Japan's history dates back to 660 BCE (Before Common Era) with the earliest surviving records of Japanese history being the Koji-ki and the Nihon shoki composed in early 700 CE (Common Era). The latter of these writings is a chronicle which gives 660 BCE as the year in which Jimmu, the first emperor of Japan, ascended the throne, hence founding the Japanese Empire. Archaeological and historical research has further shown that the Ainu, a tribal group, were the earliest inhabitants of the Japanese Archipelago. In 1867, the last Japanese shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, resigned leaving Emperor Mutsuhito as the actual head of the Japanese government. The emperor took on the name Meiji, meaning "enlightened government" as his imperial title. The royal capital was decided to be Edo, later renamed Tokyo. Under Meiji's rule as well as the direction of Prince Iwakura Tomomi and Marquis Okubo Toshimichi, the Japanese were able to steer clear of all the European imperialism which was sweeping other Asian countries at that time. By imitating western civilization, Japan set out to make itself a world power. The army and navy were thus reconstructed, and many educated Japanese were sent abroad to find the best aspects of foreign governments and affairs for duplication in Japan. The emperor made many changes in the Japanese political system from 1881 to 1888, following closely the penal codes and laws of much of western civilization. By the end of the 19th century, Japan had completely modified its foreign policy had begun a struggle for control of Korea as part of Japanese expansion. This expansion caused conflict with China over Korea and resulted in the Sino-Japanese War in the 1890s, during which the newly modernized Japanese forces were easily able to defeat China's army and navy. With this triumph, along with the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, China was forced into granting Japan Taiwan, a group of islands, and a large monetary indemnity. This was an extremely important win in Japanese history, because it showed most of western civilization that Japan was becoming a world power and could no longer be controlled by other countries. Japan wanted to continue expanding its landmass, and, in doing so, inevitably came into contact with Russia. Problems over the independence of Korea arose, leading to a treaty pledging its independence in 1898, whilst still allowing Japanese commercial interest to be dominant. Even after signing this treaty though, Russia continuously tried to attack Korea and penetrate its borders. After trying to ameliorate this matter many times, Japan severed diplomatic ties to Russia and attached Port Arthur in Manchuria, beginning the Russo-Japanese War. In less than a year and a half, Japan had won its second modern war, bringing itself even further into the spectrum of world powers. In 1910, after a peace treaty was signed, Korea was formally annexed to Japan. In August of 1914, after World War I began, Japan sent an ultimatum to Germany. When Germany refused Japans request to evacuate an area in northeastern China, Japan entered the war on the side of the Allies. The next year, Japan submitted the Twenty-One Demands to China, showing its desire to dominate China and East Asia. While China refused to follow the demands, she did later agree to a more modified version.

In the World War I peace settlement, Japan received the Pacific Islands. In 1922, Japan entered into the Four-Power Treaty, in which Japan, France, Great Britain, and the United States pledged to respect one another's territories in the Pacific Ocean. This treaty was later added in order to create the Nine-Power Treaty.

In 1926 Emperor Meiji's grandson, Hirohito, succeeded the throne. He adopted a theory of Showa, or "enlightened peace". However, in 1927, when General Baron Tanaka Giichi became Prime Minister he declared the continuance of an aggressive policy towards China. This was mainly due to the expansion of Japanese industry, which led to a need for new markets and gave Japan an even greater interest in China. With this goal in mind, the Japanese began to dominate many economical and political aspects of Manchuria, a Chinese area, in the 1920s. When an explosion occurred on the Japanese-owned South Manchuria Railroad, the Japanese army, fearing Chinese attacks, seized the arsenals of many cities. The Japanese Guangdong army took complete control of Manchuria and forced the Chinese to withdraw from the area. In 1933, after inquiries by the League of Nations commission, the League Assembly requested that Japan cease hostilities in China. Two years later, Japan announced its withdrawal from the league and continued to make an overwhelming presence in China. In May of 1933, China realized it was unable to resist Japanese forces and signed a truce with Japan.

This truce was short-lived however, as the Japanese took a small clash of troops between the two countries as a pretext to begin hostilities thus releasing a Japanese force to overrun northern China. By the end of 1937, when the fighting began, Japan had managed to easily blockade almost the entire Chinese coast and successfully capture many important Chinese cities. The entire conduct of the war was left in the hands of military and naval leaders as the government decided to not interfere. Japan's aggressive foreign policy was only furthered in Southeast Asia when World War II began in September of 1939. Japan, while involved in treaties with Germany and the USSR, began to invade parts of the East Indies and Indochina looking for more political and economical power. Friction between Japan and the United States began to be more prominent as the US worried about American property in eastern Asia. Joseph Clark Grew, the United States' ambassador to Japan, made several attempts to negotiate with Japan, but was unable to make any impact. In October of 1941, General Tojo Hideki, an anti-American, became Prime Minister of Japan as well as minister of war.

