of kabuki is considered to be Izumo no Okuni, a priestess who became famous for her exquisite dances, parody skits and playing male roles. The energetic and sensual style that Izumo no Okuni developed became incredibly popular in Japan, and many courtesans began to imitate her. Daimyo (the largest military lords of medieval Japan) even invited kabuki actresses to their castles to enjoy their performances, which the government, however, considered extremely indecent. In 1629, after a riot that occurred during a kabuki performance in Kyoto, women were banned from appearing on stage. From then on, only men could perform in kabuki troupes.

3. Japanese surrender in World War II

On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced by radio Japan's unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers. This appeal was recorded in advance - on the very night when a group of Japanese soldiers who did not want to surrender attempted a coup. Major Kenji Hatanaka, the leader of the conspirators, broke into the imperial palace with his men in order to find and destroy the record of surrender.

Hatanaka's soldiers searched the entire palace, but found nothing. Miraculously (despite a thorough search of everyone who left the palace), the recording managed to “get out” undetected in the laundry basket. However, Hatanaka refused to give up. He left the palace and rode his bicycle towards the nearest radio station. He wanted to make a statement, but technical problems ruined his plans. Hatanaka returned to the imperial palace, where he shot himself.

4. Samurai sometimes tested the sharpness of their swords by attacking random passers-by

In medieval Japan, it was considered a shame if a samurai could not cut the enemy’s body with one blow with a sword. Every samurai had to test the quality of his sword before rushing into battle with it. Samurai typically practiced on corpses and the bodies of criminals. But there was another method, known as “tsujigiri” - testing a new sword on the first person you met.

At first, cases of tsujigiri were rare, but they eventually became a serious problem and the authorities were forced to ban the practice in 1602. According to historical records dating back to the Edo period (1603-1868), victims of tsujigiri were found every morning in Tokyo at certain intersections.

5. Japanese soldiers cut off the ears and noses of their enemies as trophies.

Between 1592 and 1598, Japan invaded Korea twice. She eventually withdrew her troops from the country, but as a result of her brutal invasions, according to some estimates, at least one million Koreans died. At that time, Japanese warriors often cut off the heads of their enemies and took them with them as trophies. However, it was extremely inconvenient to deliver them home (due to their huge number), so Japanese soldiers decided to take ears and noses instead.

In Japan, these war trophies were used to create eerie monuments known as “ear tombs” and “nose tombs.” One such tomb was discovered in Kyoto; it contained tens of thousands of trophies. In another tomb, archaeologists found 20,000 noses, which were returned to Korea in 1992.

6. The “father of kamikaze” committed hara-kiri to atone for his guilt before the pilots he helped kill

Japanese Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi believed that the only way to win World War II was to conduct operations with the participation of kamikaze pilots, who were supposed to destroy Allied ships by crashing their planes into them. Onishi hoped that this unexpected move would discourage America and force it to withdraw from the war. He was in terrible despair and even declared his readiness to sacrifice 20 million Japanese lives for the sake of victory.

Upon learning of Japan's surrender in World War II, Onishi began to worry very much about those thousands of kamikaze pilots whose souls he had destroyed. On August 16, 1945, Onishi, unable to withstand the torment of his conscience, committed hara-kiri. In his suicide note, he apologized to the families of the victims and called on the youth of Japan to strive for world peace.

7. The first Japanese person to convert to Christianity was a fugitive.

In 1546, thirty-five-year-old samurai Anjiro was on the run. He was wanted for killing a man during a fight. He was hiding from the law in the commercial port of Kagoshima. Here Anjiro met the Portuguese, who took pity on him and sent him to Malacca. Here he learned Portuguese and was baptized, becoming the first Japanese Christian.

In Malacca he also met the Jesuit priest Francis Xavier. In the summer of 1549, they went together to Japan on a Christian mission, which, by the way, ended in failure. Their paths diverged, and Xavier decided to try his luck in China. He eventually became a saint and patron of Christian missionaries. In turn, Anjiro became a pirate and died into oblivion.

