Pivotal events for the tradition: Diffusion in Japan
The impact of Buddhism on Japan’s political, religious, and artistic development is impossible to exaggerate. Today, some 14 centuries after Buddhism reached its shores, Japan remains one of the world’s great repositories of Buddhist practice and art, and a major wellspring for the ongoing migration of Buddhist traditions to the West. The Japanese approach to the sacred, like in China (see sec. 3), favors the coexistence of different Buddhist schools; of Buddhism and the indigenous  cults called Shinto; and in contemporary Japan, of Buddhism, Shinto and Christianity.

Buddhism came  to Japan from the mainland, crossing the sea in the mid 5th century, first from Korea and soon thereafter from China along with Confucianism and Daoism ( see Daoism Module sec. 6). At first Buddhism was greeted with some resistance by local clans devoted to indigenous cults, Shinto,  but  after 585 it was recognized by the Imperial court. Buddhism was adopted by Japan’s rulers primarily to establish social order and political control and to join the larger and more sophisticated cultural sphere of the Chinese mainland. In fact the 17 Article Constitution of 645 established Buddhist ethics and Confucian ideals as the moral foundations of the young Japanese nation. By the Nara Period (8th century) Buddhism was a full state-sponsored religion divided in six school imported from China.

The Heian Period (9th-12th cen.) is considered a important period in Japanese Buddhism with two new sects introduced which sparkled the flowering of Japan’s religious genius.  The newcomers were the Tendai (cin. Tientai) and Shingon (cin. Zhenyan), both originating in China (see sec. 3), both playing monumental roles in the merger of Shinto-Buddhist beliefs and the emergence of Japanese Vajrayana  Buddhism (see Buddhism Module I sec. 7), with complex rituals and doctrines. From this point onwards Shinto and Buddhism belief developed in a mutual-inclusive manner: Shinto deities reflected Buddhist teachings and vice-versa, through the hermeneutic device of Skillful Means (See Buddhist Module I sec. 6)

The Kamakura period (12th-14th cen.) was a turning point in Japanese Buddhism, highlighted by the spread of Buddhism among the  commoner and by a new spiritual ethos. The period gave birth to new and reformed Buddhist movements -Pure Land, Zen, and Nichiren (see also sec. 6) - addressed also to the common people. These schools stressed pure faith, simpler practices and refined doctrines.
This change was brought about by decades of social unrest had culminated  establishment of the  Shogunate ( warrior class regime) in the city of Kamakura. The emperor’s authority was thereafter overshadowed for nearly seven centuries. Moreover simplicity and frugality characteristic of Zen became the watchwords of the new military class./p>

At the start of the Modern Meiji Era  (19th-20th cen.), Japan was forced to end decades of isolation. America forcibly convinced the new leaders to open Japan's doors to Western culture, commerce, and technology. Japan thereafter enthusiastically entered a race to modernize and thus block the colonization of its islands. In this period the emperor regained imperial sovereignty from the Shogunate, and a new government  institutionalized Shinto as the new official state religion (focused on emperor worship) and implemented restrictive policies against Buddhism, Christianity, and other religions. Shinto was easily co-opted by the government and used as a mythical narrative in order galvanize the nation into building a modern military, administrative, and educational state.
Shinto and Buddhism were forcibly separated, with Buddhism declared a superstitious foreign import. But Buddhism, aiming  to retain its role in Japanese society, rejected past forms of ritual superstition and focused entirely on elements that conformed to Western notions of “religion" in order to prove itself as a modern doctrine for a modern nation.

In present-day Japan Buddhism, even if  old schools are stagnating, is still a influential reality. New Buddhist schools have been founded in the modern period and spread also to the West, like the Soka Gakkai (see sect. 6). Moreover, present day Japan returned to its original open attitude towards religions. Buddhism and  Christianity thus figure also in modern popular culture, like the Manga (see Source 6:)

Analysis of sources

Source n°1
Buddhism Diffusion in Japan
See above Pivotal events for the tradition: Diffusion in Japan

Source 2:
Excerpts from the Tannishō
Japanese True Pure Land schools preach that anyone, whether noble or peasant, could gain rebirth in the Pure Land Paradise by faithfully reciting the name of Amida (sascr. Amithaba) Buddha - chanting the invocation “Namu Amida Butsu” ("Glory to Buddha Amida") or just "Namu Amida" ("Glory to Amida")  with devotion. The Amida Buddha is a popular Supramundane Buddha (see Buddhis Module I sec. 6) who is said to have vowed to save all sentient beings who invoke  his name. It is easy to see how this religious approach gained large consensus among commoners.
Source 7: is an example of the above cited chanting.

