大日本帝國（日語：大日本帝国〔大日本帝?國〕／だいにっぽんていこく、だいにほんていこく，羅馬化：dainippon teikoku, dainihon teikoku），又稱日本帝國（日語：日本帝国／にほんていこく、にっぽんていこく，羅馬化：nihon teikoku, nippon teikoku），是日本在1936年至1947年間所使用的國號[5]，在法律上的使用最早出現於1889年公佈的《大日本帝國憲法》，在1936年後才成為日本官方文件上的通用國號。而在日本歷史分期中，此詞用來指稱1868年幕府倒臺至1947年《日本國憲法》施行之間，處於天皇掌握政治實權之「帝國」格局的日本，為期約79年。 The Empire of Japan (大日本帝国; lit. Greater Japanese Empire), also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the period of Japanese history spanning 79 years, starting with the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868, and ending with ratification of the Constitution of Japan on 3 May 1947.[8] From August 1910 to September 1945, it included the Japanese archipelago, the Kurils, Karafuto, Korea, and Taiwan. The South Seas Mandate and concessions such as the Kwantung Leased Territory were de jure not internal parts of the empire but dependent territories. In the closing stages of World War II, with Japan defeated alongside the rest of the Axis powers, the formalized surrender was issued on 2 September 1945, in compliance with the Potsdam Declaration of the Allies, and the empire's territory subsequently shrunk to cover only the Japanese archipelago, excluding Okinawa until the handover in 1972.[13]
