Aomori Entrance Social Studies flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Japan's climate zones

Hokkaido has cool continental climate with heavy snow; the Sea of Japan side gets winter snow; the Pacific side has dry winters and wet summers; the Nansei Islands are subtropical.

Food self-sufficiency ratio

Japan's calorie-based food self-sufficiency ratio is about 38%, one of the lowest among advanced economies, despite near-complete rice self-sufficiency.

Contour line reading

Lines close together indicate a steep slope; widely spaced lines indicate gentle terrain; V-shaped contours crossing a river point upstream toward higher ground.

Pacific Belt

Japan's industrial corridor stretching from the Kanto region through Chukyo and Hanshin to Kitakyushu, concentrating heavy industry, ports, and population along the Pacific coast.

Jomon and Yayoi periods

Jomon (c. 14,000–300 BCE) is characterized by cord-marked pottery and hunting-gathering; Yayoi introduced wet-rice agriculture, bronze and iron tools, and social stratification.

Kamakura shogunate

Japan's first warrior government, founded by Minamoto no Yoritomo around 1185; the Hojo regents held real power, and the shogunate repelled Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281.

Edo sakoku policy

The Tokugawa shogunate restricted foreign contact from the 1630s; only Dutch and Chinese merchants traded at Nagasaki's Dejima, limiting foreign influence for over two centuries.

Meiji Restoration reforms

After 1868 Japan abolished domains, introduced conscription, reformed land taxes, built railways and schools, and promulgated the Meiji Constitution in 1889, rapidly industrializing.

Taisho democracy

A period of party cabinets and expanded political participation in early 20th-century Japan, marked by universal male suffrage in 1925 but also the restrictive Peace Preservation Law.

Hammurabi's Code

A Babylonian legal code from around 1750 BCE inscribed on a stele, notable for its proportionality principle and for being one of the earliest written legal systems.

Protestant Reformation

Begun by Martin Luther's 95 Theses in 1517, it challenged papal authority, spread through printing, and led to the Counter-Reformation and religious wars in Europe.

French Revolution

A 1789 upheaval that overthrew the monarchy, issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and spread ideas of liberty, equality, and popular sovereignty across Europe.

Cold War structure

Post-1945 rivalry between the US-led NATO bloc and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact, marked by nuclear deterrence, proxy wars, and the division of Europe until 1991.

Article 9 of the Constitution

Japan renounces war as a sovereign right and the threat or use of force to settle disputes, and does not maintain war potential; the SDF is treated as constitutional by government interpretation.

Equality under the law

Article 14 guarantees equality before the law and prohibits discrimination based on race, creed, sex, social status, or family origin, and abolishes the peerage.

Social rights in the Constitution

Articles 25–28 guarantee the right to a minimum standard of living, education, work, and collective bargaining, reflecting the postwar welfare-state orientation.

Constitutional amendment procedure

Article 96 requires a two-thirds vote of all members in each House and then a national referendum; the Emperor promulgates the amendment.

Diet's legislative supremacy

The House of Representatives can override a House of Councillors rejection with a two-thirds vote and takes precedence on budgets, treaties, and the designation of the Prime Minister.

Cabinet responsibility

The Cabinet is collectively responsible to the Diet; a no-confidence resolution in the House of Representatives forces it to resign or dissolve the House within ten days.

House of Councillors terms

The upper house has 248 members serving six-year terms, with half elected every three years; it cannot be dissolved by the Prime Minister.

Local autonomy in Japan

Chapter 8 of the Constitution and the Local Autonomy Act guarantee local self-government; governors and mayors are directly elected, and residents have initiative and recall rights.

GDP expenditure formula

GDP = consumption + investment + government spending + (exports − imports); real GDP adjusts for inflation while nominal GDP does not.

Japan's public debt

Gross government debt exceeds 250% of GDP, the highest among advanced economies, with a large share of revenue financed by government bonds.

Consumption tax rate

Japan's consumption tax is a value-added tax at a standard rate of 10%, with a reduced 8% rate for food and some other items.

Exchange rate effects

Yen appreciation makes exports more expensive and imports cheaper; yen depreciation helps exporters but raises import costs and consumer prices.

UN Security Council veto

The Security Council has five permanent members with veto power and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms; a veto blocks substantive resolutions.

Paris Agreement

A 2015 international climate treaty under the UNFCCC aiming to limit global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts toward 1.5°C.

SDGs

The 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals comprise 17 goals and 169 targets to be achieved by 2030, covering poverty, health, education, environment, and inequality.

ODA target

The UN target for official development assistance is 0.7% of gross national income, a level Japan and several other donors have not reached.

Truncated axis distortion

Starting a graph's vertical axis above zero exaggerates differences between bars or lines, so readers must check the axis origin before comparing values.

Correlation versus causation

A scatter plot showing association between two variables does not prove that one causes the other; a third factor or reverse causation may explain the pattern.

Primary versus secondary sources

Primary sources are produced contemporaneously by participants or witnesses; secondary sources interpret or analyze primary material and may reflect later perspectives.