1.
Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan
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The city government is generally delegated the various minor administrative functions in each area, and the prefectural government retains authority over major decisions. For instance, pharmaceutical retailers and small clinics can be licensed by designated city governments, in some cities, ward offices are responsible for business licensing, construction permits and other administrative matters. The structure and the authorities of the wards are determined by municipal ordinances, the 23 special wards of Tokyo are not part of this system, as Tokyo is a prefecture, and its wards are effectively independent cities. No cities designated by government ordinance have ever lost that status, cities designated by government ordinance have been established since 1956. To become a candidate for designated city status, a city must have a greater than 500,000. An application for designation is made by a city with the approval of both the city and the prefectural assemblies, the following cities have populations greater than 500,000 but have not yet been nominated. The first form of the city system was enacted under Japan local government system in 1878 with the introduction of wards. Under that system, wards existed in every city, most cities had only one ward, but the largest cities at the time were divided into 15,4, and 2 wards, respectively. In 1898, the three cities were allowed to form city assemblies, the ward system was adopted by three more cities prior to World War II, Nagoya, Yokohama, and Kobe. Under a 1911 statute, wards were granted a corporate personality, following the war, the 1947 Local Autonomy Law grandfathered in the five subdivided cities as special cities. The system was replaced by the city system when the Local Autonomy Law was amended. Administrative divisions of Japan Urban area Japans Evolving Nested Municipal Hierarchy, The Race for Local Power in the 2000s, by A. J
2.
Kumamoto Prefecture
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Kumamoto Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. The capital is the city of Kumamoto, historically, the area was called Higo Province, and the province was renamed Kumamoto during the Meiji Restoration. The creation of prefectures was part of the abolition of the feudal system, the current Japanese orthography for Kumamoto literally means bear root/origin, or origin of the bear. Kumamoto Prefecture is in the center of Kyushu, the southernmost of the four major Japanese islands, mount Aso, an extensive active volcano, is in the east of Kumamoto Prefecture. This volcano is located at the centre of the Aso caldera, fourteen cities are located in Kumamoto Prefecture, These are the towns and villages in each district, The population is 1,812,255. The prefecture ranks 23rd in Japan, the population density is 244.76 people per square kilometer. There is a Honda automobile plant, mount Aso is one of the worlds largest active volcanoes. Kumamoto has a city located in Texas named San Antonio. In 2015 the mascot, Kumamon visited as an ambassador during the festival located at the Japanese Tea Gardens. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5, OCLC58053128 Official website National Archives of Japan
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
5.
Kyushu
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Kyushu is the third biggest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternative ancient names include Kyūkoku, Chinzei, and Tsukushi-no-shima, the historical regional name Saikaidō referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands. In the 8th century Taihō Code reforms, Dazaifu was established as an administrative term for the region. As of 2016, Kyushu has a population of 12,970,479, the island is mountainous, and Japans most active volcano, Mt Aso at 1,591 metres, is on Kyushu. There are many signs of tectonic activity, including numerous areas of hot springs. The most famous of these are in Beppu, on the east shore, the island is separated from Honshu by the Kanmon Straits. The name Kyūshū comes from the nine ancient provinces of Saikaidō situated on the island, Chikuzen, Chikugo, Hizen, Higo, Buzen, Bungo, Hyūga, Osumi, excepting Oita and Miyazaki cities, the eastern seaboard shows a general decline in population. Designated cities Fukuoka Kitakyushu Kumamoto Core cities Kagoshima Ōita Nagasaki Miyazaki Naha Kurume Parts of Kyushu have a climate, particularly Miyazaki. Major agricultural products are rice, tea, tobacco, sweet potatoes, the island is noted for various types of porcelain, including Arita, Imari, Satsuma, and Karatsu. Heavy industry is concentrated in the north around Fukuoka, Kitakyushu, Nagasaki, and Oita and includes chemicals, automobiles, semiconductors, in 2010, the graduate employment rate in the region was the lowest nationwide, at 88. 9%. Besides the volcanic area of the south, there are significant mud hot springs in the part of the island, around Beppu. These springs are the site of occurrence of certain extremophile micro-organisms, the Kanmon Bridge also connects the island with Honshu. Railways on the island are operated by the Kyushu Railway Company, and Nishitetsu Railway
6.
Prefectures of Japan
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The Prefectures of Japan consist of 47 prefectures. They form the first level of jurisdiction and administrative division of Japan and they consist of 43 prefectures proper, two urban prefectures, one circuit or territory and one metropolis. The Meiji Fuhanken sanchisei administration created the first prefectures to replace the provinces of Japan in 1868, each prefectures chief executive is a directly-elected governor. Ordinances and budgets are enacted by an assembly whose members are elected for four-year terms. Under the current Local Autonomy Law, each prefecture is subdivided into cities and districts and each district into towns, for example, Hokkaido has 14 subprefectures that act as branch offices of the prefecture. Some other prefectures also have offices that carry out prefectural administrative functions outside the capital. Tokyo, the capital of Japan, is a merged city-prefecture, the Wests use of prefecture to label these Japanese regions stems from 16th-century Portuguese explorers and traders use of prefeitura to describe the fiefdoms they encountered there. Its original sense in Portuguese, however, was closer to municipality than province and those fiefs were headed by a local warlord or family. Though the fiefs have long since been dismantled, merged, and reorganized multiple times, and been granted legislative governance and oversight, the Meiji government established the current system in July 1871 with the abolition of the Han system and establishment of the prefecture system. Although there were initially over 300 prefectures, many of them being former Han territories, this number was reduced to 72 in the part of 1871. The Local Autonomy Law of 1947 gave more power to prefectures. In 2003, then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi proposed that the government consolidate the current prefectures into about 10 regional states, the plan called for each region to have greater autonomy than existing prefectures. This process would reduce the number of administrative regions and cut administrative costs. As of August 2012, no reorganization has been scheduled, the central government delegates many functions to the prefectures and municipalities, but retains the overall right to control them. Although local government expenditure accounts for 70 percent of government expenditure, the central government controls local budgets, tax rates. Historically, during the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate established bugyō-ruled zones around the nine largest cities in Japan, and 302 township-ruled zones elsewhere. When the Meiji government began to create the system in 1868, the nine bugyō-ruled zones became fu, while the township-ruled zones. Later, in 1871, the government designated Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto as fu, during World War II, in 1943, Tokyo became a to, a new type of pseudo-prefecture
7.
