Akita Entrance Social Studies cheat sheet

Japanese periodization: Jömon → Yayoi → Kofun → Asuka (592–710) → Nara (710–794) → Heian (794–1185) → Kamakura (1185–1333) → Muromachi (1336–1573) → Azuchi-Momoyama (1573–1603) → Edo (1603–1868) → Meiji (1868–1912) → Taishö (1912–1926) → Shöwa (1926–1989) → Heisei (1989–2019) → Reiwa (2019–).

Key dates: 645 Taika Reform; 710 Heijö-kyö capital; 794 Heian-kyö capital; 1192 Minamoto no Yoritomo appointed shogun; 1274 and 1281 Mongol invasions repelled; 1543 Portuguese arrive at Tanegashima; 1600 Sekigahara; 1639 sakoku tightened.

Modern dates: 1853 Perry arrives; 1868 Meiji Restoration; 1889 Meiji Constitution promulgated; 1894–95 Sino-Japanese War (Shimonoseki, cession of Taiwan); 1904–05 Russo-Japanese War (Treaty of Portsmouth); 1910 annexation of Korea; 1941 Pacific War begins; 1945 surrender; 1947 new Constitution and Fundamental Law of Education.

Postwar timeline: 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty signed, effective 1952; 1956 Japan joins the UN and normalizes with the USSR; 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security revised; 1964 Tokyo Olympics and Shinkansen; 1972 Okinawa reversion and normalization with China.

World-history anchors: Fertile Crescent agriculture (~10,000 BCE); Greek city-states and Roman law; 476 fall of Western Rome; 622 hijra; 1492 Columbus; 1517 Reformation; 1648 Peace of Westphalia; 1789 French Revolution; 1917 Russian Revolution; 1945 UN founded.

Source criticism: primary sources (contemporary documents, inscriptions, diaries) versus secondary sources; evaluate authorship, date, purpose, audience, and bias. The Kojiki and Nihon Shoki are official court chronicles compiled in 712 and 720, so their accounts of early emperors mix myth with history.

Periodization rules: political center shifts (Fujiwara regency, cloistered rule, warrior government) mark period boundaries; economic turning points include the Kamakura-period currency economy, Edo-period market growth, and Meiji industrialization.

Cross-regional links to trace: Silk Road trade; Mongol Empire connecting Eurasia; Age of Exploration linking Europe, the Americas, and Asia; Industrial Revolution driving imperialism; two world wars and decolonization.

Japanese Constitution (1947) three principles: popular sovereignty, fundamental human rights, and pacifism (Article 9 renounces war and prohibits maintaining war potential; the Self-Defense Forces' constitutionality is interpreted as permitted self-defense).

Separation of powers: the Diet (bicameral, House of Representatives and House of Councillors) is the sole law-making organ and designates the Prime Minister; the Cabinet is collectively responsible to the Diet; courts exercise judicial review.

Rights categories: equality (Article 14), freedom of thought and conscience (19), expression (21), economic freedom (29, property rights subject to public welfare), social rights (25 minimum standard of living, 26 education, 27 labor), and procedural rights.

Election rules: universal adult suffrage at 18; House of Representatives uses a mixed system of single-member districts plus proportional representation; House of Councillors combines district and proportional seats; the Supreme Court judges are reviewed by referendum at the first general election after appointment.

Economic indicators: GDP measures output; GDP deflator converts nominal to real; CPI tracks inflation; unemployment rate = unemployed ÷ labor force; the Gini coefficient measures income inequality (0 = perfect equality).

Business structures: joint-stock companies (kabushiki kaisha) issue shares and are owned by shareholders; the Bank of Japan sets monetary policy and issues banknotes; the Ministry of Finance handles fiscal policy and the budget.

Fiscal facts: Japan's public debt is the largest among advanced economies relative to GDP; tax revenue and government bond issuance fund the budget; consumption tax is a regressive indirect tax.

International organizations: UN (1945, Security Council with five permanent members), IMF (balance-of-payments support), World Bank (development loans), WTO (trade rules), OECD, and the Japan-US Security Treaty framework.

Contemporary issues: aging population with a declining birth rate, labor-force participation of women and older workers, regional revitalization, energy mix after the 2011 nuclear accident, and SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015.

Read a graph in three steps: identify axes and units, describe the overall trend, then note turning points and outliers; never state a value beyond the precision the scale supports.

Bar graphs compare categories; line graphs show change over time; pie charts show composition (parts must total 100%); scatter plots show correlation, and correlation does not establish causation.

Population pyramids: a broad base and narrow top indicate high birth and death rates (expanding); a narrow base and wide top indicate aging and low birth rates (contracting), as in Japan.

Index numbers: an index expresses values relative to a base year (base = 100). To compare real change, deflate nominal values by a price index rather than comparing raw figures.

Rate calculations: population density = population ÷ area; natural increase = births − deaths; net migration = immigrants − emigrants; growth rate = (natural increase + net migration) ÷ population.

Choropleth maps shade whole regions by value and can mislead when regions differ in area or population; dot maps show distribution; isoline maps (contours, isotherms) connect equal values.

Scale reasoning: 1:50,000 means 1 cm on the map equals 500 m on the ground; convert units before comparing, and remember that area scales with the square of the linear ratio.

Cross-domain chains: climate and terrain shape agriculture and settlement, which shape industry and transport, which shape population distribution and policy; trace the chain when a question spans domains.

Data reliability checks: identify the source and year, check whether the definition (for example, 'unemployed' or 'urban') matches across countries, and note whether the data are nominal or real.