Edo period
The Edo period or Tokugawa period is the period between 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when Japanese society was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional daimyō. The period was characterized by economic growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies, a stable population, "no more wars", popular enjoyment of arts and culture; the shogunate was established in Edo on March 24, 1603, by Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period came to an end with the Meiji Restoration on May 1868, after the fall of Edo. A revolution took place from the time of the Kamakura shogunate, which existed with the Tennō's court, to the Tokugawa, when the samurai became the unchallenged rulers in what historian Edwin O. Reischauer called a "centralized feudal" form of shogunate. Instrumental in the rise of the new-existing bakufu was Tokugawa Ieyasu, the main beneficiary of the achievements of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Powerful, Ieyasu profited by his transfer to the rich Kantō area.
He maintained two million koku of land, a new headquarters at Edo, a strategically situated castle town, had an additional two million koku of land and thirty-eight vassals under his control. After Hideyoshi's death, Ieyasu moved to seize control from the Toyotomi clan. Ieyasu's victory over the western daimyō at the Battle of Sekigahara gave him control of all Japan, he abolished numerous enemy daimyō houses, reduced others, such as that of the Toyotomi, redistributed the spoils of war to his family and allies. Ieyasu still failed to achieve complete control of the western daimyō, but his assumption of the title of shōgun helped consolidate the alliance system. After further strengthening his power base, Ieyasu installed his son Hidetada as shōgun and himself as retired shōgun in 1605; the Toyotomi were still a significant threat, Ieyasu devoted the next decade to their eradication. In 1615, the Tokugawa army destroyed the Toyotomi stronghold at Osaka; the Tokugawa period brought 250 years of stability to Japan.
The political system evolved into what historians call bakuhan, a combination of the terms bakufu and han to describe the government and society of the period. In the bakuhan, the shōgun had national authority and the daimyō had regional authority; this represented a new unity in the feudal structure, which featured an large bureaucracy to administer the mixture of centralized and decentralized authorities. The Tokugawa became more powerful during their first century of rule: land redistribution gave them nearly seven million koku, control of the most important cities, a land assessment system reaping great revenues; the feudal hierarchy was completed by the various classes of daimyō. Closest to the Tokugawa house were the shinpan, or "related houses", they were twenty-three daimyō on the borders of Tokugawa lands. The shinpan held honorary titles and advisory posts in the bakufu; the second class of the hierarchy were the fudai, or "house daimyō", rewarded with lands close to the Tokugawa holdings for their faithful service.
By the 18th century, 145 fudai controlled the greatest assessed at 250,000 koku. Members of the fudai class staffed most of the major bakufu offices. Ninety-seven han formed the tozama, former opponents or new allies; the tozama were located on the peripheries of the archipelago and collectively controlled nearly ten million koku of productive land. Because the tozama were least trusted of the daimyō, they were the most cautiously managed and generously treated, although they were excluded from central government positions; the Tokugawa shogunate not only consolidated their control over a reunified Japan, they had unprecedented power over the emperor, the court, all daimyō and the religious orders. The emperor was held up as the ultimate source of political sanction for the shōgun, who ostensibly was the vassal of the imperial family; the Tokugawa helped the imperial family recapture its old glory by rebuilding its palaces and granting it new lands. To ensure a close tie between the imperial clan and the Tokugawa family, Ieyasu's granddaughter was made an imperial consort in 1619.
A code of laws was established to regulate the daimyō houses. The code encompassed private conduct, dress, types of weapons and numbers of troops allowed. Although the daimyō were not taxed per se, they were levied for contributions for military and logistical support and for such public works projects as castles, roads and palaces; the various regulations and levies not only strengthened the Tokugawa but depleted the wealth of the daimyō, thus weakening their threat to the central administration. The han, once military-centered domains, became mere local administrative units; the daimyō did have full administrative control over their territory and their complex systems of retainers and commoners. Loyalty was exacted from religious foundations greatly weakened by Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, through a variety of control mechanisms. Like Hideyoshi, Ieyasu encouraged foreign trade but was suspicious of outsiders, he wanted to make Edo a major port, but once he learned that the Europeans favored ports in Kyūshū and that China had rejected his plans for official trade, he moved to control existing trade
Geography
Geography is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features and phenomena of the Earth and planets. The first person to use the word γεωγραφία was Eratosthenes. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding of Earth and its human and natural complexities—not where objects are, but how they have changed and come to be. Geography is defined in terms of two branches: human geography and physical geography. Human geography deals with the study of people and their communities, cultures and interactions with the environment by studying their relations with and across space and place. Physical geography deals with the study of processes and patterns in the natural environment like the atmosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere; the four historical traditions in geographical research are: spatial analyses of natural and the human phenomena, area studies of places and regions, studies of human-land relationships, the Earth sciences. Geography has been called "the world discipline" and "the bridge between the human and the physical sciences".
