Japan

State · 1953–2026 CE · at its largest around 1973 CE

The East Asian island nation after the Allied occupation ended in 1952, governed under its pacifist postwar constitution with the emperor as a symbolic head. It rose to become one of the world's largest economies.

On its lands while it lasted

Hirohito (1901 CE – 1989 CE): Emperor of Japan from 1926 to 1989.
Akira Kurosawa (1910 CE – 1998 CE): Film director of Rashomon and Seven Samurai.
Kim Il Sung (1912 CE – 1994 CE): Founding leader of North Korea from 1948 until his death.
Park Chung Hee (1917 CE – 1979 CE): Military ruler of South Korea (1961–1979) whose export-led policies drove rapid industrialisation.
Korean War (1950–1953 CE): War between North Korea, backed by China and the Soviet Union, and South Korea, backed by UN forces led by the United States.
Korean Armistice Agreement (1953 CE): Armistice signed at Panmunjom ending hostilities and creating the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
Japanese economic miracle (c. 1955–1973 CE): Period of rapid economic growth that made Japan the world's second-largest economy.
Shinkansen (1964 CE): The Tokaido Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka opened, the world's first high-speed railway.
Walkman (1979 CE): Sony launched the Walkman portable cassette player.
Gwangju Uprising (1980 CE): Pro-democracy uprising in Gwangju crushed by the military.
Famicom / NES (1983 CE): Nintendo released the Family Computer, which as the NES revived the home video game industry.
Great Hanshin earthquake (1995 CE): Earthquake that devastated Kobe, killing over 6,000 people.
Tohoku earthquake and tsunami (2011 CE): Magnitude 9.0–9.1 earthquake whose tsunami left about 18,000 people dead or missing in northeastern Japan.
Fukushima nuclear accident (2011 CE): Tsunami-triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
AlphaGo beats Lee Sedol (2016 CE): In Seoul, DeepMind's AlphaGo beat Lee Sedol, one of the best players of Go, a game long thought too subtle for computers.