8. The Portuguese Slave Trade Led to the Abolition of Slavery in Japan

In the 1540s, the West began to improve relations with Japan. After this, Japanese slaves first appeared in Portugal. The trade eventually became enormous, and even Portuguese slaves in Macau could afford to own Japanese slaves.

Jesuit missionaries expressed their dissatisfaction with this activity. In 1571, they convinced the King of Portugal to end the enslavement of the Japanese; however, the Portuguese colonists resisted and ignored the ban for a long time. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a Japanese leader and military commander, also opposed the slave trade from Japan. In the late 1580s he announced his intention to end this. Hideyoshi issued a decree abolishing slavery, but the trade in Japanese slaves continued for some time after this decision was made.

9. More than 200 Japanese nursing students died in the Battle of Okinawa

In April 1945, the Allies launched an offensive on Okinawa. As a result of the three-month bloody battle, more than 200 thousand people died (about half of them were civilians). The death toll included a group of 200 female students, ages 15 to 19, who were forced by Japanese soldiers to work as nurses during the Battle of Okinawa.

At first, these girls helped doctors in the army hospital. Later, when the bombing of the island intensified, they were forced to move into caves, where they fed wounded Japanese soldiers, took part in surgical operations and buried the bodies of the dead. When the American soldiers came very close, the students were ordered to blow themselves up with grenades if anything happened. In one incident, which became known as the “Cave of the Virgins,” more than 50 student nurses were killed by gunfire.

10. During World War II, Japan worked on its own nuclear program

In August 1945, Japan and the whole world were shocked by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but one Japanese scientist was not particularly surprised. Physicist Yoshio Nishina expressed his concerns about the possibility of a nuclear attack back in 1939. In April 1941, he became the head of Japan's first nuclear program. Two years later, a committee headed by Nishina concluded that the creation of nuclear weapons was possible, but too difficult, even for the United States.

The Japanese continued to work on the program, and soon another project, the F-Go Project, appeared, headed by physicist Bunsaku Arakatsu.

Neither program was successful, and who knows what the outcome of World War II would have been if Japan had been the first to create atomic weapons? According to writer Robert Wilcox, Japan had all the necessary knowledge to create a nuclear bomb, but it lacked the resources. In May 1945, the US Navy intercepted a Nazi submarine that was supposed to deliver 540 kilograms of uranium oxide to Tokyo.

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Japan is a small country, but there are many big and interesting things here. It is home to the world's most expensive amusement park, Disney Sea, and four of the ten tallest roller coasters. Tokyo has the most developed subway system in the world, the largest railway hub and the largest mixed pedestrian intersection.

80 Interesting Little-Known Facts About Japan

1. In Japan, girls show affection and give gifts on Valentine's Day. I won’t tell you what this tradition is connected with, but today it performs an important social function: it allows girls to say “yes” without waiting for a Japanese man to have the courage to approach her.

2. In Japan, fish and meat are cheap, but fruits are very expensive. One apple costs two dollars, a bunch of bananas costs five. The most expensive fruit, melon, a variety like our “torpedo”, will cost two hundred dollars in Tokyo.

3. In Japan, pornography is sold absolutely everywhere. In every konbini (grocery store), there is always a separate shelf with hentai on the press counter. In small bookstores, hentai makes up a third of the total assortment; in large bookstores, 2-3 floors are devoted to pornography.

4. Hentai is allowed to be freely sold to minors.

5. The two most popular subgenres of hentai are violence and underage sex.

6. Wrapped in a cover, hentai can be easily read on the subway.

7. The Japan Subway and JR have women-only cars. They are added in the mornings so that during rush hour no one harasses the girls. The Japanese are voyeurs, and groping girls on crowded trains is something of a national sport.

8. At the same time, Japan has one of the lowest rape rates in the world. Five times less than in Russia. It seemed important to me to note this, after everything I said above.