Geography is a systematic study of its features. Traditionally, geography has been associated with place names. Although many geographers are trained in toponymy and cartology, this is not their main preoccupation. Geographers study the space and the temporal database distribution of phenomena and features as well as the interaction of humans and their environment; because space and place affect a variety of topics, such as economics, climate and animals, geography is interdisciplinary. The interdisciplinary nature of the geographical approach depends on an attentiveness to the relationship between physical and human phenomena and its spatial patterns. Names of places...are not geography...know by heart a whole gazetteer full of them would not, in itself, constitute anyone a geographer. Geography has higher aims than this: it seeks to classify phenomena, to compare, to generalize, to ascend from effects to causes, and, in doing so, to trace out the laws of nature and to mark their influences upon man.
This is ` a description of the world' --. In a word Geography is a Science—a thing not of mere names but of argument and reason, of cause and effect. Just as all phenomena exist in time and thus have a history, they exist in space and have a geography. Geography as a discipline can be split broadly into two main subsidiary fields: human geography and physical geography; the former focuses on the built environment and how humans create, view and influence space. The latter examines the natural environment, how organisms, soil and landforms produce and interact; the difference between these approaches led to a third field, environmental geography, which combines physical and human geography and concerns the interactions between the environment and humans. Physical geography focuses on geography as an Earth science, it aims to understand the physical problems and the issues of lithosphere, atmosphere and global flora and fauna patterns. Physical geography can be divided into many broad categories, including: Human geography is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape the human society.
It encompasses the human, cultural and economic aspects. Human geography can be divided into many broad categories, such as: Various approaches to the study of human geography have arisen through time and include: Behavioral geography Feminist geography Culture theory Geosophy Environmental geography is concerned with the description of the spatial interactions between humans and the natural world, it requires an understanding of the traditional aspects of physical and human geography, as well as the ways that human societies conceptualize the environment. Environmental geography has emerged as a bridge between the human and the physical geography, as a result of the increasing specialisation of the two sub-fields. Furthermore, as human relationship with the environment has changed as a result of globalization and technological change, a new approach was needed to understand the changing and dynamic relationship. Examples of areas of research in the environmental geography include: emergency management, environmental management and political ecology.
Geomatics is concerned with the application of computers to the traditional spatial techniques used in cartography and topography. Geomatics emerged from the quantitative revolution in geography in the mid-1950s. Today, geomatics methods include spatial analysis, geographic information systems, remote sensing, global positioning systems. Geomatics has led to a revitalization of some geography departments in Northern America where the subject had a declining status during the 1950s. Regional geography is concerned with the description of the unique characteristics of a particular region such as its natural or human elements; the main aim is to understand, or define the uniqueness, or character of a particular region that consists of natural as well as human elements. Attention is paid to regionalization, which covers the proper techniques of space delimitation into regions. Urban planning, regional planning, spatial planning: Use the science of geography to assist in determining how to develop the land to meet particular criteria, such as safety, economic opportunities, the preservation of the built or natural heritage, so on.
The planning of towns, c
Greater Tokyo Area
The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, consisting of the Kantō region of Japan, including Tokyo Metropolis, as well as the prefecture of Yamanashi of the neighboring Chūbu region. In Japanese, it is referred to by various terms, one of the most common being Capital Region. A 2016 United Nations estimate puts the total population at 38,140,000, it covers an area of 13,500 km2, giving it a population density of 2,642 person/km2. It is the second largest single metropolitan area in the world in terms of built-up or urban function landmass at 8,547 km2, behind only New York City at 11,642 km2; the area has the largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a total GDP of $2 trillion in 2008. According to research published by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the agglomeration of Tokyo had a total GDP of $1.5 trillion in 2008, ranking again as the largest urban agglomeration GDP in the world. There are various definitions of the Greater Tokyo Area, each of which tries to incorporate different aspects.
