Japan - a constitutional monarchy occupying the Japanese Archipelago; a world leader in electronics and automobile manufacture and ship buildinghara-kiri, harakiri, harikari - ritual suicide by self-disembowelment on a sword; practiced by warriors in the traditional Japanese society sumo - a Japanese form of wrestling; you lose if you are forced out of a small ring or if any part of your body (other than your feet) touches the ground go game, go - a board game for two players who place counters on a grid; the object is to surround and so capture the opponent's counters shogi - a form of chess played on a board of 81 squares; each player has 20 pieces acupressure, G-Jo, shiatsu - treatment of symptoms by applying pressure with the fingers to specific pressure points on the body jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujutsu - a method of self-defense without weapons that was developed in China and Japan; holds and blows are supplemented by clever use of the attacker's own weight and strength ninjitsu, ninjutsu - the traditional Japanese method of espionage; involves stealthy movements and the use of camouflage karate - a traditional Japanese system of unarmed combat; sharp blows and kicks are given to pressure-sensitive points on the body of the opponent origami - the Japanese art of folding paper into shapes representing objects (e.g., flowers or birds) futon - mattress consisting of a pad of cotton batting that is used for sleeping on the floor or on a raised frame kamikaze - a fighter plane used for suicide missions by Japanese pilots in World War II shoji - a translucent screen made of a wooden frame covered with rice paper Shingon - a form of Buddhism emphasizing mystical symbolism of mantras and mudras and the Buddha's ideal which is inexpressible Japanese - the language (usually considered to be Altaic) spoken by the Japanese people Ryukyuan - the language (related to Japanese) that is spoken by the people of the Ryukyu Islands sukiyaki - thin beef strips (or chicken or pork) cooked briefly at the table with onions and greens and soy sauce sashimi - very thinly sliced raw fish sushi - rice (with raw fish) wrapped in seaweed tempura - vegetables and seafood dipped in batter and deep-fried rice beer, sake, saki - Japanese alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice; usually served hot Aum, Aum Shinrikyo, Supreme Truth - a terrorist organization whose goal is to take over Japan and then the world; based on a religion founded in 1987 that combines elements of Buddhism with Christianity; "in 1995 Aum members released deadly sarin gas on a Tokyo subway train" Chukaku-Ha - an ultra-leftist militant group founded in 1957 from the breakup of the Japanese Communist Party; includes a covert action wing; "Chukaku-Ha attacks tend to cause property damage rather than casualties" Anti-Imperialist International Brigade, Japanese Red Army, JRA - a terrorist group organized in 1970 to overthrow the Japanese government and monarchy and to foment world revolution; is said to have close ties with Palestinian terrorists; "in 1972 the Japanese Red Army was responsible for a massacre at an airport in Israel" yakuza - organized crime in Japan; an alliance of criminal organizations and illegal enterprises diet - a legislative assembly in certain countries (e.g., Japan) Far East - a popular expression for the countries of eastern Asia (usually including China and Mongolia and Taiwan and Japan and Korea and Indochina and eastern Siberia) prefecture - the district administered by a prefect (as in France or Japan or the Roman Empire) Asahikawa - a city on western Hokkaido that is the center of a fertile agricultural area Nagano - a city in central Honshu northwest of Tokyo; site of a Buddhist shrine Nagoya - an industrial city in southern Honshu Omiya - a city of east central Honshu; a suburb of Tokyo Osaka - port city on southern Honshu on Osaka Bay; a commercial and industrial center of Japan Yokohama - port city on southeastern Honshu in central Japan |