User:Lionelfullwood/Sandbox3

Asia Japan

Guide to Japan, family history and genealogy parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



---LOCATION---

Japan is a country comprising many islands in the area of the northwest Pacific Ocean. It lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south.

Japan is a strato-volcanic archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku, which make up about ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan's population of 126 million is the world's tenth largest.

About 73 percent of Japan is forested, mountainous, and unsuitable for agricultural, industrial, or residential use.

The islands of Japan are located in a volcanic zone on the Pacific Ring of Fire. Japan has 108 active volcanoes. During the twentieth century several new volcanoes emerged, including Shōwa-shinzan on Hokkaido and Myōjin-shō off the Bayonnaise Rocks in the Pacific. Destructive earthquakes, often resulting in tsunami, occur several times each century. The most recent of these was in 2011, resulting in a major tsunami that destroyed much of the local area, and causing destruction of the Fukushima Daiichi Atomic Energy plant.

---HISTORY---

Fossils and the remains of tools show that the Indonesian archipelago was inhabited by Homo-erectus, popularly known as "Java Man", between 1.5 million years ago and as recently as 35,000 years ago.

Homo sapiens reached the region by around 45,000 years ago.

Austronesian peoples, who form the majority of the modern population, migrated to South East Asia from Taiwan. They arrived in Indonesia around 2000 BC, and as they spread through the archipelago, pushed the indigenous Melanesian peoples to the far eastern regions.

Ideal agricultural conditions, and the mastering of wet-field rice cultivation as early as the 8th century BC,allowed villages, towns, and small kingdoms to flourish by the 1st century AD. Indonesia's strategic sea-lane position fostered inter-island and international trade, including links with Indian kingdoms and China, which were established several centuries BC. Trade has since fundamentally shaped Indonesian history.

---RELIGION---

While religious freedom is stipulated in the Indonesian constitution,[159] the government officially recognizes only six religions: Islam, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, at 87.2% in 2010, with the majority being Sunni (99%). Islam was first adopted by Indonesians in northern Sumatra in the 13th century, through the influence of traders, and became the country's dominant religion by the 16th century

Seven percent of the population was Protestant Christian, 2.9% Catholic Christian, 1.7% Hindu, and 0.9% Buddhist or other. Most Indonesian Hindus are Balinese, and most Buddhists in modern-day Indonesia are ethnic Chinese.

A large proportion of Indonesians—such as the Javanese abangan, Balinese Hindus, and Dayak Christians—practice a less orthodox, syncretic form of their religion, which draws on local customs and beliefs.

---ECONOMY---

Indonesia has a mixed economy in which both the private sector and government play significant roles. Indonesia's estimated gross domestic product (nominal), as of 2012 was US$928.274 billion with estimated nominal per capita GDP was US$3,797, and per capita GDP was US$4,943 (international dollars).

The industry sector is the economy's largest and accounts for 46.4% of GDP (2012), this is followed by services (38.6%) and agriculture (14.4%). However, since 2012, the service sector has employed more people than other sectors, accounting for 48.9% of the total labor force, this has been followed by agriculture (38.6%) and industry (22.2%).

The country has extensive natural resources, including crude oil, natural gas, tin, copper, and gold. Indonesia's major imports include machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels, and foodstuffs, and the country's major export commodities include oil and gas, electrical appliances, plywood, rubber, and textiles.

The tourism sector contributes to around US$9 billion of foreign exchange in 2012, and ranked as the 4th largest among goods and services export sectors. Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, China and Japan are the top five source of visitors to Indonesia.

---RESEARCH TOOLS---

Indonesia does not yet have a fully functioning central civil registry. The following link provides an article describing the difficulties and potential solutions:

UN article on Indonesian records

Ancestry.com

My Heritage

Geneanet

For Graves and Cemeteries in Indonesia:

wikipedia, cemeteries

Toraja graves

The following are some wiki references:


 * Indonesia, Jawa Tengah, Banjarnegara, Naturalization Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Indonesia, Jawa Tengah, Banyumas, Naturalization Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Indonesia, Jawa Tengah, Boyolali, Naturalization and Citizenship Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Indonesia, Jawa Tengah, Kebumen, Naturalization Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Indonesia, Jawa Tengah, Pati, Naturalization Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Indonesia, Jawa Tengah, Purwodadi Citizenship Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Indonesia, Jawa Tengah, Purwokerto, Miscellaneous Government Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Indonesia, Jawa Tengah, Wonogiri District Court Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Indonesia, Jawa Tengah, Wonosobo, Naturalization Records (FamilySearch Historical Records)