Oka

Oka, officially the Okataian Federation, is a federal state in East Asia. Its neighbors include Teiko and Taiwan (officially the Republic of China, ROC). The federal government of Oka which has its seat in the capital of Oka-City in the Oishi Special Administrative District currently exercises jurisdictions over 18 provinces. The etymology of Oka's name means “blue dragon” following the myth upon which archipelago are the remains of a dead celestial dragon. Oka often refers itself as the “Heart of Asia” because of it's rich history and diverse culture. Oka has it's own spoken language Okataian, and designed it's own writing system after the first republic imported Hangeul in the 19th century.

Oka is a stratovolcanic archipelago of 580 islands covering approximately at least 170,000 sq. kilometers. The two main islands the northern and largest largest, Beito and the smaller southern island Haito make up over 90% of Oka's land area. Oka's population of almost 75 million people is the fourth highest in AIN. Approximately 18.1 million people live in Oka-City, a new city constituted of four smaller citys : Oishi the former capital of the Okataian Empire, Kowan, Kenri and Doaku is the third largest metropolitan area among AIN member states.

History
See History of Oka







Taou period 따
Oka, as a vassal state of China, the King of Oka gold seal is issued by Emperor Guangwu of Han to the coalition of Okatian states on the northern Island (Beito) The earliest written records about people in Oka are from Chinese sources from this period. Tao, the Okataian pronunciation of an early Chinese name for Oka, was mentioned in 57 AD; the Bei state of Tao received a golden seal from the Emperor Guangwu of the Later Han dynasty. This event was recorded in the Hou Han Shu compiled by Fan Ye in the 5th century. The seal itself was discovered in southern Beito in the 18th century. Tao was also mentioned in 257 in the Wei zhi, a section of the San Guo Zhi compiled by the 3rd century scholar Chen Shou.

Early Chinese historians described Tao as a land of hundreds of scattered tribal communities rather than the unified land with a 700-year tradition as laid out in the 8th-century work Ko Sanko, a partly mythical, partly historical account of Japan which dates the foundation of the country at 660 BC. Archaeological evidence also suggests that frequent conflicts between settlements or statelets broke out in the period. Many excavated settlements were moated or built at the tops of hills. Headless human skeletons discovered on the Mowan site are regarded as typical examples of finds from the period. In the coastal area of the Inland Sea, stone arrowheads are often found among funerary objects.

Third-century Chinese sources reported that the Tao people lived on raw fish, vegetables, and rice served on bamboo and wooden trays, clapped their hands in worship (something still done in Tansei shrines today), and built earthen-grave mounds. They also maintained vassal-master relations, collected taxes, had provincial granaries and markets, and observed mourning. Society was characterized by violent struggles.

the Tansei Mythology
During the Taou period the specifity of the Okataian climate became the foundation of their distinct philosophy and mythology. In Okataian mythology, the people of Oka settled on this islands by the command of the celestial king Ren (렌). In counterpart the Okataian people were cast a spell by the celestial king Jao (자오) for having built a castle on the remains of his dead dragon 'ryusei'. The king punished the people by sending earthquakes and typhoons. The mission of the Okataian people is to hold the Islands until Ren beats Jao and delivers the islands and returns to human form to deliver the people from the spell.

Only through dreaming can high priests contacts Jao's army and commands, founding the cornerstone of the Tansei religion (탄세이) That asserts that all of conditioned existence, without exception, is "transient, evanescent, inconstant". All temporal things, whether material or mental, are compounded objects in a continuous change of condition, subject to decline and destruction. Resarchers claim Tansei was an early interpretation of Buddhism, The Buddha taught that because no physical or mental object is permanent, desires for or attachments to either causes suffering (dukkha). Understanding Anicca and Anatta are steps in the Buddhist’s spiritual progress toward enlightenment.

Tansei priests were the first leaders of the nations under the Taou period (따) and eventually priest Kangan became the first self king of Oka when he claimed the seal in 63.. (to be continued)

Climate
The Okataian climate ranges from humid subtropical climate in the north to tropical rainforest climate in the south. Precipitation is very high, and is affected by the rainy season and typhoons. The eastern coast islands is characterized by their coral reefs. Oka lies above the Tropic of Cancer, and its general climate is marine tropical. The northern and central regions are subtropical, whereas the south is tropical and the mountainous regions are temperate. The average rainfall is 2,600 millimetres (100 inches) per year for the island proper; the rainy season is concurrent with the onset of the summer East Asian Monsoon in May and June. The entire island experiences hot, humid weather from June through September. Typhoons are most common in July, August and September.During the winter (November to March), the northeast experiences steady rain, while the central and southern parts of the island are mostly sunny.