Ginkgo biloba
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Ginkgo biloba, commonly known as ginkgo or gingko, also known as the ginkgo tree or the maidenhair tree, is the only living species in the division Ginkgophyta, all others being extinct. It is found in dating back 270 million years. Native to China, the tree is cultivated and was introduced early to human history. It has various uses in medicine and as a source of food. The genus name Ginkgo is regarded as a misspelling of the Japanese gin kyo, the species was initially described by Carl Linnaeus in 1771, the specific epithet biloba derived from the Latin bis, two and loba, lobed, referring to the shape of the leaves. Two names for the species recognise the botanist Richard Salisbury, a placement by Nelson as Pterophyllus salisburiensis, the epithet of the latter may have been intended to denote a characteristic resembling Adiantum, the genus of maidenhair ferns. The relationship of ginkgo to other plant groups remains uncertain and it has been placed loosely in the divisions Spermatophyta and Pinophyta, but no consensus has been reached. Since its seeds are not protected by a wall, it can morphologically be considered a gymnosperm. The apricot-like structures produced by female ginkgo trees are technically not fruits, but are seeds that have a shell consisting of a soft and fleshy section, and a hard section. It is one of the examples of a living fossil. Chinese scientists published a draft genome of Ginko biloba in 2016, the tree has an exceptionally large genome of 10.6 billion DNA letters and about 41,840 predicted genes which enable a considerable number of antibacterial and chemical defense mechanisms. The spelling pronunciation /ˈɡɪŋkɡoʊ/ is however so widespread that it is recorded in some dictionaries, especially British ones, the older Chinese name for this plant is 銀果, meaning silver fruit, pronounced yínguǒ in Mandarin or Ngan-gwo in Cantonese. The most usual names today are 白果, meaning white fruit, the former name was borrowed directly in Vietnamese as bạch quả. The latter name was borrowed in Japanese ぎんなん and Korean 은행, the scientific name Ginkgo is the result of a spelling error that occurred three centuries ago. Kanji typically have multiple pronunciations in Japanese, and the characters 銀杏 used for ginnan can also be pronounced ginkyō, linné, who relied on Kaempfer when dealing with Japanese plants, adopted the spelling given in Kaempfers Flora Japonica. An extract of Ginkgo biloba leaf is marketed in dietary supplement form with claims it can enhance cognitive function in people without known cognitive problems, studies have failed to find such effects on memory or attention in healthy people. A standardized medicinal extract of Ginkgo biloba leaf originally called EGb 761 has been studied as a treatment for dementia and Alzheimers disease. Some reviews have concluded there is no evidence supporting the use of Ginkgo in dementia
8.
Camellia
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Camellia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan, there are 100–300 described species, with some controversy over the exact number. There are also around 3,000 hybrids, the genus was named by Linnaeus after the Jesuit botanist Georg Joseph Kamel, who worked in the Philippines and described a species of camellia. Of economic importance in the Indian subcontinent and Asia, leaves of C. sinensis are processed to create the popular beverage, the ornamental C. japonica, C. sasanqua and their hybrids are the source of hundreds of garden cultivars. C. oleifera produces tea seed oil, used in cooking, Camellias are evergreen shrubs or small trees up to 20 m tall. Their leaves are arranged, simple, thick, serrated. Their flowers are large and conspicuous, one to 12 cm in diameter. The colors of the flowers vary from white through pink colors to red, truly yellow flowers are only in South China. Camellia flowers throughout the genus are characterized by a bouquet of conspicuous yellow stamens. The so-called fruit of plants is a dry capsule, sometimes subdivided in up to five compartments. The various species of plants are generally well-adapted to acidic soils rich in humus. Most species of camellias also require an amount of water, either from natural rainfall or from irrigation. However, some of the more unusual camellias – typically species from karst soils in Vietnam – can grow too much water. Camellia plants usually have a growth rate. Typically they will grow about 30 cm per year until mature – though this does vary depending on their variety, Camellia plants are used as food plants by the larvae of a number of Lepidoptera species, see List of Lepidoptera that feed on Camellia. Leaves of the Japanese camellia are susceptible to the fungal parasite Mycelia sterile, Camellia sinensis, the tea plant, is of major commercial importance because tea is made from its leaves. The species C. sinensis is the product of generations of selective breeding in order to bring out qualities considered desirable for tea. However, many other camellias can be used to produce a similar beverage, for example, in some parts of Japan, tea made from C. sasanqua leaves is popular
9.
Great tit
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The great tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. Until 2005 this species was lumped with other subspecies. The great tit remains the most widespread species in the genus Parus, the great tit is a distinctive bird with a black head and neck, prominent white cheeks, olive upperparts and yellow underparts, with some variation amongst the numerous subspecies. It is predominantly insectivorous in the summer, but will consume a range of food items in the winter months. Like all tits it is a cavity nester, usually nesting in a hole in a tree, the female lays around 12 eggs and incubates them alone, although both parents raise the chicks. In most years the pair will raise two broods, the nests may be raided by woodpeckers, squirrels and weasels and infested with fleas, and adults may be hunted by sparrowhawks. The great tit has adapted well to changes in the environment and is a common and familiar bird in urban parks. The great tit is also an important study species in ornithology, the great tit was originally described under its current binomial name by Linnaeus in his 18th century work, Systema Naturae. Its scientific name is derived from the Latin parus tit and maior larger, the great tit was formerly treated as ranging from Britain to Japan and south to the islands of Indonesia, with 36 described subspecies ascribed to four main species groups. The three bokharensis subspecies were often treated as a species, Parus bokharensis, the Turkestan tit. The divergence between the bokharensis and major groups was estimated to have been half a million years ago. The study also examined hybrids between representatives of the major and minor groups in the Amur Valley where the two meet, hybrids were rare, suggesting that there were some reproductive barriers between the two groups. The study recommended that the two eastern groups be split out as new species, the cinereous tit, and the Japanese tit and this taxonomy has been followed by some authorities, for example the IOC World Bird List. The nominate subspecies of the great tit is the most widespread, its range stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to the Amur Valley and from Scandinavia to the Middle East. The other subspecies have much more restricted distributions, four being restricted to islands, the dominance of a single, morphologically uniform subspecies over such a large area suggests that the nominate race rapidly recolonised a large area after the last glacial epoch. This hypothesis is supported by studies which suggest a geologically recent genetic bottleneck followed by a rapid population expansion. The genus Parus once held most of the species of tit in the family Paridae, the great tit was retained in Parus, which, along with Cyanistes comprise a lineage of tits known as the non-hoarders, with reference to the hoarding behaviour of members of the other clade. The genus Parus is still the largest in the family, other than those species formerly considered to be subspecies, the great tits closest relatives are the white-naped and green-backed tits of southern Asia
10.
Japan Standard Time
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Japan Standard Time or JST is the standard timezone in Japan, and is 9 hours ahead of UTC, i. e. it is UTC+09,00. There is no daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated several times, during World War II, it was often called Tokyo Standard Time. Japan Standard Time is the same as Korean Standard Time, Indonesian Eastern Standard Time, before the Meiji era, each local region had its own timezone in which noon was when the sun was exactly at its zenith. As modern transportation methods, such as trains, were adopted, in 1886, Ordinance 51 was issued in response to this problem, which stated, Ordinance 51 - July 13,1886 The prime meridian passes through Englands Greenwich Observatory. Longitudes are calculated using the prime meridian, counting 180 degrees either east or west, positive degrees are east, negative degrees are west. On January 1,1888,135 degrees east longitude will be set as the meridian for all of Japan. According to this, the time was set 9 hours ahead of GMT. In the ordinance, the first clause mentions GMT, the second defines east longitude and west longitude, the city of Akashi in Hyōgo Prefecture is located exactly on 135 degrees east longitude and subsequently became known as Toki no machi. While Korea came under Japanese rule in 1910, Korea Standard Time of UTC+8,30 continued to be used until 1912, when it was changed to Central Standard Time. Western Standard Time, which was used in Taiwan and some parts of Okinawa, was abolished by Ordinance 529 in 1937 and replaced by Central Standard Time in those areas. Territories occupied by Japan during World War II, including Singapore and Malaya, adopted Japan Standard Time for the duration of their occupation, more recently there have been efforts to bring back DST in Japan, but so far this has not happened. The two-time-zone system was implemented in Japan between January 1896 and September 1937, From October 1937, Central Standard Time was also used in western Okinawa, the IANA time zone database contains one zone for Japan in the file zone. tab, named Asia/Tokyo. From 1948–51, Japan observed DST between May and September every year under an initiative of the U. S. -led occupation army, since then, DST has never been officially implemented nationwide in Japan. Starting in the late 1990s, a movement to reinstate DST in Japan gained some popularity, aiming at saving energy, in the early 2000s, a few local governments and commerce departments promoted unmandated hour-earlier work schedule experiments during the summer without officially resetting clocks. The Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy is expected to propose that the Japanese government begin studying DST in an attempt to combat global warming. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe made a significant effort to introduce daylight saving time, however, it is not clear that DST would conserve energy in Japan. JJY Japanese calendar UTC+09,00 Japanese clock
11.
