Tokushima Public High School Entrance Examination - Social Studies cheat sheet

Japan lies roughly 20°N–46°N latitude and 122°E–154°E longitude; the 45°N line passes near Hokkaido's northern tip, and the 135°E meridian passes near Osaka and Kobe.

Standard time: Japan uses 135°E (UTC+9). Longitude difference of 15° equals one hour; a place 30° west of Japan is 2 hours behind, so 15:00 JST = 13:00 there.

Climate types: Pacific side gets summer rain from the southeast monsoon (kaso) and dry winters; Japan Sea side gets heavy winter snow from the northwest monsoon; Seto Inland Sea is dry year-round; Hokkaido is subarctic; Okinawa is subtropical.

Population: about 124 million, declining since 2008; birth rate near 1.2, life expectancy over 80 for both sexes; over 28% aged 65+, the world's highest share among large countries.

Industry belts: Keihin (Tokyo–Yokohama), Hanshin (Osaka–Kobe), Chukyo (Nagoya, autos), Kitakyushu (steel), plus Pacific Belt concentration; heavy industry shifted overseas after the 1985 Plaza Accord yen appreciation.

Agriculture: rice self-sufficiency near 100%, but overall food self-sufficiency around 38% on a calorie basis; Hokkaido leads in wheat, potatoes, dairy; Ehime and Wakayama lead in citrus.

Map reading: large-scale maps (1:25,000) show more detail than small-scale (1:200,000); contour lines closer together mean steeper slope; hachures and layer tints also show relief.

World regions: monsoon Asia holds over half of humanity; Sahel is semi-arid south of Sahara; Mediterranean climate has dry summers; tundra and taiga shift by latitude in Eurasia.

Jomon (c. 14,000 BCE–300 BCE): cord-marked pottery, hunting and gathering; Yayoi (c. 300 BCE–250 CE): wet-rice farming, bronze and iron, social stratification, sites like Yoshinogari.

Kofun period: large keyhole tombs; Prince Shotoku's Seventeen-Article Constitution (604) and the Taika Reform (645) centralized power under the ritsuryo system; Heijo-kyo (Nara, 710) and Heian-kyo (Kyoto, 794) capitals.

Kamakura shogunate (1185–1333): Minamoto no Yoritomo; Jokyu War (1221) strengthened warrior rule; Mongol invasions repelled in 1274 and 1281 with typhoons called kamikaze.

Sengoku era ended by Oda Nobunaga, Toyotaka Hideyoshi (sword hunt 1588, cadastral survey), and Tokugawa Ieyasu at Sekigahara (1600) and Osaka (1615); Edo shogunate used sankin kotai and sakoku edicts.

Meiji Restoration (1868): Charter Oath, abolition of domains (1871), conscription (1873), land tax reform; Constitution of 1889 gave the Emperor broad power with a limited Diet; Sino-Japanese (1894–95) and Russo-Japanese (1904–05) wars.

Modern era: Taisho democracy and universal male suffrage (1925); Manchurian Incident (1931), Pacific War (1941–45); postwar Constitution (1946) and San Francisco Peace Treaty (1951, effective 1952); high growth from the 1950s to 1973 oil shock.

Civilizations: Mesopotamia (Tigris–Euphrates, cuneiform, Hammurabi's Code), Egypt (Nile, hieroglyphs), Indus (planned cities), Yellow River (oracle bones, Shang); Greece developed democracy in Athens; Rome built law and roads.

Religions: Buddhism founded by Siddhartha Gautama in India (5th century BCE); Christianity spread through the Roman Empire; Islam arose in 7th-century Arabia under Muhammad; Hinduism developed in India.

Silk Road linked Han China to Rome; Tang China (618–907) influenced Japan through envoys and Buddhism; the Mongol Empire (13th century) connected Eurasia and attempted Japan invasions.

Renaissance (14th–16th centuries) in Italian city-states; Reformation began 1517 with Luther; Age of Exploration: Columbus 1492, Vasco da Gama to India 1498, Magellan's voyage 1519–22.

Revolutions: American (1776), French (1789, Declaration of the Rights of Man), Industrial Revolution in Britain from the 18th century; Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna (1815).

19th–20th centuries: Opium War (1840–42), Meiji Japan's rise, World War I (1914–18), Russian Revolution (1917), World War II (1939–45), Cold War, decolonization, and the 1989 end of the Cold War divide.

Constitution of Japan: three principles - popular sovereignty, fundamental human rights, pacifism (Article 9); Emperor is symbol of the state; Article 41 makes the Diet the highest organ of state power.

Separation of powers: Diet (legislative), Cabinet (executive, responsible to the Diet), courts (judicial, independent); Constitution is supreme law and judicial review lets courts check laws.

Rights: equality (Art. 14), freedom of thought and conscience (Art. 19), speech and press (Art. 21), academic freedom (Art. 23), right to life and liberty (Art. 31); rights may be limited for public welfare (Art. 12, 13).

Elections: House of Representatives has 465 members (289 single-member districts, 176 proportional); House of Councillors has 248 members; voting age is 18 since 2016.

Economy: market economy with government role; GDP is a measure of output; inflation reduces purchasing power; the Bank of Japan sets monetary policy; fiscal policy uses taxes and spending.

International society: UN founded 1945 with Security Council permanent five (US, UK, France, Russia, China); Japan joined the UN in 1956; ODA, NGOs, and treaties like the Paris Agreement address global issues.

Labor and welfare: Labor Standards Act sets 8-hour day and 40-hour week; minimum wage by prefecture; social insurance covers pensions, health, and long-term care; aging population strains finances.

Chronology: convert BCE/CE carefully (no year 0); a span from 500 BCE to 1500 CE is 2,000 years; relative dating uses stratigraphy and seriation, absolute dating uses radiocarbon or tree rings.

Graph reading: identify axes and units first; distinguish absolute values from rates; a rising line with a falling rate means the total still grows (e.g., population growth slowing but not shrinking).

Population pyramids: wide base means high birth rate and young population; narrow base with wide top means aging; dependency ratio = (under 15 + over 65) ÷ working-age (15–64) × 100.

Map scale: 1:50,000 means 1 cm = 500 m; a 4 cm map distance equals 2 km; area scales with the square of the linear scale, so 1:25,000 covers 1/4 the area of 1:50,000 at the same paper size.

Source analysis: separate fact from opinion; check author, date, audience, and purpose; corroborate with a second source; note bias and omissions before drawing conclusions.

Tables and indices: percentage change = (new − old) ÷ old × 100; share of total = part ÷ total × 100; when comparing countries, use per-capita figures to avoid population-size distortion.

Time zones and dates: crossing the International Date Line eastward subtracts a day; crossing westward adds a day; combine with 15°-per-hour rule for travel and communication problems.

Charts of trade: a trade surplus means exports exceed imports; a deficit means imports exceed exports; identify main partners and products before interpreting causes such as exchange rates or resource dependence.