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Biwa

(Encyclopedia)Biwa bēˈwä [key], lake, c.40 mi (60 km) long and from 2 to 12 mi (3.2–19 km) wide, Shiga prefecture, S Honshu, Japan. The lake, shaped like the biwa, a musical instrument, is the largest in Japan...

Shiga

(Encyclopedia)Shiga shēˈgä [key], prefecture (1990 pop. 1,222,401), S Honshu, Japan. Otsu (the capital) and Hikone are the chief cities. It is predominantly an agricultural region, with rice the principal crop. ...

Nagasaki

(Encyclopedia)Nagasaki nägˌäsäˈkē [key], city (1990 pop. 444,599), capital of Nagasaki prefecture, W Kyushu, Japan, on Nagasaki Bay. It is one of Japan's leading ports. Shipbuilding is the chief industry; mac...

treaty port

(Encyclopedia)treaty port, port opened to foreign trade by a treaty. The term is usually confined to ports in those countries that formerly strongly objected to foreign trade or attempted altogether to exclude it. ...

Sino-Japanese War, First

(Encyclopedia)Sino-Japanese War, First, 1894–95, conflict between China and Japan for control of Korea in the late 19th cent. The Li-Ito Convention of 1885 provided for mutual troop withdrawals and advance notifi...

Meiji restoration

(Encyclopedia)Meiji restoration, The term refers to both the events of 1868 that led to the “restoration” of power to the emperor and the entire period of revolutionary changes that coincided with the Meiji emp...

naval conferences

(Encyclopedia)naval conferences, series of international assemblies, meeting to consider limitation of naval armaments, settlement of the rules of naval war, and allied issues. The London Naval Conference (1908–9...

Axis

(Encyclopedia)Axis, coalition of countries headed by Germany, Italy, and Japan, 1936–45 (see World War II). The expression “Rome-Berlin axis” originated in Oct., 1936, with an accord reached by Hitler and Mus...

Hitachi

(Encyclopedia)Hitachi hētäˈchē [key], city, Ibaraki prefecture, E central Honshu, Japan, on the Kashima ...

Liancourt Rocks

(Encyclopedia)Liancourt Rocks, Jap. Takeshima, Korean Dokdo or Tokdo, island group, 58 acres (23 hectares), in the SW Sea of Japan, roughly midway between the Japanese island of Honshu and the Korean peninsula. Con...