9. Most Japanese characters consist of 2-4 syllables, but there are surprising exceptions. For example, the character 砉 is read as “hanetokawatogahanareruoto”, that’s thirteen syllables! Describes the sound made when flesh is separated from bone.

10. Another interesting fact about Japan: the issue of honor still plays a central role in Japan, even in politics. The last Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, resigned after failing to fulfill his campaign promise (sic!). Two of his predecessors too.

11. Japan is a small country, but there are a lot of big things here. It is home to the world's most expensive amusement park, Disney Sea, and four of the ten tallest roller coasters. Tokyo has the most developed subway system in the world, the largest railway hub and the largest mixed pedestrian intersection.

12. In Japan, it is customary to sculpt snowmen strictly from two balls, and not three, as in the rest of the world. And then the Japanese distinguished themselves.

13. Colonel Sanders is one of the main symbols of Christmas in Japan, like Coca-Cola in the USA. On Christmas Eve, the Japanese like to go to KFC with the whole family and eat a large portion of chicken wings.

14. In Japan, 30% of weddings still take place as a result of matchmaking and bridesmaids organized by parents お見合い (omiai).

15. In all northern cities of Japan, where snow falls in winter, sidewalks and streets are heated. There is no ice, and there is no need to remove snow. Very comfortably!

16. However, in Japan there is no central heating. Everyone heats the apartment as best they can.

17. In Japanese there is a word 過労死 (Karoshi), meaning “death from overwork.” On average, ten thousand people die every year with this diagnosis. Studio Ghibli director Yoshifumi Kondo, the author of my favorite The Whisper of the Heart, died with this diagnosis.

18. Japan has one of the most liberal tobacco laws. Smoking is allowed everywhere except on railway platforms and airports.

19. Japan is the last country in the world to formally retain the title of Empire.

20. The Japanese imperial dynasty was never interrupted. The current Emperor Akihito is a direct descendant of the first Emperor Jimmu, who founded Japan in 711 BC.

21. Japan turned 2725 this year.

22. Japanese people constantly talk about food, and when they eat, they discuss how they like the treat. Having dinner without saying “oishii” (delicious) several times is very impolite.

23. In general, the Japanese love repetition. When girls do this, it is considered kawaii.

24. The Japanese language simultaneously uses three types of writing: Hiragana (a syllabary system for writing Japanese words), Katakana (a syllabary system for writing borrowed words) and Kanji (hieroglyphic writing). It's crazy, yes.

25. An interesting fact about Japan is that there are almost no guest workers in the country. This is achieved by a simple law: the minimum salary at which it is allowed to hire a foreign worker in Japan exceeds the average salary of a Japanese worker. Thus, the path to the country remains open for highly paid specialists, and unskilled migrant labor does not dump the wages of local residents. Solomon's solution.

26. More than half of the railways in Japan are private. Non-state carriers are responsible for 68% of the country's total rail traffic.

27. Hirohito was never removed from power; after the war, he led the reformation and ruled until 1989. Hirohito's birthday is a national holiday and is celebrated every April 29th.

28. Mount Fuji is privately owned. In the Shinta shrine Hongyu Sengen, a deed of 1609 has been preserved, with which the Shogun transferred the mountain into the possession of the temple. In 1974, the authenticity of the deed of gift was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Japan, after which there was no other choice but to transfer the ownership of the mountain to the temple. Because property rights in Japan are inviolable.

29. The Japanese language has several levels of politeness: colloquial, respectful, polite and very polite. Women almost always speak a respectful form of the language, men a colloquial one.

30. Seven percent of the male population of Japan are Hikkikomori. Seven!!!

31. In Japanese, months do not have names; instead, they are designated by serial numbers. For example, September is 九月 (kugatsu), which means “ninth month.”

32. Before Japan opened up to the West, the only word to describe romantic attraction was 恋 (koi), literally meaning “an irresistible attraction to something unattainable.”

