Foundation Day  (kenkoku kinen no hi) is a national holiday to celebrate the founding of Nippon (Japan), and the accension of the first emperor to the throne in 660 B.C.  Japan's royal household has remained intact down to this day.  Through much of history the Emperor's Court bordered on reclusive (while successive shoguns ruled the day) in the ancient capitals of Nara and later Kyoto, but reemerged as a driving force of Japan's modernization via the Meiji Restoration in the second half of the 19th Century, when the capital was officially moved to Tokyo (formerly known as, Edo).  Japan's royal family is the oldest unbroken imperial lineage in the world.