" 
 ::""Empire"" is usually reserved for absolute monarchies, but not always. For example, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is occasionally referred to as an ""Empire"", such as the Order of the British Empire, although the U.K. is a parlimentary democracy, like post-1947 Japan. Japan's not normally called an empire nowadays, to avoid confusion with the ""Empire of Japan"", which was Japan from 1868 to 1945.   "