Urban Employment Area
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Urban Employment Area is a definition of metropolitan areas, defined by the Center for Spatial Information Service, the University of Tokyo. The Japans Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry defined 233 areas for the UEAs of Japan and it is different from the definition of metropolitan areas defined in census by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. For the latter scheme, see the List of metropolitan areas in Japan by population article, the basic principle of UEA is similar to that of the Statistics Bureau definition, a central city and its associated outlying municipalities with certain amounts of commuters. A UEA with at least 50,000 DID population is called Metropolitan Employment Area or MEA for short in English, a UEA with at least 10,000 and less than 50,000 DID population is called Micropolitan Employment Area or McEA for short in English. Central city If a municipality has at least 10,000 DID population, even if a municipality is a suburb of another, it can still be defined as a central city. In this case, a municipality must have workers working more than those living there. It must also have the DID population of at least 10,000, suburb If a municipality A has more than 10% of its population commuting to a central city B, A is defined as a suburb of B. If there are multiple such cities for a suburb A, the one with the most commuters from A is defined as As central city. If a municipality A has more than 10% of its population commuting to another suburb B, If a municipality A has more than 10% of its population commuting to B and vice versa, the one with the higher percentage of commuters is defined as a suburb of another. If a central city comprises multiple municipalities, numbers of commuters to all municipalities are counted for the calculations above. Source, Urban Employment Area Code Table, 地域経済の将来動向分析に関する調査研究, w/L here is jūgyō jōjū jinkōhi, the ratio of workers in the area, against the number of workers living in the area. DID population here is a population of central city, If an area has multiple central cities, only the most populous one among them is counted. A2010 population decrease from 2005 is written in red figures, Metropolitan Employment Area is listed on white background. Micropolitan Employment Area is listed on yellow background, prefectural capital is numbered with blue background. 1980 ranks exclude Kurashiki MEA, which was merged with Okayama MEA in 2000 and those under No.100 are marked as -. These areas have multiple central cities, municipal names are as of 2010. Tokyo,8, Special wards of Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba, Tachikawa, Musashino, Yokohama, Kawasaki, Osaka,4, Osaka, Sakai, Moriguchi, Kadoma, and Higashiosaka. Maebashi,3, Maebashi, Takasaki, and Isesaki Naha,2, Naha and these areas changed their names between 1980 and 2000, as the most populated central cities have changed
12.
Cities of Japan
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A city is a local administrative unit in Japan. Cities are ranked on the level as towns and villages. Like other contemporary administrative units, they are defined by the Local Autonomy Law of 1947, a city can theoretically be demoted to a town or village when it fails to meet any of these conditions, but such a demotion has not happened to date. The least populous city, Utashinai, Hokkaido, has a population of six thousand, while a town in the prefecture, Otofuke. Many municipalities gained city status under this eased standard, the Cabinet of Japan can designate cities of at least 200,000 inhabitants to have the status of special city, core city, or designated city. These statuses expand the scope of authority delegated from the prefectural government to the city government. Tokyo, Japan’s capital, existed as a city until 1943, the 23 special wards of Tokyo, which constitute the core of the Tokyo metropolitan area, each have an administrative status analogous to that of cities. Tokyo also has several other incorporated cities, towns and villages within its jurisdiction. J, jacobs at Urban Studies Research, Vol.2011, doi,10. 1155/2011/692764 Large City System of Japan, graphic shows Japanese city types at p.1
13.
Population
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A population is the number of all the organisms of the same group or species, which live in a particular geographical area, and have the capability of interbreeding. In sociology, population refers to a collection of humans, Demography is a social science which entails the statistical study of human populations. This article refers mainly to human population, in population genetics a sexual population is a set of organisms in which any pair of members can breed together. This means that they can regularly exchange gametes to produce normally-fertile offspring and this also implies that all members belong to the same species. If the gamodeme is very large, and all gene alleles are uniformly distributed by the gametes within it, however, there may be low frequencies of exchange with these neighbours. This may be viewed as the breaking up of a sexual population into smaller overlapping sexual populations. The overall rise in homozygosity is quantified by the inbreeding coefficient, note that all homozygotes are increased in frequency – both the deleterious and the desirable. The mean phenotype of the collection is lower than that of the panmictic original – which is known as inbreeding depression. It is most important to note, however, that some lines will be superior to the panmictic original, while some will be about the same. The probabilities of each can be estimated from those binomial equations, in plant and animal breeding, procedures have been developed which deliberately utilise the effects of dispersion. It can be shown that dispersion-assisted selection leads to the greatest genetic advance and this is so for both allogamous and autogamous gamodemes. In ecology, the population of a species in a certain area can be estimated using the Lincoln Index. As of todays date, the population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 7.496 billion. The US Census Bureau estimates the 7 billion number was surpassed on 12 March 2012, according to papers published by the United States Census Bureau, the world population hit 6.5 billion on 24 February 2006. The United Nations Population Fund designated 12 October 1999 as the day on which world population reached 6 billion. This was about 12 years after world population reached 5 billion in 1987, the population of countries such as Nigeria, is not even known to the nearest million, so there is a considerable margin of error in such estimates. Researcher Carl Haub calculated that a total of over 100 billion people have probably been born in the last 2000 years, Population growth increased significantly as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace from 1700 onwards. In 2007 the United Nations Population Division projected that the population will likely surpass 10 billion in 2055
14.
Population density
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Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume, it is a quantity of type number density. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and most of the time to humans and it is a key geographical term. Population density is population divided by land area or water volume. Low densities may cause a vortex and lead to further reduced fertility. This is called the Allee effect after the scientist who identified it, commonly this may be calculated for a county, city, country, another territory, or the entire world. The worlds population is around 7,000,000,000, therefore, the worldwide human population density is around 7,000,000,000 ÷510,000,000 =13.7 per km2. If only the Earths land area of 150,000,000 km2 is taken into account and this includes all continental and island land area, including Antarctica. If Antarctica is also excluded, then population density rises to over 50 people per km2, thus, this number by itself does not give any helpful measurement of human population density. Several of the most densely populated territories in the world are city-states, microstates, cities with high population densities are, by some, considered to be overpopulated, though this will depend on factors like quality of housing and infrastructure and access to resources. Most of the most densely populated cities are in Southeast Asia, though Cairo, for instance, Milwaukee has a greater population density when just the inner city is measured, and the surrounding suburbs excluded. Arithmetic density, The total number of people / area of land, physiological density, The total population / area of arable land. Agricultural density, The total rural population / area of arable land, residential density, The number of people living in an urban area / area of residential land. Urban density, The number of people inhabiting an urban area / total area of urban land, ecological optimum, The density of population that can be supported by the natural resources. S. States by population density Selected Current and Historic City, Ward & Neighborhood Density
15.