33. Japan is a mono-ethnic country, 98.4% of the total population are ethnic Japanese.

35. In Japan they eat dolphins. They are used to make soup, cook kushiyaki (Japanese kebab), and even eat them raw. Dolphin has quite tasty meat, with a distinct taste and is completely different from fish.

36. There are practically no personal pronouns in the Japanese language, and those words that are sometimes used as pronouns have at least one more meaning. In Russian, for example, the pronoun “ya” means nothing other than “I”, and in Japanese 私 (watashi, ya) also means “private, personal”; 貴方 (anata, you) - “my master.” It is polite to use “anat” only when meeting for the first time; then it is customary to address the interlocutor by name or position.

37. Tokyo is the safest metropolis in the world. Tokyo is so safe that children as young as six can use public transport on their own. This is fantastic indeed.

38. The Japanese consider the outside world very dangerous and are afraid to travel. So a Japanese friend once asked me whether it would be too dangerous for her to stay alone in the area of ​​Kensington Gardens in London. They consider the United States to be the most dangerous country.

39. The ninth article of the Japanese constitution prohibits the country from having its own army and participating in wars.

40. In Japan, the school year begins on the first of April and is divided into trimesters. Schoolchildren study from April to July, then September to December and from January to March.

41. There are no trash cans in Japan because all garbage is recycled. Waste is divided into four types: glass, incinerable, recyclable and non-incinerable waste. Each type of waste is removed on a certain day and can be thrown away only on strictly designated dates. For violating the procedure there is a large fine, in my house it is one hundred thousand yen (about a thousand dollars).

42. There are also no trash bins on the streets, only special bins for collecting bottles. A good example of what is clean where people don’t shit.

43. Japan has very low pensions. The maximum social benefit for poor old people is 30,000 yen, which is about three hundred dollars. There is also no compulsory pension insurance; it is assumed that every Japanese person must take care of his own old age.

44. Godzilla (Gojira in Japanese) is not an accidental name. This is a portmonteau of the words “Gorilla” and “Kujira” (whale). One can only guess how they crossed so that they got a reptile.

45. Transport in Japan is very expensive; the cheapest metro ticket costs 140 yen (50 rubles).

46. ​​In Japan, men are always served first. In a restaurant, the man is the first to place an order, and the drink is brought to him first. In stores they always greet the man first.

47. The Japanese drive big cars. It is impossible to find city cars even in cramped Tokyo, but there are a lot of jeeps.

48, During my entire time in Japan, I have not seen a single toilet without a heated toilet seat and with less than 10 buttons. And recently I discovered that the toilet in my house can make the sound of running water in order to hide, um, its own sounds.

49. In Japan, everyone knows that Hello Kitty comes from England.

50. Tipping is strictly not accepted in Japan. It is believed that as long as the client pays the prescribed price for the service, he remains on an equal footing with the seller. If the buyer tries to leave extra money, he thereby depreciates the service/product provided to him, reducing equal exchange to a handout.

51. During the year of living in Japan, I never encountered any manifestations of racism against myself. I think this is very cool.

52. Japan is the best country in the world.

53. On Japanese MTV there is a popular series Usavich, a cartoon about two birds with one stone, Putin and Kiriyenko, trying to survive in a police state.

54. The age of consent in Japan is 13 years old.

55. Japan is three times the size of England. The area of ​​Japan is 374,744 km², England is 130,410 km².

56. Japan is often cited as an example of an overpopulated country. In fact, Japan's population density is only 360 people per square kilometer. This is less than in England, where there are 383 people per square kilometer.

57. In Japanese, the words “irregular” and “different” are expressed by the same word 違う (chigau).

58. In Japan, things have taken root that twenty years ago seemed like the future, but today leave a strange retro-futuristic impression. Automatic doors in taxis, vending machines that sell everything from fruit, to soups, to used underpants. Fantastic shaped trains and funny fashion. This is all very cool.

59. The Japanese word 御来光 (goraiko) describes the sunrise seen from Mount Fuji. Japanese has a lot of meaningful words.

60. Hitler admired the integrity of the Japanese nation and called them “honorary Aryans.” In apartheid-era South Africa, the Japanese were the only ones who were not disenfranchised, as they were considered “honorary whites.”