Some definitions are defined by law or government regulation, some are based coarsely on administrative areas, while others are for research purposes such as commuting patterns or distance from Central Tokyo. Each definition has a different population figure, granularity and spatial association. Notes & Sources: All figures issued by Japan Statistics Bureau, except for Metro Employment Area, a study by Center for Spatial Information Service, the University of Tokyo. Abbreviations: CF for National Census Final Data, CR for Civil Registry, CP for Census Preliminary; the National Capital Region of Japan refers to the Greater Tokyo Area as defined by the National Capital Region Planning Act of 1956, which defines it as "Tokyo and its surrounding area declared by government ordinance." The government ordinance defined it as Tokyo and all six prefectures in the Kantō region plus Yamanashi Prefecture. While this includes all of Greater Tokyo, it includes sparsely populated mountain areas as well as far-flung Bonin Islands which are administered under Tokyo.
Using the "One Metropolis Three Prefectures" definition, Tokyo is 13,555.65 square kilometres, a similar size to that of Los Angeles County, two-thirds smaller than the Combined Statistical Area of New York City, at 30,671 square kilometres and 21.9 million people. Other metropolitan areas such as Greater Jakarta are more compact as well as more densely populated than Greater Tokyo; the South Kantō region is a ambiguous term. Informally, it may mean Two Prefectures, or the area without Saitama Prefecture. Formally, it may mean the South Kantō Block, not the Greater Tokyo Area, but a proportional representation block of the national election, comprising Kanagawa and Yamanashi Prefectures. In informal occasions, the term National Capital Region means Greater Tokyo Area; the term refers to a much larger area, namely the whole Kantō region and Yamanashi Prefecture. Tokyo as a metropolis includes some 394 km2 of islands, as well as some mountainous areas to the far west, which are part of Greater Tokyo, but are wilderness or rustic areas.
Tokyo is classified as a to, which translates as "metropolis", is treated as one of the forty-seven prefectures of Japan. The metropolis is administered by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government as a whole. Central Tokyo, situated in the eastern portion of Tokyo Metropolis, was once incorporated as Tokyo City, dismantled during World War II, its subdivisions have been reclassified as special wards. The twenty three special wards have the legal status of cities, with individual mayors and city councils, they call themselves "cities" in English. However, when listing Japan's largest cities, Tokyo's twenty three wards are counted as a single city. Western Tokyo, known as the Tama Area comprises a number of municipalities, including these suburban cities: The core cities of the Greater Tokyo Area outside Tokyo Metropolis are: Chiba Kawasaki Sagamihara Saitama Yokohama The other cities in Chiba and Saitama Prefectures are: source: stat.go.jp census 2005 In the major metropolitan area definition used by the Japanese Statistics Bureau, the following cities in Ibaraki, Gunma and Shizuoka Prefectures are included: Tatebayashi Atami Oyama Ōtsuki Uenohara Tighter definitions for Greater Tokyo do not include adjacent metropolitan areas of Numazu-Mishima to the southwest, Maebashi-Takasaki-Ōta-Ashikaga on the northwest, Greater Utsunomiya approx.
1,000,000) to the north. If they are included, Greater Tokyo's population would be around 39 million. At the centre of the main urban area are the 23 special wards treated as a single city but now governed as separate municipalities, containing many major commercial centres such as Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ginza. Around the 23 special wards are a multitude of suburban cities which merge seamlessly into each other to form a continuous built up area, circumnavigated by the travelled Route 16 which forms a loop about 40 km from central
House of Representatives (Japan)
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors is the upper house; the House of Representatives has 465 members, elected for a four-year term. Of these, 176 members are elected from 11 multi-member constituencies by a party-list system of proportional representation, 289 are elected from single-member constituencies. 233 seats are required for a majority. The overall voting system used to elect the House of Representatives is a parallel system, a form of semi-proportional representation. Under a parallel system the allocation of list seats does not take into account the outcome in the single seat constituencies. Therefore, the overall allocation of seats in the House of Representatives is not proportional, to the advantage of larger parties. In contrast, in bodies such as the German Bundestag the election of single-seat members and party list members is linked, so that the overall result respects proportional representation; the House of Representatives is the more powerful of the two houses, able to override vetoes on bills imposed by the House of Councillors with a two-thirds majority.