History of Kumamoto Prefecture
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The history of Kumamoto Prefecture has been documented from paleolithic times to the present. Kumamoto Prefecture is the half of Hinokuni, and corresponds to what was once called Higo Province. Exceptions are the part of Kuma District, which had once been part of Sagara Domain, the first one is the Kumamoto han, and the second the Hitoyoshi han and the third one is the Amakusa Area, once controlled by the Tokugawa shogunate. After the establishment of the Yamato Government or Yamato Ouken, the history of Kumamoto has been constantly under the influence of the Central Government, about one-third of the archaeological sites of the Lower Paleolithic age in Japan were found in Kumamoto Prefecture. A few of these have been excavated, mainly these were in the outer Aso mountain areas and Kuma district. The oldest one is the Ishinomoto Site in Hirayama machi in Kumamoto City, a large number of artifacts or stone tools such as stone axes and knives were excavated, suggesting that Kyūshū was inhabited by a number of hunter-gatherer societies. At the same time, Kyūshū experienced volcanic activity at Mount Aso, Aira Caldera in Kagoshima Prefecture, there were four large series of Mount Aso volcanic eruptions, with structural changes. The last one was about 90,000 years ago, the lava produced stone materials that would later be used for bridge construction in the Prefecture. The Goryo midden and Kurohashi midden date to the age of the Jōmon period. Later,13 middens in Kumamoto were situated at the height of 5 meters above sea level, in Souhata midden, stored acorns were found. Fish hooks made of stone were found in Amakusa, a peculiar style of earthenware called kokushokukenmadoki was developed according to the development of living styles. Burned rice corns and barley corns were found in a dwelling in Uenobaru midden in Kumamoto City. 770 Archaeological sites were found in the Jōmon period in Kumamoto Prefecture, including Kannabe midden, Kumamoto in which Dogūs, in the Yayoi period, there appeared dwellings in ring-formed groups in which onggis, tsubo jars, and stone axes were found. Dwellings rose into higher places, moving from the seashores, cultivation and agriculture started in the Yayoi period, because the Kumamoto plane started to rise because of stream sediments from the rivers. Cultivation of rice started, while there were shell heaps along the seashore, salt was produced by burning sea weeds, which has been verified by the presence of burned small seashells. In the Yayoi period, there were 740 middens in Kumamoto Prefecture, in the Tokuo midden and the Kogabaru midden, bronze mirrors were excavated. In the Nihon Shoki, Japans earliest official document, the countries of Yamato Ouken, Wa, appointed a king of a small area which came under the Yamato Ouken. Yamato Ouken is considered to be the forerunner of the Japans Imperial House of Japan existing in the Nara area or somewhere, there are about 1,300 Kofuns in Kumamoto Prefecture, and comprise 24% of kofuns in the country
16.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
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Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a preeminent daimyō, warrior, general, samurai, and politician of the Sengoku period who is regarded as Japans second great unifier. He succeeded his former lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Warring States period. The period of his rule is called the Momoyama period. After his death, his young son Hideyori was displaced by Tokugawa Ieyasu, Hideyoshi is noted for a number of cultural legacies, including the restriction that only members of the samurai class could bear arms. He financed the construction, restoration and rebuilding of many temples standing today in Kyoto, Hideyoshi played an important role in the history of Christianity in Japan when he ordered the execution by crucifixion of twenty-six Christians. Very little is known for certain about Hideyoshi before 1570, when he begins to appear in surviving documents and his autobiography starts in 1577 but in it Hideyoshi spoke very little about his past. According to tradition, he was born in Owari Province, the home of the Oda clan and he was born of no traceable samurai lineage, being the son of a peasant-ashigaru named Yaemon. He had no surname, and his given name was Hiyoshi-maru although variations exist. Many legends describe Hideyoshi being sent to study at a temple as a young man, under the name Kinoshita Tōkichirō, he first joined the Imagawa clan as a servant to a local ruler named Matsushita Yukitsuna. He traveled all the way to the lands of Imagawa Yoshimoto, daimyō of Suruga Province, in 1558 he joined the Oda clan, now headed by Oda Nobunaga, as an ashigaru. According to his biographers, he supervised the repair of Kiyosu Castle, a described as apocryphal. In 1561, Hideyoshi married One who was Asano Nagakatsus adopted daughter and he carried out repairs on Sunomata Castle with his younger brother Toyotomi Hidenaga and the bandits Hachisuka Masakatsu and Maeno Nagayasu. Hideyoshis efforts were well received because Sunomata was in enemy territory and he constructed a fort in Sunomata, according to legend overnight, and discovered a secret route into Mount Inaba after which much of the garrison surrendered. Hideyoshi was very successful as a negotiator, in 1564, he managed to convince, mostly with liberal bribes, a number of Mino warlords to desert the Saitō clan. Hideyoshi approached many Saitō clan samurai and convinced them to submit to Nobunaga, including the Saitō clans strategist, the new surname included two characters, one each from Odas two other right-hand men, Niwa Nagahide and Shibata Katsuie. Hideyoshi led troops in the Battle of Anegawa in 1570 in which Oda Nobunaga allied with Tokugawa Ieyasu to lay siege to two fortresses of the Azai and Asakura clans and he participated in the 1573 Siege of Nagashima. In 1573, after victorious campaigns against the Azai and Asakura, initially based at the former Azai headquarters in Odani, Hideyoshi moved to Kunitomo, and renamed the city Nagahama in tribute to Nobunaga. Hideyoshi later moved to the port at Imahama on Lake Biwa, from there he began work on Imahama Castle and took control of the nearby Kunitomo firearms factory that had been established some years previously by the Azai and Asakura
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Higo Province
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Higo Province was an old province of Japan in the area that is today Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. It was sometimes called Hishū, with Hizen Province, Higo bordered on Chikugo, Bungo, Hyūga, Ōsumi, and Satsuma Provinces. The castle town of Higo was usually at Kumamoto City, the Kato were soon stripped of their lands, and the region was given to the Hosokawa clan. In the Meiji period, the provinces of Japan were converted into prefectures, maps of Japan and Higo Province were reformed in the 1870s. At the same time, the continued to exist for some purposes. For example, Higo is explicitly recognized in treaties in 1894 between Japan and the United States and between Japan and the United Kingdom, aso-jinja was the chief Shinto shrine of Higo. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5, OCLC58053128 Papinot, Edmond, historical and Geographic Dictionary of Japan. OCLC77691250 Media related to Higo Province at Wikimedia Commons Murdochs map of provinces,1903
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Kumamoto Castle
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Kumamoto Castle is a hilltop Japanese castle located in Chūō-ku, Kumamoto in Kumamoto Prefecture. It was a large and well fortified castle, the castle keep is a concrete reconstruction built in 1960, but several ancillary wooden buildings remain of the original castle. Kumamoto Castle is considered one of the three castles in Japan, along with Himeji Castle and Matsumoto Castle. Thirteen structures in the complex are designated Important Cultural Property. Kumamoto Castles history dates to 1467, when fortifications were established by Ideta Hidenobu, in 1496, these fortifications were expanded by Kanokogi Chikakazu. In 1588, Katō Kiyomasa was transferred to the incarnation of Kumamoto Castle. From 1601 to 1607, Kiyomasa greatly expanded the castle, transforming it into a complex with 49 turrets,18 turret gates. The smaller castle tower, built sometime after the keep, had several facilities including a well, in 1610, the Honmaru Goten Palace was completed. The castle complex measures roughly 1.6 km from east to west, the castle keep is 30.3 m tall. The castle was besieged in 1877 during the Satsuma Rebellion,13 of the buildings in the castle complex were undamaged, and have been designated Important Cultural Properties. In 1960, the keep was reconstructed using concrete. From 1998 to 2008, the complex underwent restoration work. The signature curved stone walls, known as musha-gaeshi, as well as wooden overhangs, were designed to prevent attackers from penetrating the castle, rock falls were also used as deterrents. In nearby San-no-Maru Park is the Hosokawa Gyobu-tei, the residence of the Hosokawa clan. This traditional wooden mansion has a noted Japanese garden located in its grounds, in 2006, Kumamoto Castle was listed as one of the 100 Fine Castles of Japan by the Japan Castle Foundation. On December 7,2007, a renovation of the Inner Palace was completed. A public ceremony for the restoration was held on April 20,2008, the castle sustained damage in a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck at 9,26 pm on 14 April 2016, in Mashiki town in Kumamoto prefecture. This event is similar to the 1889 Kumamoto earthquake which also damaged the castle
19.