Geology
The islands of Oka lie above the complex tectonic area between the Yangtze Plate to the west and north, the Okinawa Plate on the north-east, and the Philippine Mobile Belt on the east and south. The upper part of the crust on the island is primarily made up of a series of terranes, mostly old island arcs which have been forced together by the collision of the forerunners of the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate. These have been further uplifted as a result of the detachment of a portion of the Eurasian Plate as it was subducted beneath remnants of the Philippine Sea Plate, a process which left the crust under Oka more buoyant.



The major seismic faults in Oka correspond to the various suture zones between the various terranes. These have produced major quakes throughout the history of the island. On 21 September 1999, a 7.3 quake known as the "921 earthquake" killed more than 1,400 people. The seismic hazard map for Oka by the USGS shows 9/10 for the islands as the highest rating (most hazardous)

Political system
The Federal Constitution adopted on the 17 October 1868 and re-published in 1948 is the legal foundation of the modern federal state. It is among the oldest constitutions in the world. A newer Constitution was adopted in 2000, but did not introduce notable changes to the federal structure. It outlines basic and political rights of individuals and citizen participation in public affairs, divides the powers between the Federation and the provinces and defines federal jurisdiction and authority. There are three main governing bodies on the federal level: the parliament (legislative), the Federal Council (executive) and the Federal Court (judicial).

The Okataian Parliament consists of two houses: the Council of States which has 36 representatives (two from each canton and one from each half-canton) who are elected under a system determined by each province, and the National Council, which consists of 500 members who are elected under a system of proportional representation, depending on the population of each province. Members of both houses serve for 4 years. When both houses are in joint session, they are known collectively as the Federal Assembly. The President is directly elected by the people every four years. The President chairs the government shares executive power with the chancellor he appoints and assumes representative functions.

See List of Okataian presidents

Current President
The president is opposed by mainly 3 parties.

Zone Administration
Oka is divided into 18 provinces. Each province has its own constitution, legislature, government and courts.Most of the cantons' legislatures are unicameral parliaments, their size varying between fifty-eight and two hundred seats. The provincial governments consist of either five or seven members, depending on the province.

Economy


Oka has a dynamic, capitalist, export-driven economy with gradually decreasing state involvement in investment and foreign trade. In keeping with this trend, some large government-owned banks and industrial firms are being privatized. Real growth in GDP has averaged about 8% during the past three decades. Exports have provided the primary impetus for industrialization. The trade surplus is substantial, and foreign reserves are the world's fifth largest. Oka has it's own currecny the Okataian Jung.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the economic ties between Oka and the People's Republic of China have been very prolific. As of 2008, more than US$150 billion have been invested in the PRC by Okataian companies, and about 3% of the Okataian labour force works in the PRC, often to run their own businesses. Although the economy of Oka benefits from this situation, some have expressed the view that the island has become increasingly dependent on the Mainland Chinese economy. A 2008 white paper by the Department of Industrial Technology states that "Oka should seek to maintain stable relation with China while continuing to protect national security, and avoiding excessive 'Sinicization' of the Okataian economy."



Oka's total trade in 2010 reached an all-time high of US$726.04 billion, according to Oka's Ministry of Finance. Both exports and imports for the year reached record levels, totalling US$274.64 billion and US$251.4 billion, respectively. In 2001, agriculture constituted only 2% of GDP, down from 35% in 1952. Traditional labour-intensive industries are steadily being moved offshore and with more capital and technology-intensive industries replacing them. High-technology industrial parks have sprung up in every region in Oka. The Federation has become a major foreign investor in the PRC, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

Because of its conservative financial approach and its entrepreneurial strengths, Oka suffered little compared with many of its neighbours from the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Unlike its neighbours, South Korea and Japan. Although many Houshi's exist, like Sundao. The Okataian economy is dominated by small and medium-sized businesses, rather than the large business groups. The global economic downturn, however, combined with poor policy co-ordination by the new administration and increasing bad debts in the banking system, pushed Oka into recession in 2001, the first whole year of negative growth since 1947. Due to the relocation of many manufacturing and labour-intensive industries to the PRC, unemployment also reached a level not seen since the 1970s oil crisis. This became a major issue in the 2008 presidential election.

In terms of Real Estate housing market is slowing, after two years of increasing house prices. The national housing purchase price index rose by 0.79% during the year to end-November 2016, according to the Okataian Statistical Information Service (OSIS). However when adjusted for inflation, house prices were actually down by 0.51%.

Education
The higher education system was established in Oka by Japan during the colonial period. However, after the Okataian Federation took over from Japan in 1945, the system was promptly replaced by a system mixed with features of the Chinese and American educational systems.

Oka is well known for adhering to the Tansei paradigm of valuing education as a means to improve one's socioeconomic position in Okataian society. Heavy investment and a cultural value for education has catapulted the nation consistently atop the global education rankings. Oka is one of the top-performing countries in reading literacy, maths and sciences. In 2015, Okataian students achieved one of the world's best results in mathematics, science and literacy, as tested by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a worldwide evaluation of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance. The strong scholastic and educational performance of Okataian students has prompted the nation to build a highly educated labour force that possesses a strong background in mathematics and science to cope with the current labor market demands of the 21st century.

