Pastlasby Oleh Voronko

State · 1868 – 1947

Empire of Japan

A state of 1868 – 1947 — 79 years in East and Southeast Asia. It replaced Tokugawa shogunate. It was replaced by Japan. The atlas records 208 things within it — wars and battles 43 · unrest and atrocity 20 · natural disasters 5 · treaties 6 · people 133 · works and ideas 1. Its line of rulers holds 10 people, 4 with dated terms.

For the full story, the article on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); this page holds what the record says of the state.

Stood
79 years
1868 – 1947
Rulers
10
the Emperor of Japan
Most ground
7.05 million km²
in 1943
Within it
208
recorded rows
Symbols
2
on record, with years
Map: Empire of Japan in 1943, its borders in gold among its neighbours
Empire of Japan in 1943, when it held the most ground the borders dataset draws for it: 7.05 million km². Its neighbours wear their tints, as on the atlas's own map. Borders from Cliopatria (CC BY 4.0), coast and rivers from Natural Earth, cities from Reba, Reitsma & Seto 2016 (CC BY 4.0), each city under the name it bore that year.
Empire of Japan in 1868, first mapped

1868 · first mapped · 57,000 km²

Empire of Japan in 1943, at its largest

1943 · at its largest · 7.05 million km²

The rise and the fall in one frame: the same ground at the years the borders dataset first maps it, maps it largest, and last maps it.

Where it sits in time

3000 BCE2000 BCE1000 BCE110002000Tokugawa shogunate: 1603 – 1867Japan: 1947 – 2026Empire of Japan: 1868 – 1947

Five thousand years, 3000 BCE to 2026; the state in gold, what it replaced or followed and what replaced or followed it in grey.

Before and after

The states the record files it as replacing or following, and those that replaced or followed it - Wikidata's own statements, each read from this state's side.

Before it

After it

  • Japan · replaced by · 1947 – present

Rulers

The line of Emperor of Japan - the office this state names as its head of state.

Emperor Kōmei · 1846 – 1867 · died in office of natural causesEmperor Meiji · 1867 – 1912 · died in office of natural causesEmperor Taishō · 1912 – 1926 · died in office of natural causesHirohito · 1926 – 1989 · died in office of natural causes1880190019201940
died in office
RulerReignLengthHow it ended · sourceTo the ruler before
Emperor Kōmei1846 – 186721 yearsdied in office of natural causesWikidata's manner of death
Emperor Meiji1867 – 191245 yearsdied in office of natural causesWikidata's manner of deathchild
Emperor Taishō1912 – 192614 yearsdied in office of natural causesWikidata's manner of deathchild
Hirohito1926 – 198963 yearsdied in office of natural causesWikidata's manner of deathchild

10 rulers, 4 with terms dated as terms, covering 1846 – 1989. Median reign 33 years. 1 of 3 handovers irregular - a killing, a deposition, a rival claimant, a rising or a coup beside it. A blank in the last column means no kin on record, which is coverage, never “unrelated”.

Heads of government

The line of Prime Minister of Japan, drawn and never measured: a cabinet is not a reign.

Itō Hirobumi1885 – 1888
Kuroda Kiyotaka1888 – 1889
Yamagata Aritomo1889 – 1891
Sanjō Sanetomi1889 – 1889
Matsukata Masayoshi1891 – 1892
Itō Hirobumi1892 – 1896
Matsukata Masayoshi1896 – 1898
Itō Hirobumi1898 – 1898
Ōkuma Shigenobu1898 – 1898
Yamagata Aritomo1898 – 1900
Itō Hirobumi1900 – 1901
Katsura Tarō1901 – 1906
Saionji Kinmochi1906 – 1908
Katsura Tarō1908 – 1911
Saionji Kinmochi1911 – 1912
Katsura Tarō1912 – 1913
Yamamoto Gonnohyōe1913 – 1914
Ōkuma Shigenobu1914 – 1916
Terauchi Masatake1916 – 1918
Hara Takashi1918 – 1921
Takahashi Korekiyo1921 – 1922
Katō Tomosaburō1922 – 1923
Yamamoto Gonnohyōe1923 – 1924
Katō Takaaki1924 – 1926
Kiyoura Keigo1924 – 1924
Wakatsuki Reijirō1926 – 1927
Tanaka Giichi1927 – 1929
Hamaguchi Osachi1929 – 1931
Wakatsuki Reijirō1931 – 1931
Inukai Tsuyoshi1931 – 1932
Saitō Makoto1932 – 1934
Keisuke Okada1934 – 1936
Kōki Hirota1936 – 1937
Fumimaro Konoe1937 – 1939
Senjūrō Hayashi1937 – 1937
Nobuyuki Abe1939 – 1940
Hiranuma Kiichirō1939 – 1939
Fumimaro Konoe1940 – 1941
Mitsumasa Yonai1940 – 1940
Hideki Tojo1941 – 1944
Fumimaro Konoe1941 – 1941
Kuniaki Koiso1944 – 1945
Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni1945 – 1945
Kijūrō Shidehara1945 – 1946
Kantarō Suzuki1945 – 1945
Shigeru Yoshida1946 – 1947