Tokugawa Iemitsu
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Tokugawa Iemitsu was the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu and it is debatable whether Iemitsu can be considered a kinslayer for making his younger brother Tadanaga commit suicide by seppuku. Tokugawa Iemitsu was born on 12 August 1604 and he was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada and grandson of the last great unifier of Japan, the first Tokugawa Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was the first member of the Tokugawa family born after Tokugawa Ieyasu became shogun, not much is known of Iemitsus early life, his childhood name was Takechiyo. He had two sisters, Senhime and Masako, and a brother, who would become a rival, however, Ieyasu made it clear that Iemitsu would be next in line as shogun after Hidetada. An obsolete spelling of his name is Iyemitsu. He also was installed officially as the heir to the Tokugawa shogunate, the only person to contest this position was his younger brother Tokugawa Tadanaga. A fierce rivalry began to develop between the brothers, from an early age Iemitsu practiced the shūdō tradition. However, in 1620, he had an out with his homosexual lover, Sakabe Gozaemon, a childhood friend and retainer, aged twenty one. He married Takatsukasa Takako, daughter of Takatsukasa Nobufusa at 12th December 1623, in 1623, when Iemitsu was nineteen, Hidetada abdicated the post of shogun in his favor. Hidetada continued to rule as Ōgosho, but Iemitsu nevertheless assumed a role as head of the bakufu bureaucracy. In 1626, Shogun Iemitsu and retired Shogun Hidetada visited Emperor Go-Mizunoo, Empress Masako, Shogun Iemitsu made lavish grants of gold and money to the court nobles and the court itself. The shogunate intervened, making the bestowing of the garments invalid, when the wet nurse of Iemitsu and Masako broke a taboo by visiting the imperial court as a commoner, Go-Mizunoo abdicated, embarrassed, and Meisho became empress. The shogun was now the uncle of the sitting monarch, in Kanei 9, on the 24th day of the 2nd month, Ōgosho Hidetada died, and Iemitsu could assume real power. Worried that his brother Tokugawa Tadanaga might assassinate him, however, Hidetada left his advisors, all veteran daimyōs, to act as regents for Iemitsu. In 1633, after his brothers death, he dismissed these men, in place of his fathers advisors, Iemitsu appointed his childhood friends. With their help Iemitsu created a strong, centralized administration and this made him unpopular with many daimyōs, but Iemitsu simply removed his opponents. His sankin-kōtai system forced daimyōs to reside in Edo in alternating sequence, spending an amount of time in Edo
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Hosokawa clan
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It produced many prominent officials in the Ashikaga shogunates administration. In the Edo period, the Hosokawa clan was one of the largest landholding daimyō families in Japan, in the present day, the current clan head Morihiro Hosokawa, has served as Prime Minister of Japan. Ashikaga Yoshisue, son of Ashikaga Yoshizane, was the first to take the name of Hosokawa, Hosokawa Yoriharu, a Hosokawa of the late Kamakura period, fought for the Ashikaga clan against the Kamakura shogunate. Another, Hosokawa Akiuji, helped establish the Ashikaga shogunate, the clan wielded significant power over the course of the Muromachi, Sengoku, and Edo periods, moving, however, from Shikoku, to Kinai, and then to Kyūshū over the centuries. The clan was one of three families to dominate the post of Kanrei, under the Ashikaga shogunate. One such individual was Hosokawa Yoriyuki, at the beginning of the Ashikagas rule, the Hosokawa were given control of the entirety of Shikoku. Over the course of this period, members of the Hosokawa clan were Constables of Awa, Awaji, Bitchū, Izumi, Sanuki, Settsu, Tanba, Tosa, and Yamashiro Provinces. Following the fall of the Ashikaga shogunate, which was based in Kyoto, control of the city, katsumotos son, Hosokawa Masamoto, held power in this way at the end of the 15th century, but was assassinated in 1507. After his death, the clan became divided and was weakened by internecine fighting, what power they still had, however, was centered in and around Kyoto. This gave them the leverage to consolidate their power to some extent, the Hosokawa remained in Kyoto for roughly one hundred years, fleeing the city when it was attacked by Oda Nobunaga. Another division of the clan whom many have believe had extinct is the Saikyū clan, the Hosokawa of Kokura became the main line of the Hosokawa clan during the Edo period. Hosokawa Gracia, the wife of Hosokawa Tadaoki, was one of the most famous samurai converts to Christianity, the Hosokawa sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu against Ishida Mitsunari during the decisive Sekigahara Campaign, and thus were made fudai daimyō under the Tokugawa shogunate. They were given Higo Province, with an income of 540,000 koku, Hosokawa Tadatoshi, the third lord of Kumamoto, was the patron of the swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. Though the Hosokawa domain was far from the capital, on Kyūshū, by 1750, Higo was one of the top producers of rice, and was in fact counted as a standard by the Osaka rice brokers. The domain suffered from economic decline after that, as most domains did. He also founded a Han school, Jishūkan, in 1755, in later years, it produced many scholars such as Yokoi Shōnan. In 1787, the family line descended from Tadatoshi became extinct with the death of the 7th lord. He was succeeded by his distant cousin Narishige, the sixth Lord of Udo a direct descendant of Tadatoshis younger brother Yukitaka, in 1810, Narishige abdicated his title in favor of his elder son Naritatsu, who succeeded as the ninth lord of Kumamoto
21.