This excerpt is of particular interest because it stresses  the impossibility for man to obtain Enlightenment by itself, which is quite different stance from the first Indian Buddhism. 
However, there is a profound reason for this, which goes through the very foundation of Buddhism (see Buddhist Module I sec. 4) : also the will to liberation from suffering is a desire in itself that hampers the path towards Enlightenment. As it is explained also in section VII, the "good" person is the person who commits himself in doing religious practices (using "self-power") on the basis of calculation for a personal gain (Enlightenment), so he will be not really free from the passions that binds him to Samsara . Therefore in this sense the evil person is who is conscious of its impossibility of doing "good" practices. For this reason he abandons completely itself to the compassion of "Other Power" (that is, Amida), and paradoxically obtain liberation.

Source 3:
Excerpt from the Shōbōgenzō
This excerpt shades  light on the practical, this-worldly oriented attitude of Japanese Buddhism, especially Japanese Zen, which reinforced the   features of simplicity, emptiness, directness, and naturalness already present in its Chinese counterpart, Chan Buddhism (see sec. 3).
From the perspective of Dōgen, man is inherently enlightened, but this inherent Enlightenment has not to be reached (or say, discovered) in a goal-oriented perspective, that is, after training in meditation and study of scriptures. For Dōgen, Enlightenment ( "realization" in the excerpt) is not a far, distant, mystical condition to be sought after, but to be enacted, actualized in the everyday practice of simply sitting in meditation, nothing else.
In a similar yet divergent way from the excerpt of Shinran (see above), also Dōgen warns on the danger of yearning for realization as separated from practice, because it will be not true realization of Enlightenment.

Source 4:
Japanese Haiku
Here the poet uses the image of evanescence of our world, the dewdrop – one of the classical allegories of the Buddhist teaching – to express grief caused by the death of his daughter. In theory, Buddhism teaches its followers to regard all the vicissitudes of life as transitory and ephemeral, akin to magic apparitions without substance or dewdrops soon to evaporate under the sun. Yet, a father's loss of his child is more than reason can counter. In this poem, although composed through Buddhist imagery, the poetic struggle seems to counter the Buddhist teaching.

Source 5:
Sand Garden at Ryoanji
The Japanese rock garden  or "dry landscape" garden, often called a Zen garden, creates a miniature stylized landscape through carefully composed arrangements of rocks, water features, moss, pruned trees and bushes. Zen gardens were created at temples of Zen Buddhism in Kyoto, Japan, during the 15th-17th cen. The most known features is the use of gravel or sand that is raked to represent ripples in water. In the Shinto religion it was used to symbolize purity and was used around shrines, temples, and palaces. In Zen gardens, it is said to represents water, but also to recall the Buddhist principle of Voidness , which is aesthetically represented by the blank in Zen/Chan paintings (see sec. 3). In this sense they were intended to imitate with simplicity and directness the intimate essence of nature (a characteristic of Zen/Chan though), rather than its actual appearance, and to serve as an aid to meditation (by looking at it, not raking, how sometimes it is thought).
The garden of the Ryoanji temple is one of the first purely abstract dry landscape garden, which is virtually open to an infinite series of interpretation.

Source 6:
Buddha and Jesus in a Japanese comics
This Manga is a comedy where the main characters attempt to hide their identities and understand modern Japanese society. Each chapter shows their lives during an average day, and when they go sightseeing or visit amusement parks. The numerous jokes often involve Christian and Buddhist doctrines, but absolutely not in a disrespectful way. For example, in this image you can see a young Buddha taking a nap, but in the traditional position of "Parinirvana" (see the last image in Buddhist Module I sec. 2) . This pop culture work shows the peculiar Japanese approach to the sacred, which is open also to the humoristic side of life.

Intercultural and Interdisciplinary information
Around the 20th Century, Haiku was beginning to be introduced to the West such as in France by a writer named Paul-Louis Couchoud.
Other countries began accepting Haiku in their poetic culture including Great Britain and the United States.  Poets were inspired by the translations of notable translators such as R.H. Blyth and began producing Haiku in English.
It was during the Beat Period in the US where original English haiku were being written by Beat generation writers such as Jack Kerouac and Richard Wright.  This ultimately helped continue the spread and popularity of Haiku in English and establish a haiku movement in the West. Despite the popularity of Haiku in the West, there was a lack in true understanding of the principles and history of Haiku in Japan at the time.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku

Each articles in different languages present the influence of Haiku in its own literature.

Link to other Modules
Buddhist Module I sec. 2 and 6
Daoism Module sec. 6