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
1868 · first mapped · 57,000 km²
1943 · at its largest · 7.05 million km²
Where it sits in time
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
- Tokugawa shogunate · replaces · 1603 – 1867
After it
- Japan · replaced by · 1947 – present
Rulers
The line of Emperor of Japan - the office this state names as its head of state.
| Ruler | Reign | Length | How it ended · source | To the ruler before |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emperor Kōmei | 1846 – 1867 | 21 years | died in office of natural causesWikidata's manner of death | |
| Emperor Meiji | 1867 – 1912 | 45 years | died in office of natural causesWikidata's manner of death | child |
| Emperor Taishō | 1912 – 1926 | 14 years | died in office of natural causesWikidata's manner of death | child |
| Hirohito | 1926 – 1989 | 63 years | died in office of natural causesWikidata's manner of death | child |
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 Hirobumi | 1885 – 1888 |
| Kuroda Kiyotaka | 1888 – 1889 |
| Yamagata Aritomo | 1889 – 1891 |
| Sanjō Sanetomi | 1889 – 1889 |
| Matsukata Masayoshi | 1891 – 1892 |
| Itō Hirobumi | 1892 – 1896 |
| Matsukata Masayoshi | 1896 – 1898 |
| Itō Hirobumi | 1898 – 1898 |
| Ōkuma Shigenobu | 1898 – 1898 |
| Yamagata Aritomo | 1898 – 1900 |
| Itō Hirobumi | 1900 – 1901 |
| Katsura Tarō | 1901 – 1906 |
| Saionji Kinmochi | 1906 – 1908 |
| Katsura Tarō | 1908 – 1911 |
| Saionji Kinmochi | 1911 – 1912 |
| Katsura Tarō | 1912 – 1913 |
| Yamamoto Gonnohyōe | 1913 – 1914 |
| Ōkuma Shigenobu | 1914 – 1916 |
| Terauchi Masatake | 1916 – 1918 |
| Hara Takashi | 1918 – 1921 |
| Takahashi Korekiyo | 1921 – 1922 |
| Katō Tomosaburō | 1922 – 1923 |
| Yamamoto Gonnohyōe | 1923 – 1924 |
| Katō Takaaki | 1924 – 1926 |
| Kiyoura Keigo | 1924 – 1924 |
| Wakatsuki Reijirō | 1926 – 1927 |
| Tanaka Giichi | 1927 – 1929 |
| Hamaguchi Osachi | 1929 – 1931 |
| Wakatsuki Reijirō | 1931 – 1931 |
| Inukai Tsuyoshi | 1931 – 1932 |
| Saitō Makoto | 1932 – 1934 |
| Keisuke Okada | 1934 – 1936 |
| Kōki Hirota | 1936 – 1937 |
| Fumimaro Konoe | 1937 – 1939 |
| Senjūrō Hayashi | 1937 – 1937 |
| Nobuyuki Abe | 1939 – 1940 |
| Hiranuma Kiichirō | 1939 – 1939 |
| Fumimaro Konoe | 1940 – 1941 |
| Mitsumasa Yonai | 1940 – 1940 |
| Hideki Tojo | 1941 – 1944 |
| Fumimaro Konoe | 1941 – 1941 |
| Kuniaki Koiso | 1944 – 1945 |
| Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni | 1945 – 1945 |
| Kijūrō Shidehara | 1945 – 1946 |
| Kantarō Suzuki | 1945 – 1945 |
| Shigeru Yoshida | 1946 – 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.
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.
.svg/120px-Flag_of_Japan_(1870%E2%80%931999).svg.png)
flag, undatedFlag of Japan (1870–1999) · Public domain 
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 – 1899112 rows · 7 wars and battles · 6 risings, regime changes and massacres
- Yasunari Kawabata · writer · 1899 – 1972
- Ryūnosuke Akutagawa · writer · 1892 – 1927
- Hideki Tojo · politician · 1884 – 1948
- Isoroku Yamamoto · commander · 1884 – 1943
- Emperor Taishō · ruler · 1879 – 1926
- Treaty of Shimonoseki · treaty · 1895
- Shigeru Yoshida · politician · 1878 – 1967
- Nobusuke Kishi · politician · 1896 – 1987
and 104 more in the atlas.
1900 – 199996 rows · 36 wars and battles · 14 risings, regime changes and massacres
- Akira Kurosawa · artist · 1910 – 1998
- Hirohito · ruler · 1901 – 1989
- Ban Ki-moon · politician · 1944 – present
- Yukio Mishima · writer · 1925 – 1970
- Kenzaburō Ōe · writer · 1935 – 2023
- Hideki Yukawa · scientist · 1907 – 1981
- Tarō Asō · politician · 1940 – present
- Junichiro Koizumi · politician · 1942 – present
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.
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
- On the timeline, 1858 – 1957, with everything that stood beside it.
- On the map in 1943, live: scrub the year and watch its borders move.
- Investigate it: what led to it, what came of it, and its succession analysed.
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.