Aum Shinrikyo: The doomsday cult led by Shoko Asahara that organized a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in March 1995. The attack killed thirteen people and injured several hundred more.
Bushido: The ‘way of the warrior’, or the code of ethics attributed to the samurai.
Choshu: One of the four domains that rebelled against the Tokugawa shogunate in what became the Meiji Restoration. Some of Meiji’s greatest intellectuals were from Choshu. Shinzo Abe, who became Japan’s prime minister for a second time in 2012, has deep political roots in Choshu, modern-day Yamaguchi prefecture.
Class-A war criminals: Those tried at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, also known as the Tokyo trials, for their leadership role in Japan’s ‘crimes against peace’. Japan accepted the findings of the tribunal, though its parliament does not recognize those convicted as criminals.
Diet: The Japanese parliament.
Edo: The name of the city where the Tokugawa shogunate lived. It gives its name to the ‘feudalistic’ period of rule by the Tokugawa family between 1603 and 1868. After the Meiji Restoration, which ended Tokugawa rule and established the foundations of modern Japan, the city was renamed Tokyo and became the capital.
Fukoku Kyohei: ‘Rich country, strong army’, a rallying cry of the Meiji Restoration that still resonates today.
Fukushima: A prefecture in northeast Japan and the name of the nuclear complex that suffered a triple meltdown after the tsunami of March 2011.
Hikikomori: A term referring to acute social withdrawal, especially among adolescents and young adults. Often translated as ‘shut-ins’.
Kaizen: A term for ‘continuous improvement’ that encapsulated the management style, worker commitment and attention to detail that underpinned Japan’s post-war economic miracle.
Kamikaze: The ‘divine wind’ – really a typhoon – that is said to have saved Japan from a Mongolian invasion led by Kublai Khan in the thirteenth century. It later gave its name to the suicide pilots sent to crash into US ships at the close of the Second World War.
Keiretsu: A grouping of businesses with interlocking interests and shareholdings.
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP): Founded in 1955, it governed Japan almost uninterrupted until it lost power to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in 2009. The LDP returned to power in December 2012 with Shinzo Abe as leader.
Meiji Period: Era of the reign of the Meiji emperor (1868–1912).
Meiji Restoration: The movement that overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868 and led to the modernization of Japan.
Mono no aware: The concept of fleeting beauty epitomized by the brevity of a flowering cherry blossom. Sometimes translated as ‘the pathos of things’, it is often said to express a unique Japanese sensibility.
Nagatacho: The political heartland of Tokyo.
Nihonjinron: The study of what it means to be Japanese. An exercise in exceptionalism, it underpins a strong Japanese sense of national identity but is often taken to fetishistic extremes.
Ofunato: A coastal town in Iwate prefecture, northeastern Japan, that was heavily damaged by the March 2011 tsunami.
Rangaku: ‘Dutch learning’, or study of the west, during the closed period of the Tokugawa shogunate.
Rikuzentakata: A coastal town in Iwate prefecture, northeastern Japan, all but destroyed by the March 2011 tsunami. Location of the ippon matsu, the lone pine, that has come to symbolize regional and national resilience.
Sakoku: Literally ‘closed country’. Used to describe the period of relative isolation under the Tokugawa shogunate (1600–1868).
SCAP: Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, General Douglas MacArthur’s title during the US post-war occupation. The term became synonymous with the occupation administration.
Senkaku/Diaoyu: Islands in the East China Sea that are administered by Japan but also claimed by China.
Setsuden: Power saving. It became common to see ‘setsuden’ signs all over Japan after the power shortages that followed the Fukushima disaster.
Shimaguni: Literally ‘island nation’.
Shinkansen: The name of the bullet train, which started operating between Tokyo and Osaka in 1964 to the amazement of the world.
Shogun: Military rulers of Japan between 1603 and 1867. The period of the shogunate is called Tokugawa after the family that held power, or the Edo period, after the city in which they lived.
Showa Period: Era of the reign of the Showa emperor (1926–89). During his lifetime, the Showa emperor was called Hirohito.
Shushoku katsudo: The mass hiring of graduates by large companies. Few who are not hired straight out of university have any chance of entering the shrinking ‘lifetime employment’ system.
Taisho Period: The period during the reign of the Taisho emperor (1912–26).
Tepco: Tokyo Electric Power, the electricity utility company that ran the Fukushima nuclear complex along with other nuclear plants in northern Japan.
Tohoku: Northeastern Japan, the area most affected by the March 2011 tsunami.
Tokugawa Period: The period when the Tokugawa family ruled Japan as shoguns (1600–1868).
Yasukuni shrine: A Shinto shrine in Tokyo built to commemorate those who died for the emperor in the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The ‘souls’ of more than 2 million people who have since died in war, including the Second World War, are commemorated at Yasukuni. Among those whose names are listed at Yasukuni are fourteen Class-A war criminals convicted at the Tokyo trials.
Zaibatsu: Business conglomerates or ‘national champions’ originating in early Meiji. The Americans blamed them for supporting Japan’s war effort and sought to break them up after 1945, though many survived in a slightly different form.