Nichidatsu Fujii
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Nichidatsu Fujii was a Japanese Buddhist monk, and founder of the Nipponzan-Myōhōji order of Buddhism. He is best known world-wide for his decision in 1947 to begin constructing Peace Pagodas in many locations around the world as shrines to world peace, Fujii was born into a peasant family in the wilderness of the Aso caldera. At the age of 19, he was ordained a monk in the ascetic and intellectual tradition of Hōon-ji in Usuki. He started missionary activities in Manchuria in 1917 but the great Kanto earthquake made him return to Japan in 1923, reading of Nichirens declaration that the Lotus Sutra would one day be preached in India, he decided to go there. He arrived in Calcutta in January 1931 and walked throughout the town chanting the daimoku and beating a drum, in 1933 he met Mahatma Gandhi at his ashram in Wardha. Gandhi was honored by his presence, and added the daimoku to his ashrams prayers, during WWII and despite the dangers to himself he declared himself in favour of pacifism and went round Japan actively promoting it. He later recollected, “The Pacific war raged ever more brutally, I could no longer. keep silent about the war, in which people were killing one another. Thus I traveled through the whole of Japan and preached resistance against the war and it was a time in which any person who only spoke about resistance to the war, would go to prison because of that alone”. Beginning in the Cold War period, he preached noninvolvement and did hunger strikes for peace and he wrote, The reason I came to espouse nonviolent resistance and the antiwar, antiarms position was not because I met with Mr. Gandhi. In this we see the mad, stupid, barbaric nature of modern warfare, Fujii returned to India and built a World Peace Pagoda in Rajgir, in 1965. He also built a Japanese style temple in Rajgir which is inhabited today. By 2000, at least 80 Peace Pagodas had been built around the world in Europe, Asia, while the Pagodas have been one expression of their call for peace, Nipponzan-Myōhōji also has carried its prayers to the world in numerous walks. Since 1976, when a group joined the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice across the United States and we must go out among the people. In the Sutra there is a line that states, So this man, practicing in the world, religion, which does not go will not be able to provide the relief which must be brought about. The prayers of the Daimoku are to disperse this gloom, religion becomes isolated from the happenings of the world because it tends to be occupied in seeking solutions to ones own spiritual matters. If we fall to prevent a nuclear holocaust ones desire for security is nothing, civilization is not to kill human beings, not to destroy things, not to make war, civilization is to hold mutual affection and to respect one another. ISBN0979129818 Dharmawalk at the Wayback Machine Information on Nichidatsu Fujii and the continuing work of the order that he founded
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Peace Pagoda
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A Peace Pagoda is a Buddhist stupa, a monument to inspire peace, designed to provide a focus for people of all races and creeds, and to help unite them in their search for world peace. Most peace pagodas built since World War II have been built under the guidance of Nichidatsu Fujii, Fujii was greatly inspired by his meeting with Mahatma Gandhi in 1931 and decided to devote his life to promoting non-violence. In 1947, he began constructing Peace Pagodas as shrines to World peace, by 2000, eighty Peace Pagodas had been built around the world in Europe, Asia, and the United States. The Nipponzan-Myōhōji monks of the New England Peace Pagoda were awarded the Courage of Conscience award June 5,1998 in Sherborn, Massachusetts. The Rajgir Vishwa Shanti Stupa/World Peace Pagoda was completed in 1969 at Rajgir hills near Rajgir, the dedication coincided with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. The site also includes a Nipponzan Myohoji temple, the shanthi stupas in India were established by Fuji Guru, a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi, for World Peace. The Nipponzan Myōhōji Buddhist temple at Charlimont in Darjeeling is one of them, work on the Stupa began in 1972 and it was dedicated on 1 November 1992. A Vishwa Shanti Stupa/World Peace Pagoda in New Delhi was inaugurated on 20th, November 2007 by monks and nuns of Nipponzan-Myōhōji, the Dalai Lama and the Lt. It is situated in Millennium Indraprastha Park, North-East of Humayuns Tomb, a traditional Japanese garden has been constructed in the area around the stupa. The garden is a joint project by the Fujii Guruji Vishwa Shanti Stupa Committee, the Dhauli Giri Shanti Stupa was built in Bhubaneswar, Orissa State, India during a two-year period, and was inaugurated on November 8,1972. It was established by Sri Nitya Nanda Kanungo, Governor of Bihar, with the guidance of Nichidatsu Fujii. The Shanti Stupa in Ladakh was built by Nipponzan-Myōhōji monks, headed by Head monk Nakamura, the 14th and current Dalai Lama inaugurated the Shanti Stupa in August 1985. The stupa at Vaishali was inaugurated 23 October 1996, Vaishali is an important place in the life of the Buddha. Vishwa Shanti stupa was a dream of Fujii guruji and it is a large stupa of white color. Statues of Buddha are mounted on the stupa, facing in four directions and it also has a small Japanese Buddhist temple with a large park. There is a temple near the stupa where prayers are done for universal peace. Work on Hanaokayama Peace Pagoda, the first Peace Pagoda constructed by Nipponzan Myohoji Japanese Buddhist monks and it took seven years to build, being completed in 1954. This Peace Pagoda was built by Nipponzan-Myōhōji monks in 1959 halfway up Mount Moiwa and it was built to commemorate peace after World War II and can be seen from almost anywhere in Sapporo. It contains some of the ashes of the Buddha that were presented to the Emperor of Japan by Prime Minister Nehru in 1954, later, another part of these were presented to Mikhail Gorbachev by the famous Nipponzan-Myōhōji monk, Junsei Terasawa
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India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
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Sri Lanka
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Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia near south-east India. Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest, Sri Lankas documented history spans 3,000 years, with evidence of pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to World War II. Sri Lanka was known from the beginning of British colonial rule until 1972 as Ceylon, Sri Lankas recent history has been marred by a thirty-year civil war which decisively ended when the Sri Lankan military defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009. A diverse and multicultural country, Sri Lanka is home to many religions, ethnic groups, in addition to the majority Sinhalese, it is home to large groups of Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils, Moors, Burghers, Malays, Kaffirs and the aboriginal Vedda. Sri Lanka has a rich Buddhist heritage, and the first known Buddhist writings of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka is a republic and a unitary state governed by a semi-presidential system. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the capital and largest city. Along with the Maldives, Sri Lanka is one of the two countries in South Asia that are rated among high human development on the Human Development Index. In antiquity, Sri Lanka was known to travellers by a variety of names, according to the Mahavamsa, the legendary Prince Vijaya named the land Tambapanni, because his followers hands were reddened by the red soil of the area. In Hindu mythology, such as the Mahabharata, the island was referred to as Lankā, in Tamil, the island is referred to as Eelam. Ancient Greek geographers called it Taprobanā or Taprobanē from the word Tambapanni, as a British crown colony, the island was known as Ceylon, it achieved independence as the Dominion of Ceylon in 1948. The country is known in Sinhalese as Śrī Laṃkā and in Tamil as Ilaṅkai, in 1972, its formal name was changed to Free, Sovereign and Independent Republic of Sri Lanka. Later in 1978 it was changed to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, as the name Ceylon still appears in the names of a number of organisations, the Sri Lankan government announced in 2011 a plan to rename all those over which it has authority. The pre-history of Sri Lanka goes back 125,000 years, the era spans the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and early Iron Ages. Among the Paleolithic human settlements discovered in Sri Lanka, Pahiyangala and it is said that Kubera was overthrown by his demon stepbrother Ravana, the powerful emperor who built a mythical flying machine named Dandu Monara. The modern city of Wariyapola is described as Ravanas airport, early inhabitants of Sri Lanka were probably ancestors of the Vedda people, an indigenous people numbering approximately 2,500 living in modern-day Sri Lanka. According to the Mahāvamsa, a written in Pāḷi, the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka are the Yakshas and Nagas. Ancient cemeteries that were used before 600BC and other signs of advanced civilization has also discovered in Sri Lanka
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United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
26.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
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Shimomashiki District, Kumamoto
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Shimomashiki is a district located in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Following the March 23,2010 Kumamoto merger the district consists of the town of Misato. After the merger, the district has an population of 11,164. The total area is 144.03 km², Misato See Merger and dissolution of municipalities of Japan. On November 1,2004, the towns of Chūō and Tomochi merged to form the new town of Misato. On January 15,2005, the towns of Matsubase, Ogawa and Toyono merged with the towns of Misumi, on October 6,2008 the town of Tomiai was merged into the expanded city of Kumamoto. On March 23,2010 the town of Jōnan, along with the town of Ueki, from Kamoto District, was merged into the expanded city of Kumamoto
28.
