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Though the Japanese martial arts have descended from the Chinese martial arts, but they are a completely different thing. Most of the the Japanese styles are inspired by Japan's warrior class during the feudal era known as samurai. The samurai are Japan's equivalent to the knights of Europe. Meaning, the samurai were Japanese knights serving their masters. Japanese martial arts styles encompass three types of fighting: hand-to-hand striking, grappling, and use of weapons.

Karate is one of the most popular styles of martial arts in Japan. It's known as the "China hand" or the empty hand. In regards to martial arts, Karate is an umbrella term to other forms of Karate. When someone says s/he practices Karate, I simply ask what style of Karate. Karate's techniques came from the punching and striking techniques of Jiu-Jitsu in turn was descended from the Chinese Kung-Fu style known as Shuai Chiao.

I wrote an article about the Chinese martial arts saying how their styles are fluid and nonlinear, it's not the case with the Karate styles. Karate styles are linear to a point where they can get defended against, parried, and countered. Unlike the Chinese martial arts styles, Japanese styles are mainly for fighting. Keep in mind that Japan is still a warrior state in which the people of Japan look up to "warriors" such as soldiers, police, and professional fighters.

For example, there's a martial arts style called Atemi Waza which is a sub-style of Aiki Jiu-Jitsu. Atemi Waza is actually the striking attacks for Aiki Jiu-Jitsu. This style focuses on striking all the vital points on the human body similar to accupressure and pressure points to deal your opponent a good amount of damage.

Unlike the Chinese martial arts, the Japanese martial arts do have a lot of styles focused on striking. One prime example is the style of Jiu-Jitsu which is an umbrella term for all the styles of Jiu-Jitsu. It's the one style that was practiced by samurai throughout Japan during the feudal era which incorporated throws, joint-locks, chokes, etc. Mainly because they couldn't kick with all that heavy armor on.

There are numerous styles of Jiu-Jitsu such as Aiki Jiu-Jitsu, Edo Jiu-Jitsu, Hakko-Ryu Jitsu, etc. Then styles such as Hapkido, Judo, Aikido, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu spawned off from the styles of Jiu-Jitsu. A lot of grappling is incorporated throughout all styles of Jiu-Jitsu. When you see Judo and Aikido in action, you can tell that they descended from Jiu-Jitsu.

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