Japanese population falls in all 47 prefectures for first time". The Japan Times . Retrieved July 26, 2023.

Miyagawa, Shigeru. "The Japanese Language". Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Retrieved January 16, 2011. Britnell, Mark (2015). In Search of the Perfect Health System. Palgrave. p.18. ISBN 978-1-137-49661-4. After Yoritomo's death in 1199, the office of shogun weakened. Behind the scenes, Yoritomo's wife Hōjō Masako became the true power behind the government. In 1203, her father, Hōjō Tokimasa, was appointed regent to the shogun, Yoritomo's son Minamoto no Sanetomo. Henceforth, the Minamoto shoguns became puppets of the Hōjō regents, who wielded actual power. [75]Tabata, Ryoichi; Kakioka, Ryo; Tominaga, Koji; Komiya, Takefumi; Watanabe, Katsutoshi (2016). "Phylogeny and historical demography of endemic fishes in Lake Biwa: The ancient lake as a promoter of evolution and diversification of freshwater fishes in western Japan". Ecology and Evolution. 6 (8): 2601–2623. doi: 10.1002/ece3.2070. PMC 4798153. PMID 27066244.

Tsukimori, Osamu (May 5, 2012). "Japan nuclear power-free as last reactor shuts". Reuters. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. In 1221, the retired Emperor Go-Toba instigated what became known as the Jōkyū War, a rebellion against the shogunate, in an attempt to restore political power to the court. The rebellion was a failure and led to Go-Toba being exiled to Oki Island, along with two other emperors, the retired Emperor Tsuchimikado and Emperor Juntoku, who were exiled to Tosa Province and Sado Island respectively. [78] The shogunate further consolidated its political power relative to the Kyoto aristocracy. [79] Main article: Nara period The Daibutsu-den, within the complex of Tōdai-ji. This Buddhist temple was sponsored by the Imperial Court during the Nara period. Sekiyama, Takeshi. "Japan's international cooperation for energy efficiency and conservation in Asian region" (PDF). Energy Conservation Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 16, 2008 . Retrieved January 16, 2011.Japan has been inhabited since the Upper Paleolithic period (30,000 BC). Between the fourth and ninth centuries, the kingdoms of Japan became unified under an emperor and the imperial court based in Heian-kyō. Beginning in the 12th century, political power was held by a series of military dictators ( shōgun) and feudal lords ( daimyō), and enforced by a class of warrior nobility ( samurai). After a century-long period of civil war, the country was reunified in 1603 under the Tokugawa shogunate, which enacted an isolationist foreign policy. In 1854, a United States fleet forced Japan to open trade to the West, which led to the end of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial power in 1868. In the Meiji period, the Empire of Japan adopted a Western-modeled constitution, and pursued a program of industrialization and modernization. Amidst a rise in militarism and overseas colonization, Japan invaded China in 1937 and entered World War II as an Axis power in 1941. After suffering defeat in the Pacific War and two atomic bombings, Japan surrendered in 1945 and came under a seven-year Allied occupation, during which it adopted a new constitution. Japan has the world's fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP, after that of the United States, China and Germany; and the fourth-largest economy by PPP. [159] As of 2021 [update], Japan's labor force is the world's eighth-largest, consisting of over 68.6 million workers. [81] As of 2022 [update], Japan has a low unemployment rate of around 2.6%. [160] Its poverty rate is the second highest among the G7 nations, [161] and exceeds 15.7% of the population. [162] Japan has the highest ratio of public debt to GDP among advanced economies, [163] with national debt estimated at 248% relative to GDP as of 2022 [update]. [164] The Japanese yen is the world's third-largest reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro. [165] Sakurai, Ryo (2019). Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management in Japan: From Asia to the World. Springer. pp.12–13. ISBN 978-981-13-6332-0. Mixed progress for Japan's nuclear plant restarts". Nuclear Engineering International. April 23, 2020.