Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan, and the country has a professional baseball league with 12 teams.

The 16th century saw the rise of Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who were instrumental in unifying Japan under a centralized government.

The Japanese giant salamander is one of the world's largest amphibians and is native to Japan's freshwater rivers and streams.