This is the most important unit you will ever build as Japan. Starts with the Shock I promotion and helps produce Great Generals faster. Despite extensive war damage and being forced to renounce its right to declare war, Japan recovered and is now one of the world’s leading economic powerhouses, its technological sophistication second to none. Japanese imperial ambitions finally ended with the American dropping of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only nuclear weapons used in war. Seeking to prove itself the equal of the great European powers, Japan went on to conquer most of China, Southeast Asia and the South Pacific: most of these territories having previously been under occupation by the Europeans.

Japan would remain war-torn for over 150 years, but the Tokugawa Shogunate eventually rose up to bring the conflict to an end in 1600, ushering in a long period of peace, prosperity and flourishing of the arts not seen in centuries.īut the arrival of the colonialist Europeans and Americans shattered the tranquil Japanese isolation in the 19th Century, and lead to the overthrow of the Shogunate in favour of creating a new, modern state, whose rapid industrialisation in the late 19th Century, humiliation of Russia in war in 1905 and quick conquest of Korea, Taiwan and much of northern China in the early 20th Century astounded and terrified the world. Centralised government collapsed during the 15th Century, resulting in the Warring States Period, where Japan was carved up into hundreds of tiny warring mini-states ruled by military strongmen. Although heavily influenced by classical Chinese culture at first, Japan would go on its own path to create a highly original culture of its own.

Japanese antiquity is somewhat murky at best, with the first written mention of Japan coming from China circa 50AD, and no one is sure when a centralised government first established itself on the islands. It is also a mountainous land of great geological violence, prone to devastating earthquakes and volcanic activity.

It is also one of the most densely populated countries in the world, home to over 126 million with an estimated 337 people per square kilometre. Although geographically fairly small, the Japanese archipelago is home to one of Asia’s most sophisticated and proud civilisations, and has influenced recent world history, trade and culture to a previously unthinkable extent.

Knowyourmeme brave new world civ 5