Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south.

Appearance
Japan is the only country with animal attribute, which reflects the crazy side of it's culture and remind of a Nekomimi/Nekochan (girl with cat's ears) or a Kistune. She often wears the clothing of Japanese students, including black loafers, long white socks, short navy blue skirt, with a white top and a little red scarf.

Japan may also be shown wearing a type of business suit.

She is also represented wearing a kimono (in it's different version such as the yukata, relax version, or the furisode, worn usually for the tea ceremony) with geta ( sort of shoes made of wood), sometimes with a katana.

Personality
Japan, most of the time, acts cute. But when it's about work, no ones stops her. She never jokes when it's about business.

She's very outward and extroverted, to the point where she can make some of her friends annoyed, but she doesn't mean to be rude

When she's angry, she threatens others with her katana.

Interests
Japan loves her pop culture based on manga, anime and all the other crazy stuff. Since USA showed her baseball she's been in love with the sport and even better than USA sometimes.

When she's too lazy to cook she eats box of noodles heated in her microwave. When she's not eating at home she always brings a bento box for food on the run. (basically a box with delicious food in it).

She like wandering under the blossoming cherry trees.

Tea is something really important to her (some say she's a member of a secret coalition of tea fans), in particular when it's about tea ceremony.

In general, tradition is really valuable to her.

Flag meaning
The flag is named "Hi no maru" but also "Nisshōki". The red circle represents the goddess of the sun Amateratsu.

Others symbols
The National Day of Japan is related to the birthday of the Emperor, so it often change. At this moment it is the 23 of February. The fact Japan has an emperor while it is not an empire is one of its particularity unique qualities.

Nicknames
"The Land of the Rising Sun" comes from the way Japanese people calls their country "Nihon" or "Nippon", which you can write in kanji (one of the form of writing of the language) :日本, here 日 means "sun" and 本 means "origin". The origin of the expression would date back to the letter wrote by the prince Shotoku to the Chinese emperor: "from the Son of Heaven in the land where the sun rises to the Son of Heaven in the land where the sun sets.".

Geography
Japan is an archipelago of 377 944 km2situated in East Asia and composed of 6 852 islands, but only 480 have inhabitants. The four most important are:
 * Honshū
 * Hokkaidō
 * Kyūshū
 * Shikoku

Family

 * Japanese Empire

Friends

 * France -
 * United States of America - (crush, depending on headcannon) Don't touch him!
 * Canada -
 * South Korea (crush, depending on headcannon) Don't you dare look at him.
 * Serbia -
 * Greece -
 * Indonesia -
 * Philippines -
 * Bulgaria-
 * Costa Rica- Give me bananas!
 * Malta- Friends forever~
 * Thailand- Old friend
 * Malaysia

Neutral

 * China - Frenemies
 * Sicily

Enemies

 * North Korea - I don't like you, get out of my sight or else I'll try more nukes in your sea!
 * Japanese Empire (mother/past self) - I don't have to remember it...
 * Russia - You are too mean to be around me. I don't trust you at all!

United States of America
The two had really hard times during WW2, but after the two nuclear bombs Japan got under USA tutelage and completely changed to became this cute lil' thing. Japan got traumatized, and USA seems to regrets this excessive use of nuke. The two countries are in good relation and Japan is always ready for some baseball. USA really appreciates Japan's pop culture. There has even been hints of Japan possibly liking USA a bit more, and some fans ship the two.

France

Japan has a strange fascination with France. Japan is very interested in the sophisticated side of her culture (wine, castles) while France loves her pop culture (manga and anime). France is the second country consuming the most of manga after Japan herself.

Greece
These two countries both share a love for cats, hinting to Greece's stray cat population. They have a really good relationships strengthened by the fact they have the common point to be two very old civilizations and so are very interested in each others culture.Their relation is good in every domains.

Serbia
In 1882 Japan recognized Serbia as an Independent State in the congress of Berlin, their first diplomatic relation begun in 1882. During WW2 the two countries were in opposite camps, their relation was at it's lowest point. Japan has exported a lot of products to Serbia since the dissolution of Yugoslavia (but was also an important trading partner of Yugoslavia and they had a really good relationships) and is one of most important Asian trader of Serbia.

South Korea
Their relationship is somewhat up and down, due to the fact that they've had some issues in the past when it comes to WWII that haven't been resolved, but they're okay friends and share a lot in common.

Thailand
They've had really good diplomatic relations for 130 years, and their first commercial relation started 600 years ago. Their royal families had been linked from a long time ago and Japan is the first foreign investor. They love visiting each other's landscape. Thailand is very inspired by Japan's culture.

China
The two countries has always have a very taut relation and fought many times, the most recent is the second Sino-Japanese war from 1937 to 1945 (so WW2). They're a not at the point to make a war today but they're still rivals. Even if Japan is now considering collaboration rather than competition and has made the first move.

Trivia

 * The representation of Japan in Countryhumans is mostly inspired by how act the characters in her pop culture. In reality, people see it more as a country of serious people working all the time.