Japan travel deals contains complete information about Japan travel tours during Japan vacations packages. Legend attributes the creation of Japan to the sun goddess, from whom the emperors were descended. The first of them was Jimmu, supposed to have ascended the throne in 660 B.C., a tradition that constituted official doctrine until 1945.
Recorded Japanese history begins in approximately A.D. 400, when the Yamato clan, eventually based in Kyoto, managed to gain control of other family groups in central and western Japan. Contact with Korea introduced Buddhism to Japan at about this time. Through the 700s Japan was much influenced by China, and the Yamato clan set up an imperial court similar to that of China. In the ensuing centuries, the authority of the imperial court was undermined as powerful gentry families vied for control.

An archipelago in the Pacific, Japan is separated from the east coast of Asia by the Sea of Japan. It is approximately the size of Montana. Japan's four main islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku. The Ryukyu chain to the southwest was U.S.-occupied from 1945 to 1972, when it reverted to Japanese control, and the Kurils to the northeast are Russian-occupied.

144,689 sq mi (374,744 sq km); total area: 145,883 sq mi (377,835 sq km)

127,463,611 (growth rate: 0.0%); birth rate: 9.4/1000; infant

3.2/1000; life expectancy: 81.2; density per sq mi: 836

Yokohama, 3,494,900 (part of Tokyo metro. area); Osaka, 11,286,000 (metro. area), 2,597,000 (city proper); Nagoya, 2,189,700; Sapporo, 1,848,000; Kobe, 1,529,900 (part of Osaka metro. area); Kyoto, 1,470,600 (part of Osaka metro. area); Fukuoka, 1,368,900; Kawasaki, 1,276,200 (part of Tokyo metro. area); Hiroshima, 1,132,700

Yen

Japanese

99%; Korean, Chinese, Brazillian, Filipino, other 1% (2004)

Shintoist and Buddhist 84%, other 16% (including Christian 0.7%)

99% (1995 est.)

Rice, sugar beets, vegetables, fruit; pork, poultry, dairy products, eggs; fish.

Negligible mineral resources, fish.

Permanent Entry Visas
Permanent entry visa applications (except general skilled, business skills and parent subclasses) are lodged, processed and decided in Tokyo.
General skilled migration applications are lodged and processed at the Adelaide Skilled Processing Centre.
Business Skills applications are lodged and processed at the Perth Business Skills Processing Centre.
Contributory parent and parent migration applications are lodged and processed at the Perth Offshore Parents Centre.

All temporary entry visa applications are lodged, processed and decided in Tokyo.
Citizens of Japan are eligible for streamlined processing of visitor visas through ETA. Please see World Index Introduction for details.
416 Special Program applications are lodged and processed at the Hobart Special Program Processing Centre
420 Entertainment sponsorship and visa applications are lodged and processed at the Sydney Entertainment Processing Centre
From 2 April 2005, Sponsored Family Visitor visa (subclass 679) applications must be lodged by the sponsor at a State or Territory office within Australia.