It can be dissolved by the Prime Minister at will, the most recent was by Shinzō Abe as on September 28, 2017. Japanese nationals aged 18 years and older may vote. Japanese nationals aged 25 years and older may run for office in the lower house; the House of Representatives has several powers not given to the House of Councillors. If a bill is passed by the lower house but is voted down by the upper house the House of Representatives can override the decision of the House of Councillors by a two-thirds vote in the affirmative. However, in the case of treaties, the budget, the selection of the prime minister, the House of Councillors can only delay passage, but not block the legislation; as a result, the House of Representatives is considered the more powerful house. Members of the House of Representatives, who are elected to a maximum of four years, sit for a shorter term than members of the House of Councillors, who are elected to full six-year terms; the lower house can be dissolved by the Prime Minister or the passage of a nonconfidence motion, while the House of Councillors cannot be dissolved.
Thus the House of Representatives is considered to be more sensitive to public opinion, is termed the "lower house". While the legislative term is nominally 4 years, early elections for the lower house are common, the median lifespan of postwar legislatures has in practice been around 3 years. For a list of individual members, see the List of members of the Diet of Japan. Shaded green: Ruling party/coalition before and after the lower house election red: Ruling party/coalition after the election = Change of government as a result of the lower house election blue: Ruling party/coalition until the election = Change of government as a result of the lower house election none: Opposition before and after the electionNote that the composition of the ruling coalition may change between lower house elections, e.g. after upper house elections. Parties who vote with the government in the Diet, but are not part of the cabinet are not shaded. Under the 1889 Meiji Constitution which took effect in 1890 and established the Imperial Diet, the House of Peers functioned as an aristocratic upper house in a format similar to the House of Lords in the Westminster system, or the Herrenhaus in the Prussian government of the time.
The elected House of Representatives served as the lower house of the Imperial Diet. In the Imperial Diet, both houses had to agree to legislation; the government and the prime minister leading it were neither responsible to nor elected by the Imperial Diet. But the right to vote on legislation and more the budget gave the House of Representatives leverage to force the government into negotiations. After an early period of frequent confrontation and temporary alliances between the cabinet and political parties in the lower house, parts of the Meiji oligarchy more sympathetic to political parties around Itō Hirobumi and parts of the liberal parties formed a more permanent alliance in form of the Rikken Seiyūkai in 1900; the confidence of the House of Representatives was never a formal requirement to govern. During the Taisho Political Crisis in 1913, a "no-confidence vote" against the 3rd Katsura Cabinet, accompanied by major demonstrations outside the Diet, was followed shortly by resignation.
Subsequently, in the period referred to as Taishō democracy, it became customary to appoint many ministers including several prime ministers from the House of Representatives – Hara Takashi became the first commoner as prime minister in 1918. In the same year, the Rice Riots had confronted the government with an unprecedented scale of domestic unrest, a socialist revolution brought the Prusso-German monarchy to its end, the system Meiji oligarchs had used as the main model for the Meiji constitution to consolidate and preserve Imperial power. Oligarchs fundamentally opposed to political parties such as Yamagata Aritomo became more inclined to cooperate with the parties to prevent a rise of socialism or other movements that might threaten Imperial rul
Yokota Air Base
Yokota Air Base, is a United States Air Force and Japan Air Self-Defense Force base in the city of Fussa, one of 26 cities in the Tama Area, or Western Tokyo. The base houses 14,000 personnel, it has a 3,353 m × 61 m runway. Among the bases' facilities are the broadcast center for the American Forces Network, Tokyo radio service, a detachment of Pacific Air Forces' Band of the Pacific and the headquarters of United States Forces Japan; the host unit at Yokota is the 374th Airlift Wing and is used for airlift missions throughout East Asia. The 374th includes four groups: operations, mission support and medical; each group manages a various number of squadrons. 374th Operations Group The 374th Operations Group maintains a forward presence by providing rapid responsive movement of personnel and operational support in the Asia-Pacific region. The group consists of: 374th Operations Support Squadron 36th Airlift Squadron 459th Airlift Squadron (UH-1N Iroquois, It is not uncommon to see a KC-135 Stratotanker, C-135 Stratolifter, C-5 Galaxy, KC-10 Extender, KC-767, KC-46 Pegasus, C-130, DC-8, C-17, L-100, Boeing 747, civilian charter airline aircraft and cargo on military charters on the Transient Aircraft ramp.