Ueki, Kumamoto
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Ueki was a town located in Kamoto District, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. On March 23,2010, Ueki, along with the town of Jōnan, was merged into the city of Kumamoto. As of April 1,2012, the area is part of the Kita-ku ward, as of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 31,088 and a density of 472.39 persons/km². The total area was 65.81 km²
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Humid subtropical climate
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A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterised by hot, usually humid summers and mild to cool winters. It normally lies on the southeast side of all continents, generally between latitudes 25° and 40° and it tends to be located at coastal or near coastal locations. However, in cases it extends inland, most notably in China. Under the Köppen climate classification, subtropical climates are found in the warmest parts of his Warm Temperate climates or Cfa and this climate features mean temperatures in the coldest month between 0 °C and 18 °C and mean temperatures in the warmest month 22 °C or higher. However, while some climatologists have opted to describe this type as a humid subtropical climate Köppen himself never used this term. The humid subtropical climate classification was created under the Trewartha Climate classification. The Trewartha system was a 1966 update of the Köppen climate classification and this was seen to effectively separate temperate climates like London or New York City from true subtropical locations like Brisbane or Savannah for example. Rainfall often shows a peak, especially where monsoons are well developed, as in Southeast Asia. Most summer rainfall occurs during thunderstorms that build up due to the surface heating and strong subtropical sun angle. Weak tropical lows that move in from adjacent warm tropical oceans, winter rainfall is often associated with large storms in the westerlies that have fronts that reach down into subtropical latitudes. However, many subtropical climates such as southeast Asia or Florida have very dry winters, with frequent brush fires, in Africa, the humid subtropical climates are found in two separate areas on the southern hemisphere of the continent. The Cwa climate is found over a portion of the interior of the Middle. Some lower portions of the Ethiopian Highlands also have this climate, the climate is also found in the narrow coastal sections of southern and eastern South Africa, primarily in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape provinces. South Africas version of this climate features heavy oceanic influences resulting in milder temperatures. This is particularly evident in its winters when temperatures do not drop as low as in other regions within the humid subtropical category. Locations in Asia with a subtropical climate differ from those in other continents in that they often have marked seasonal differences in precipitation. Cities near the boundary of this zone include Hong Kong, Hanoi. At Hainan Island and in Taiwan, the transitions from subtropical into fully tropical
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Relative humidity
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Relative humidity is the ratio of the partial pressure of water vapor to the equilibrium vapor pressure of water at a given temperature. Relative humidity depends on temperature and the pressure of the system of interest and it requires less water vapor to attain high relative humidity at low temperatures, more water vapour is required to attain high relative humidity in warm or hot air. Humans are sensitive to high humidity because the body uses evaporative cooling, enabled by perspiration. Perspiration evaporates from the more slowly under humid conditions than under arid. For example, if the air temperature is 24 °C and the humidity is zero percent. If the relative humidity is 100 percent at the air temperature. In other words, if the air is 24 °C and contains saturated water vapor, then the human body cools itself at the rate as it would if it were 27 °C. The heat index and the humidex are indices that reflect the effect of temperature. In cold climates, the temperature causes lower capacity for water vapour to flow about. Dry cracked skin can result from dry air, low humidity causes tissue lining nasal passages to dry, crack and become more susceptible to penetration of Rhinovirus cold viruses. Low humidity is a cause of nosebleeds. The use of a humidifier in homes, especially bedrooms, can help with these symptoms, indoor relative humidities should be kept above 30% to reduce the likelihood of the occupants nasal passages drying out. Humans can be comfortable within a range of humidities depending on the temperature—from thirty to seventy percent—but ideally between 50% and 60%. Very low humidity can create discomfort, respiratory problems, and aggravate allergies in some individuals, in the winter, it is advisable to maintain relative humidity at 30 percent or above. Extremely low relative humidities may also cause eye irritation, wooden furniture can shrink, causing the paint that covers these surfaces to fracture. When the temperature is low and the humidity is high. When relative humidity approaches 100 percent, condensation can occur on surfaces, leading to problems with mold, corrosion, decay, condensation can pose a safety risk as it can promote the growth of mold and wood rot as well as possibly freezing emergency exits shut. The basic principles for buildings, above, also apply to vehicles, in addition, there may be safety considerations
31.
Sunshine duration
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It is a general indicator of cloudiness of a location, and thus differs from insolation, which measures the total energy delivered by sunlight over a given period. Sunshine duration is usually expressed in hours per year, or in hours per day, the first measure indicates the general sunniness of a location compared with other places, while the latter allows for comparison of sunshine in various seasons in the same location. Another often-used measure is percentage ratio of recorded bright sunshine duration, an important use of sunshine duration data is to characterize the climate of sites, especially of health resorts. This also takes account the psychological effect of strong solar light on human well-being. It is often used to promote tourist destinations, if the Sun were to be above the horizon 50% of the time for a standard year consisting of 8,760 hours, apparent maximal daytime duration would be 4,380 hours for any point on Earth. However, there are physical and astronomical effects that change that picture, namely, atmospheric refraction allows the Sun to be still visible even when it physically sets below the horizon. For that reason, average daytime is longest in polar areas, places on the Arctic Circle have the longest total annual daytime,4,647 hours, while the North Pole receives 4,575. Because of elliptic nature of the Earths orbit, the Southern Hemisphere is not symmetrical, the Equator has a total daytime of 4,422 hours per year. Given the theoretical maximum of daytime duration for a given location, bright sunshine hours represent the total hours when the sunlight is stronger than a specified threshold, as opposed to just visible hours. Visible sunshine, for example, occurs around sunrise and sunset, measurement is performed by instruments called sunshine recorders. For the specific purpose of sunshine duration recording, Campbell–Stokes recorders are used, when the intensity exceeds a pre-determined threshold, the tape burns. The total length of the trace is proportional to the number of bright hours. Another type of recorder is the Jordan sunshine recorder, newer, electronic recorders have more stable sensitivity than that of the paper tape. In 2003, the duration was finally defined as the period during which direct solar irradiance exceeds a threshold value of 120 W/m². The sky is clear in these regions, and fair weather is virtually perpetual, the descending branch of the Hadley cell and the long-term lack of atmospheric disturbances helps to explain the seemingly endless supply of sunny, cloud-free days in the deserts. Low clouding conditions are associated with rainfall shortage, as seen in these dry regions. In the belt encompassing northern Chad and the Tibesti Mountains, northern Sudan, southern Libya, some places in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula receive 3, 600–3,800 hours of bright sunshine annually. The largest sun-baked region in the world is North Africa, the sunniest month in the world is December in Eastern Antarctica, with almost 23 hours of bright sun daily
32.
