The Empire of Japan (Japanese: 大日本帝國 Dai Nippon Teikoku, literally "Greater Japanese Empire"), is an empire and world power located in Northwest Asia. It was founded during the Meiji Restoration on 3rd January 1868, and existed until the enactment of the 1947 constitution of modern Japan. During the Cold War, Japan became a highly developed nation, and the wealthiest and most well-developed nation in Asia until Doomsday (1983: Doomsday), when it was very hard hit by Soviet ICBM:s, mainly due to the trade and military affiliation with the United States of America (1983: Doomsday). After Doomsday, the Empire of Japan was restored, however it became a isolated nation and had committed itself to self-sufficiency until the early 21st century. At over 7,400,000 square kilometres (2,857,000 square miles), the Empire of Japan is one of the largest and most powerful nations in the world, and a recognized global superpower. It borders the Union of Sovereign Soviet Siberian Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union (1983: Doomsday) to the north, the People's Republic of China (1983: Doomsday) to the west, the Imperial China (1983: Doomsday) to the northwest, the United States of America to the northeast, and the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand (1983: Doomsday) to the south. Its capital is Tokyo (1983: Doomsday), which is part of the Greater Tokyo Area (1983: Doomsday), the second largest metropolitan area in the world with over 35 million people.
Imperial Japan's rapid industrialization and militarization under the slogan Fukoku Kyōhei (Japanese: 富国強兵, "Enrich the Country, Strengthen the Army") led to its emergence as a great power, eventually culminating in its membership in the Axis Powers and the conquest of a large part of the Asia-Pacific region. At the height of its power in 1942, the Empire of Japan ruled over a land area spanning 7,400,000 square kilometres (2,857,000 sq mi), making it one of the largest maritime empires in history.
After several large-scale military successes during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and the Pacific War (1941–1945), the Empire of Japan also gained notoriety for its war crimes against the peoples of the countries it conquered. After suffering many defeats and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, however, the Empire of Japan surrendered to the Allied of World War II on September 2, 1945. A period of occupation of Japan by the Allies followed the surrender, and a new constitution of Japan was created with American involvement. The constitution came into force on May 3, 1947, officially dissolving the Empire. American occupation and reconstruction of the country continued well into the 1950s, eventually forming the current nation-state whose full title is the "State of Japan" (Nippon-koku) simply rendered "Japan" in English.
On Doomsday, Japan was very hard when Soviet ICBM:s hit the major cities of Tokyo, Nagasaki, Yokohama, Kawasaki, Misawa and Iwakuni as well as Naha/Okinawa Island. It resulted in over 60 million deaths in the decades after Doomsday. However, the major cities of Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Himoshima, Fukuoka and Sapporo were not targered by the USSR, and so Japan survived. Tokyo, Nagasaki, and the other major cities destroyed on Doomsday were rebuilt in the 1990s, and reached their pre-Doomsday population in 2012. In the late 1990s, the Empire of Japan invaded and annexted the Korean Peninsula, and built major naval bases at various locations in the Pacific. Japan emerged as a global military superpower by the end of the 20th century.
A major economic power, the Empire of Japan has the second largest national economy in Asia by nominal GDP, and Asia's third largest national economy by purchasing power parity (PPP). It is also the world's fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer. Since the 1990s, the Empire of Japan maintains by far one of the world's largest military forces with the third largest nominal military budget in the world, mainly used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. The Imperial Japanese Navy (1983: Doomsday) maintains a very large fleet of modern aircraft carriers, and operates over 2,500 aircraft. Since the early 2000s, the Empire of Japan has developed weapons of mass destruction, and maintains over 25,000 nuclear warheads.