374th Maintenance GroupThe 374th Maintenance Group maintains C-130J, C-12 and UH-1N aircraft supporting intratheater airlift and distinguished visitor transport for Pacific Air Forces. 374th Mission Support GroupThe 374th Mission Support Group is responsible to the 374th Airlift Wing Commander for command and direction of support activities to 374 AW and 32 tenant units to include HQ US Forces Japan and Fifth Air Force. 374th Medical GroupThe 374th Medical Group, ensures medical readiness of 374 AW, 5 AF, US Forces Japan personnel. They maintain 64 War Reserve Materiel projects, including the USAF's largest Patient Movement Item inventory. Associate/Tenant Units U. S. Forces, Japan -- a nonoperational, politico-military unit that serves as the USPACOM front for US-Japanese military discussions. Fifth Air Force -- the air component to USFJ. 730th Air Mobility Squadron Air Force Band of the Pacific-Asia Stars and Stripes American Forces Network U. S. Coast Guard Activities Far East. Yokota Cadet Squadron, Civil Air Patrol Air Defense Command Headquarters Air Tactics Development Wing Headquarters Air Intelligence Wing Operations Support Wing Yokota Regional Air Police Squadron Yokota Weather Squadron The newly renovated Air Mobility Command Passenger Terminal is on the main part of the base next to the flightline.
It is a 5 to 7-minute walk from the Kanto Lodge and offers Space-Available flights to various destinations in PACAF such as Alaska, Hawaii, Okinawa, Singapore, as well as the Continental United States. The facility which houses Yokota Air Base was constructed by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1940 as Tama Airfield, used as a flight test center. During World War II Yokota became the center of Japanese Army Air Forces flight test activities and the base was the site of the first meeting between Japanese and Italian wartime allies. Tama was first identified by United States Army Air Forces in November 1944 by a 3d Reconnaissance Squadron F-13 Superfortress photo-reconnaissance aircraft, flying from Tinian in the Mariana Islands, it was identified as being associated with a nearby Musashino-Nakajima aircraft manufacturing plant. Along with the Showa Air Base to the northwest, Tachikawa Air Base to the east, it was compared to the aircraft development complex of the USAAF Wright-Patterson Field in Ohio.
According to the USAAF intelligence at the time, the three bases conducted all IJA flight testing. In the spring of 1945, XXI Bomber Command attacked the base eight times along with the aircraft manufacturing plant, but each time heavy clouds forced the bombers to attack secondary targets; the Nakajima plant was attacked in April 1945, but the Tama airfield never was bombed. With the Surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, a detachment of the United States Army 1st Cavalry Division arrived at the base on 4 September; the airfield's buildings were intact, some 280 of the IJA's most modern aircraft were discovered in hangars. The 1st Cavalry named the facility Fussa Army Airfield at the end of September renamed it Yokota Army Airfield The name was to have been changed to Wilkins Army Air Base after Medal of Honor winner Raymond "Ray" Wilkins, but orders for this never arrived and it remained under the name Yokota until the USAAF became the USAF in 1947, at which point it became Yokota Air Base.