61. Japanese phones have a built-in national emergency notification system. When some kind of cataclysm occurs, a loud beep sounds on all phones (even if the sound was turned off) and a message appears explaining what happened and how to behave.

62. There is no looting in Japan. If you type “looting in japan” into Google, you will only find tens of thousands of surprised foreigners who cannot understand why empty houses are not looted in Japan.

63. The Japanese speak almost no English, but use a fantastic number of Anglicisms. Alex Case tried to make a list, counted over 5,000 words and got tired of continuing (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) However, the Japanese pronunciation of them is so distorted that you can not hope to understand them, or that they will understand you if you pronounce the word with an original accent.

64. Few people know that the words “cotton wool”, “pollock” and “ivashi” are borrowed from Japanese. I think everyone knows about “tsunami” and “typhoon”.

65. Japanese also has borrowings from Russian. The words イクラ “ikura; caviar” and ノルマ “noruma; norm". There is also a funny expression “ヴ・ナロード” “wu people; to the people,” it was inherited from Alexander II.

66. Japan has the death penalty. Last year, eight criminals were executed in Japan. The last two executions were attended by the Japanese Minister of Justice.

67. An interesting fact is that Japan has the lowest murder rate and the lowest violent crime rate per 100 thousand population of all countries analyzed. It has the highest average life expectancy in the world.

68. Tokyo is home to one of the largest gay districts in the world, Shinjuku-Ni-Chome. It has the largest concentration of gay bars in the world.

69. Japanese and Chinese characters are one and the same. There are regional differences: in Chinese there are more characters and in simplified form they are written differently. But knowing Japanese, you can understand the general meaning of Chinese signs.

70. Instead of a signature in Japan, they put a special personalized hanko stamp. Every Japanese has such a seal and it is used many, many times a day. You can also buy it at any store.

71. Japan is the only country in the world where the criterion for a train being late is a minute mark.

72. In Japan, it is considered impolite to open a gift in the presence of the giver. They thank him for it, and then put it aside to open it in private.

73. The Japanese believe that a person should be able to hide suffering behind a smile. There is even a saying 顔で笑って心で泣く (Kao de waratte kokoro de naku; smile while you suffer inside).

74. The Japanese are a nation of very passionate people. If they do something, they strive for complete authenticity. Thus, in all French bakeries, Japanese inscriptions are duplicated in French. An Italian gelateria will have ice cream labeled in Italian, and a Spanish restaurant will have a menu in Spanish. However, there will be nothing in English. Sometimes it seems that for them it is just “another European language.”

75. In Japan, property rights are strictly observed, so there are dozens of companies with a history of more than a thousand years. For example, the Hoshi Ryokan Hotel has been continuously operating since 718. It has been run by the same family for 46 generations (sic!).

76. Tanuki are wayward Japanese werewolf animals that bring happiness and prosperity. Their eggs are a traditional symbol of good luck. For the canonical happiest tanuki, the area of ​​the eggs should be 8 tatami, which is 12 meters. In case of trouble, they take retribution with them. Studio Ghibli has a wonderful cartoon about them, Pom Poko, check it out.

77. Two thirds of Japan is covered with forests. Japan prohibits commercial logging of its own forests, but it consumes 40% of all the wood that is mined in tropical forests.

78. For 10 years, from 1992 to 2002, Japan was the largest donor of international aid in the world. This is a word for everyone who is now gloating over the Japanese disaster.

79. When the conductor enters the next carriage of a high-speed train, he must take off his headdress and bow, and only then begins to check the tickets.

80. In Japan, the third way has been successful, which we have been looking for for a long time and cannot find. There is a unique organization of society here: on the one hand, a completely Western legal state, on the other, an original culture that lives not only by traditions, but is constantly evolving. I don’t understand why no one in Russia studies the Japanese experience.

Other interesting facts about Japan in this section.