INTRODUCTION

Japan had become a nation-state by the end of the twelfth century, and has remained one ever since. It is true that between 1895 and 1945, Japan absorbed Taiwan, as it did Korea between 1910 and 1945. Both territories were treated as colonies, however, and their non-Japanese populations (the Taiwanese and Koreans) were not given the rights of Japanese. Thus, no change in Japan's status as a nation-state occurred as a result of those ventures into colonialism. Japan also compelled the Ainu people of Hokkaido and the people of the Ryukyus (now Okinawa Prefecture) to become Japanese, but their numbers were too small to lead one to deny that Japan was and is a nation-state.

Japan's administrative structure has, of course, changed at various stages since the twelfth century, but its status as a nation-state has not. Several reasons for its being able to survive as a nation-state over the centuries may be adduced.

First, Japan, an island nation lying off the farthest reaches of East Asia, was thereby insulated from invasions that might have produced loss of ethnic unity. Similarly, until 1894, Japan was incapable of sending military forces to subjugate other countries. (The attempt by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to invade Korea, between 1592 and 1597, ended in failure.) In this respect, Japan differs from Britain: while both are island nations, the Straits of Dover are far narrower than the Tsushima Strait between Japan and Korea.