<HISTROY>
Recorded Japanese history begins in approximately A.D. 400, when the Yamato clan, eventually based in Kyoto, managed to exact a loose control of the other family groups of central and western Japan. Contact with Korea introduced Buddhism to Japan at about this time. Through the 770s Japan was much influenced by China, and the Yamato clan set up an imperial court similar to that of China.
At the same time, warrior clans were rising to prominence as a distinct class known as samurai. In 1192 the Minamoto clan set up a military government under their leader, Yoritomo. He was designated shogun. For the following 700 years, shoguns from a succession of clans ruled in Japan, while the imperial court existed in relative obscurity.
The first European traders and Christian missionaries arrived in the mid. of 16th century. In 1600, Ieyasu Tokugawa became shogun after defeating the rivals. His family remained in power until 1868. Fearing the influence of Europe, in 1637 Japan shut itself off from the rest of the world (sakoku) for more than 200 years.
In 1868 the emperor Meiji came to the throne, and the shogun system was abolished and moved the capital to Tokyo.
Japan quickly made the transition from a medieval to a modern power. An imperial army was established with conscription, and parliamentary government was formed in 1889.
During World War II (1939-1945), Japan bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Near the end of the war, U.S. planes dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to force Japan's surrender.
The emperor became largely a symbolic head of state. The U.S. and Japan signed a security treaty in 1951, allowing for U.S. troops to be stationed in Japan. In 1952 Japan regained full sovereignty, and in 1972 the U.S. returned to Japan the Ryukyu Islands, including Okinawa.
Japan's postwar economic recovery was nothing short of remarkable. New technologies and manufacturing were undertaken with great success. Yet economic growth continued through the 1970s and 1980s eventually making Japan the world's second-largest economy (after the U.S.).
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