On December 7, 1941, while negotiations between Japan and the United States were still in progress, Japanese carrier-based airplanes attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the main US naval base in the Pacific Ocean. Japan also attacked many other surrounding islands similarly, leading the Congress of the United States and all the other Allied powers excluding the USSR (who had signed a neutrality act with Japan) to declare war on Japan. Japan was able to stay on the offense in Southeast Asia and the islands of the South Pacific for about a year, using a series of surprise attacks. Trying to free themselves from Western imperialism, many of the countries of eastern Asia gave support to Japan. Japan continued to sweep neighboring areas and gradually built up alliances and occupation in many islands and cities. Eventually, the war became a naval struggle for control of vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean.

In 1942, though, the war began to change hands as the Allied naval and air force was able to begin to defeat Japan. This trend continued until July of 1944, when the Allied forces took Saipan, a major Japanese base in the Mariana Islands, and the Japanese realized that they had lost the war. General Tojo was forced to resign, weakening the hold of the military oligarchy. Over a four month period, the Allied troops were able to bomb and devastate much of the Japanese communications, industry, and navy. These attacks reached a climax when, on August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. Two days later the USSR declared war on Japan and on August 9, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. During the Potsdam conference, Allied forces had agreed that only an unconditional surrender by Japan would suffice, and on August 14, Japan accepted these terms, signing the formal surrender on August 14.

After this surrender, American troops were able to occupy many Japanese islands without resistance. Japan was forced to reorganize their government, but the real trouble for the Japanese was regaining their lost economy. Beginning in 1949, work stoppages added to the economic deficit as coal mining and other Japanese industries began to shut down. The government blamed this on the Communist Party, and for years to come communism and repatriation were dominant issues in national politics. These problems between Japan, the United States, and the USSR led to negotiations in 1950 and the eventual publication of a draft treaty on July 12, 1951. A peace conference was held in the United States in early September and forty-nine countries signed a treaty the nullified Soviet attempts to reopen negotiations on its various provisions. By the terms of this treaty, which Japan also signed, the Japanese government was forced to renounce all claims to Korea, Taiwan, and several other islands. The United States and Japan also signed an agreement protecting the disarmed country of Japan from aggression or large-scale internal disturbances. By the end of June, though, the US stopped aiding Japan and the country's economic losses continued to spiral. This was somewhat ameliorated with the allowance for Japan to carry on limited trade with mainland China.

It was not until 1953 that Japanese was capable and ready to rearm the country, and they then did so only after the encouragement of the United States. Prime Minister Yoshida agreed that this action was inevitably necessary and signed a mutual-defense pact with the United States in 1954. During this time, Yoshida was strongly criticized for his close bond with the United States, and the Japan Democratic Party was formed by many of the liberals who were against Yoshida. He was removed as head of the liberal party and resigned his premiership in favor of head of the Democratic Party, Hatoyama Ichiro.

In October of 1956, the USSR and Japan agreed to come to terms and end the long seated problems between the two countries. They reinstated normal diplomatic relations and formally signed a Soviet-Japanese peace treaty. On December 18, the UN General Assembly voted unanimously to admit Japan to the United Nations. Hatoyama was succeeded by Ishibashi Tanzan who sought to expand trade with the USSR and China to protect the economy and stayed in close ties with the United States. In 1958, Japan became a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. Even though the United States and Japan were on good terms, anti-US riots broke out in Tokyo in 1959 due to the signing of a new security pact with the United States. President Eisenhower was supposed to visit Japan in June of 1960, but the trip was canceled due to fears for Eisenhower's safety.

The Japanese economy was able to make an amazing recovery after World War II and led the world in its growth rate during 1964. Japan continued to expand trade and was eventually chosen to hold the 18th Olympic Games in Tokyo in October of 1964. During the 1960s, Japan was able to surpass every nation of Western Europe in terms of gross nationals product, and was close to the United States as a world industrial power. By 1971, Japan was the third largest exporter in the world and the fifth largest importer. With this amazing rise in the countries economy came bad aspects as well. In the early 1980s, Japan was faced with urban overcrowding, pollution, and unproductive agriculture while it still held the highest rate of economy growth.