Ground held, by year

km² inside its borders as the borders dataset draws them, measured on an equal-area grid; a step series, held between the years the dataset maps.

188019001920

57,000 km² in 1868, 3.10 million km² in 1938; at its largest 3.10 million km² in 1938. Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0.

Flags and arms, in order

Each symbol with the years its own statement gives; the timeline flies the one of the year on screen.

  • Flag of Japan (1870–1999)
    flag, undatedFlag of Japan (1870–1999) · Public domain
  • Imperial Seal of Japan
    coat of arms, from 1869Imperial Seal of Japan · Public domain

What happened within it, by century

Every row the atlas hosts under this state, by the century it began in: wars and battles in red, risings, regime changes and massacres beside them, everything else in grey. A tall bar is a century the record is full for, which is partly a fact about Wikipedia.

1800 – 1899: 112 recorded — 7 wars and battles, 6 risings, regime changes and massacres, 99 other18001900 – 1999: 96 recorded — 36 wars and battles, 14 risings, regime changes and massacres, 46 other1900

1800 – 1899112 rows · 7 wars and battles · 6 risings, regime changes and massacres

and 104 more in the atlas.

1900 – 199996 rows · 36 wars and battles · 14 risings, regime changes and massacres

and 88 more in the atlas.

Among all states

Each measure against the states that carry it, never against all of them: a bar is the share of those states below this one.

  • How long it stood79 years

    stood longer than 42% of 3,187 states with a recorded end or still standing.

  • The most ground it held7,054,600 km²

    held more ground at its peak than 98% of 1,465 states with a border in Cliopatria.

  • Wars recorded per century3.0

    had more wars on record per century than 99% of 3,187 states, counting the wars the atlas hosts under each.

  • How long a reign lasted, at the median45 years

    had longer reigns, at the median, than 93% of 967 states whose dated line can carry a median.

  • Rulers on record10

    has more rulers on record than 80% of 1,968 states with a line of rulers.

What led to it, and what came of it

The investigation's own picture: 10 causes the record names and 1 result, the strongest six of each at their own years, joined to the state by the kind of claim - a recorded statement solid, the article's sentence dashed, a theory dash-dot.

Tokugawa shogunate · Linked · 1603 – 1867Tokugawa shogunateNguyễn dynasty · Coincidence · 1802 – 1945Nguyễn dynastyShō Tai · Coincidence · 1843 – 1901Shō TaiOku Yasukata · Coincidence · 1847 – 1930Oku YasukataPrince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa · Coincidence · 1847 – 1895Prince Kitashirakawa YoshihisaKamimura Hikonojō · Coincidence · 1849 – 1916Kamimura HikonojōEmpire of Japan · 1868 – 1947Empire of JapanJapan · Linked · 1947 – 2026Japan16001700180019002000
linkedcoincidence

Open the investigation: every row with its evidence, the conditions at the time, the theories condition by condition, and the succession analysed.

Theories that apply to its ending

Of 3 theories of why states fall, 1 has every condition present at this ending; each is applied by its own logic, condition by condition, and whether its authors named this case is a footnote.

  • Demographic-structural breakdown

    Goldstone 1991 · Turchin & Nefedov 2009

    Applies by its own logic: 2 of its 3 conditions held here (it needs 2), and this is the kind of outcome it predicts — unrest, adverse regime change or the state's ending.

    • famine, plague or disaster within 30 y in the state, or population up 25% over 50 y — prior
    • a war the state is fighting, still under way, or a war the state fought, ended within 10 y — warEnded

Open in the atlas

Wikidata Q188712 (CC0) · borders Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0 · coast and rivers Natural Earth · symbols from Wikimedia Commons, each credited above · data built 2026-10-06 · Pastlas v2.9.1, by Oleh Voronko. The published atlas and its data are for non-commercial use.