Some metal manhole covers stamped "WAAB" remain in use around the base as of 2017. The initial USAAF use for the base was for airlift operations when the 2d Combat Cargo Group arrived with four C-47 Skytrain squadrons; when the old runway deteriorated under heavy usage, the runway was repaired and Yokota supported operations of the A-26 Invader-equipped 3d Bombardment Group by August 1946. Additional construction during the 1940s and 1950s was completed and the base reached its current size around 1960. On the occasion of extension, the course of Hachiko Line and national highway Route 16 was changed, Itsukaichi highway was divided. During the initial postwar occupation years, Yokota hosted the foll
Keirin
Keirin – "racing cycle" – is a form of motor-paced cycle racing in which track cyclists sprint for victory following a speed-controlled start behind a motorized or non-motorized pacer. It was developed in Japan around 1948 for gambling purposes and became an official event at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Riders use brakeless fixed-gear bicycles. Races are 1.5 kilometres long: 6 laps on a 250 m track, 4 laps on a 333 m track, 4 laps on a 400 m track. Lots are drawn to determine starting positions for the sprint riders behind the pacer, a motorcycle, but can be a derny, electric bicycle or tandem bicycle. Riders must remain behind the pacer for 3 laps on a 250 m track; the pacer starts at 30 km/h increasing to 50 km/h by its final circuit. The pacer leaves the track 750 m before the end of the race; the winner's finishing speed can exceed 70 km/h. Competition keirin races are conducted over several rounds with one final; some eliminated. Keirin has been a UCI men's World Championship event since 1980 and a UCI women's World Championship event since 2002.
Danny Clark of Australia and Li Na of China were the first UCI world champions. The 2017 men's and women's world champions are Azizulhasni Awang of Malaysia and Kristina Vogel of Germany. Keirin made its debut at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney as a men's event, after being admitted into the Olympics in December 1996; the women's event was added for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. A BBC News investigation, reported in July 2008, found evidence that following admission into the Olympics, the Union Cycliste Internationale required the Japan Keirin Association to support UCI projects in "material terms". Four members of the governing body were arrested in Tokyo. Professional Track cycling began as a betting sport in Japan in 1948, has since become popular there. In 1957, the Nihon Jitensha Shinkōkai was founded to establish a uniform system of standards for the sport in Japan. Today keirin racing is regulated by the JKA Foundation. In 2011, the sum of bets placed on keirin races exceeded ¥600 billion, the number of attendees in the races was 4.9 million people.
Aspiring professional keirin riders in Japan compete for entrance into the Japan Keirin School. The 10 percent of applicants who are accepted undergo a strict 15-hours-per-day training regimen; those who pass the graduation exams, are approved by the NJS become eligible for professional keirin races in Japan. Japanese races for women were reintroduced under the title of Girl's Keirin. Women were permitted to participate from 1949 until 1964. Like the men, the women must undergo a strict training regimen at the Keirin School. Koichi Nakano was one of the first Japanese keirin athletes to compete outside of his native country, Nakano holds the best matched sprint record as a track cyclist at the UCI Track World Championships with a record of ten consecutive professional Sprint World Track Cycling Championship wins from 1977–86 against western European pro track cyclists, although he never won the Keirin World Championship. At that time, many leading sprint riders were from the Eastern bloc countries and competed in separate "amateur" events.
Katsuaki Matsumoto is the all-time professional keirin athlete with the most wins - 1341 - over his career. The current Keirin Grand Prix champion is Kohta Asai. Keirin races in Japan begin with the cyclists parading to the starting blocks, bowing as they enter the track and again as they position their bikes for the start of the race; every participant is assigned a colour for identification and betting purposes. At the sound of the gun, the cyclists leave their starting blocks and attempt to gain position behind the pacer, a keirin bicyclist wearing purple with orange stripes; as the pace quickens, the pacer will depart the track with between one and two laps remaining, but the actual location where the pacer leaves varies with every race. With 1 1⁄2 laps remaining, officials begin sounding a bell or gong, increasing in frequency until the bicyclists come around to begin the final lap of the race; the race is monitored by four referees, each located in a tower next to one of the four turns.
After every race, each referee will wave either a red flag. A white flag indicates. A red flag, signals a possible infraction and launches an inquiry into the race. Judges examine video of the race and decide if a participant committed a rules violation. Keirin ovals are divided into specific areas: The two straightaways, the four turns, two locations called the "center", referring to the area between corners 1 and 2 and corners 3 and 4. There are a total of six ranks. SS is the highest rank, followed by S1, S2, A1, A2 and A3. All new keirin graduates begin their careers with an A3 rank and work their way up by competing in keirin events; the color of the shorts worn by each keirin competito
This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies document "Kanto".
This article incorporates 
Media related to Kantō region at Wikimedia Commons