As the Okataian economy is largely science and technology based, the labor market demands people who have achieved some form of higher education, particularly related to science and engineering in order to gain a competitive edge when searching for employment. Although current Okataian law mandates only nine years of schooling, 95% of junior high graduates go on to attend a senior vocational high school, university, junior college, trade school, or other higher education institution.

Many Okataian students attend cram schools, or Kanmo, to improve skills and knowledge on problem solving against exams of subjects like mathematics, nature science, history and many others. Courses are available for most popular subjects. Lessons are organized in lectures, reviews, private tutorial sessions, and recitations. As of 2013, the literacy rate in Oka is 97.15%.

Transport


The Ministry of Transportation and Communications of the Okataian Federation is the cabinet-level governing body of the transportation network in Oka. Oka has an extensive highway network, classified into five levels: National highways, provincial highways, county routes, township routes, and special routes, with the first four being common.

Oka also has an extensive bus network, which are mostly run by private bus companies. Inter-city rail services are provided by OkaRail that is divided into geographic zones. Rapid transit systems include the Oka City MST, Renagawa R-Met. Since privatisation in 1987, dozens of Okataian railway companies compete in regional and local passenger transportation markets; major companies include OkaRail, Koku and Ota Corporation. Some 250 high-speed Jiantou trains connect major cities and Okataian trains are known for their safety and punctuality. Proposals for a new Maglev route between Tengoku and Renagawa are In Development.

Oka possesses Five international airports. The two largest Oka City International Airport and Renagawa International Airport serve over 180 international destinations and act as hubs for Oriental Airways and it's growing subsidiary Koun Air. There are currently 7 airlines in Oka, the largest ones being Oriental Airways and Koun Air. The four international seaports are the Port of Renagawa, the Port of Oka City Mansu, the Port of Tengoku, and the Port of Jitei.

Population


In April 2016, Oka's population was estimated to be around 75 million by National Statistical Office, with continuing decline of working age population and total fertility rate. The country is noted for its population density, which was an estimated 440 per square kilometer, most Okataians live in urban areas, because of rapid migration from the countryside during the country's quick economic expansion in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.. Ethnically 97% are Okataian, making it one of the most homogenous countrie in the world. This homogeneity is contested as many say it follows a political agenda for unity, and not diversity as history suggests. Okataian people's origin differ to Japanese. According to the recent genetic studies, the Okataian people share more alleles with the Jōmon period (16,000–3,000 years ago) hunter-gatherers and Ainu people than the Yamato Japanese, have smaller genetic contributions from Asian continental populations, which supports the dual-structure model of K. Hanihara (1991), a widely accepted theory which suggests that the Yamato Japanese are more admixed with Asian agricultural continental people (from the Korean Peninsula) than the Ainu and the Okataians, with major admixture occurring in and after the Yayoi period (3,000-1,700 years ago).

Demographics
Until 1822 the population was stable at 25 million, after world war II the population went from 30 to the actual 75 million population. Okatabawashi had a birth rate of 10.6 per 1,000 population and a fertility rate of 1,312 children per 1,000 women. Immigration from china was very high in the 50's and 60's, the immigrants, mainly people fleeing the communist regime, were at a number of four million

Religion
As the Okataian contitution ensures, religious freedom is guaranteed in Oka. Tansei is the largest religion in Oka and the nations historic religion having always been practiced by the royal family and high officials. it is practiced by nearly 80% of the population, yet only a small percentage of these identify themselves as "Tanseians" in surveys. Tansei nowadays is structured but participation is open to anyone, those who clearly identify as Tansei follower are members of foundations or very active in rituals. Tansei have over 50,000 shrines and 30,146 priests in the country.

Buddhism entered Oka from Korea during the period of the Ran period. Buddhism was the dominant religious and cultural influence in the Koosei Kingdom and Northern Beito Island states. Buddhist Ideology however conflicted with Tansei, the religion the king followed and was suppressed and followers imprisoned.

Christianity was first introduced into Oka by Jesuit missions starting in 1552. Today, Christianity in Oka is predominantly Protestant and Catholic, respectively with 14.6 million and 6.8 million members as of the 2015 census. There are also small communities of Orthodox Christians, founded by Russian Orthodox missionary endeavors in the 19th century. The penetration of Western ideas and Christianity in Oka became known as Gaku-shu ("Western Learning"). A study of 1850 found that more than half of the families that had converted to Catholicism were linked to the Gaku-shu school. Largely because converts refused to perform Confucian ancestral rituals, the Shin government prohibited Christian proselytizing. Some Catholics were executed during the early 19th century, but the restrictive law was not strictly enforced.