Japan Meteorological Agency
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The Japan Meteorological Agency, frequently abbreviated to JMA, is an agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Its headquarters is located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, JMA is responsible for gathering and reporting weather data and forecasts for the general public, as well as providing aviation and marine weather. JMA other responsibilities include issuing warnings for volcanic eruptions, and the issuance of earthquake warnings of the Earthquake Early Warning system. JMA is also designated one of the Regional Specialized Meteorological Centers of the World Meteorological Organization, august 26,1872 – The first weather station in Japan set up in Hakodate, Hokkaido. It is the precursor of the present Hakodate Weather Station, June 1875 – The original Tokyo Meteorological Observatory was formed within the Survey Division of Geography Bureau of Home Ministry. January 1,1887 – The Tokyo Meteorological Observatory was renamed as the Central Meteorological Observatory, april 1895 – The Ministry of Education replaced the preceding ministry as an administrator of the Observatory. January 1,1923 – The main office moved to Motoe-machi, Kōjimachi-ku, November 1943 – The Ministry of Transport and Communications took over the CMOs operation. May 1945 – It became part of the Ministry of Transport, july 1,1956 – The Central Meteorological Observatory became an agency of the Ministry of Transport, and has been renamed to the Japan Meteorological Agency. March 1964 – The headquarters office was relocated to the present building in Ōtemachi, january 6,2001 – The JMA becomes an agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism with the Japanese government reformation. 2013 – It has been announced that it would be scheduled to move the headquarters into Toranomon, the JMA is responsible not only for gathering and reporting weather data and forecasts in Japan, but also for observation and warning of earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons and volcanic eruptions. The agency has six administrative offices, four Marine Observatories, five auxiliary facilities. These are also used to gather data, supplemented by weather satellites such as Himawari, in 1968, the World Meteorological Organization designated the JMA as a Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre for Asia. In June 1988, the WMO also assigned the JMA as a RSMC for the Northwestern Pacific under its Tropical Cyclone programme, each DMO and LMO issues weather forecasts and warnings or advisories to the general public live in its own area. Weather data used to these forecasts are acquired from the Surface Observation, the Radar Observation, the Upper-air Observation, the Marine Observatories are seated in Hakodate, Maizuru, Kobe and Nagasaki. These stations observe ocean waves, tide levels, sea surface temperature, along with this establishment, JMA placed the Air Traffic Meteorology Center inside the ATMC. Additionally, Aviation Weather Stations deal with the similar tasks as these, in the Northwestern Pacific area, the typhoon season ordinarily comes almost from May to November. The JMA forecasts and warns or advises on tropical cyclones to the public in Japan, the JMA has its own 624 observation stations across the country that set up at intervals of 20 km approximately in order to measure seismic intensity of earthquakes precisely. The agency also utilize about 2,900 more seismographs owned by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, the Earthquake Early Warning system began to work fully for the general public on October 1,2007
33.
Keep
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A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. The Anglo-Normans and French rulers began to stone keeps during the 10th and 11th centuries, these included Norman keeps, with a square or rectangular design. Stone keeps carried considerable political as well as military importance and could take up to a decade to build, during the 12th century, new designs began to be introduced – in France, quatrefoil-shaped keeps were introduced, while in England polygonal towers were built. In Spain, keeps were increasingly incorporated into both Christian and Islamic castles, although in Germany tall towers called Bergfriede were preferred to keeps in the western fashion, in the second half of the 14th century, there was a resurgence in the building of keeps. In France, the keep at Vincennes began a fashion for tall, heavily machicolated designs, meanwhile, tower keeps in England became popular amongst the most wealthy nobles, these large keeps, each uniquely designed, formed part of the grandest castles built during the period. By the 16th century, however, keeps were slowly falling out of fashion as fortifications, many were destroyed in civil wars between the 17th and 18th centuries, or incorporated into gardens as an alternative to follies. During the 19th century, keeps became fashionable once again and in England, despite further damage to many French and Spanish keeps during the wars of the 20th century, keeps now form an important part of the tourist and heritage industry in Europe. Since the 16th century, the English word keep has commonly referred to large towers in castles. The word originates from around 1375 to 1376, coming from the Middle English term kype, meaning basket or cask, the term came to be used for other shell keeps by the 15th century. By the 17th century, the word keep lost its reference to baskets or casks. Early on, the use of the keep became associated with the idea of a tower in a castle that would serve both as a fortified, high-status private residence and a refuge of last resort. By the 19th century, Victorian historians incorrectly concluded that the etymology of the keep and tenazza were linked. As a result of evolution in meaning, the use of the term keep in historical analysis today can be problematic. Contemporary medieval writers used various terms for the buildings we would today call keeps, in Latin, they are variously described as turris, turris castri or magna turris – a tower, a castle tower, or a great tower. The 12th-century French came to them a donjon, from the Latin dominarium lordship, linking the keep. Similarly, medieval Spanish writers called the buildings torre del homenaje, in England, donjon turned into dungeon, which initially referred to a keep, rather than to a place of imprisonment. This ambiguity over terminology has made historical analysis of the use of keeps problematic, while the term remains in common academic use, some academics prefer to use the term donjon, and most modern historians warn against using the term keep simplistically. The fortifications that we would today call keeps certainly did not necessarily part of a unified medieval style
34.
Satsuma Rebellion
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The Satsuma Rebellion was a revolt of disaffected samurai against the new imperial government, nine years into the Meiji Era. Its name comes from Satsuma Domain, which had been influential in the Restoration, the rebellion lasted from January 29,1877, until September of that year, when it was decisively crushed and its leader, Saigō Takamori, ended his life. Saigōs rebellion was the last and most serious of a series of armed uprisings against the new government, the modernization of the country meant the abolition of the privileged social status of the samurai class, and had undermined their financial position. Saigō was a proponent of war with Korea in the Seikanron debate of 1873. At one point, he offered to visit Korea in person, to help support and employ these men, in 1874 Saigō established a private academy in Kagoshima. Soon 132 branches were established all over the prefecture, the “training” provided was not purely academic, although the Chinese classics were taught, all students were required to take part in weapons training and instruction in tactics. The traditions of bushido and Hagakure were emphasized, Saigō also started an artillery school. Support for Saigō was so strong that Satsuma had effectively seceded from the government by the end of 1876. Word of Saigō’s academies was greeted with concern in Tokyo. In December 1876, the Meiji government sent an officer named Nakahara Hisao and 57 other men to investigate reports of subversive activities. The men were captured, and under torture, confessed that they were spies who had sent to assassinate Saigō. Fearing a rebellion, the Meiji government sent a warship to Kagoshima to remove the weapons stockpiled at the Kagoshima arsenal on January 30,1877 and this provoked open conflict, although with the elimination of samurai rice stipends in 1877, tensions were already extremely high. Outraged by the tactics,50 students from Saigō’s academy attacked the Somuta Arsenal. Over the next three days, more than 1000 students staged raids on the yards and other arsenals. Presented with this success, the greatly dismayed Saigō was reluctantly persuaded to come out of his semi-retirement to lead the rebellion against the central government. In February 1877, the Meiji government dispatched Hayashi Tomoyuki, an official with the Home Ministry with Admiral Kawamura Sumiyoshi in the warship Takao to ascertain the situation. After Oyama departed, a flotilla of ships filled with armed men attempted to board Takao by force. The following day, Hayashi declared to Oyama that he could not permit Kawamura to go ashore when the situation was so unsettled, and that the attack on Takao constituted an act of lèse-majesté
Billings, Montana, United States
Bristol, United Kingdom
Guilin, China
Heidelberg, Germany (since 1992)[15]
Ulsan, South Korea (since 2010)
Kaohsiung, Taiwan (since 2017)[17]
Kumamoto travel guide from Wikivoyage (in English)
Geographic data related to Kumamoto at OpenStreetMap
Geographic data related to 
