Country · Asia
Japan
Japan is a country in Eastern Asia. Its capital city is Tokyo. About 126.5 million people live there, in an area of 377 930 square kilometres.
Picture credit: Basile Morin (CC BY-SA 4.0) · CEphoto, Uwe Aranas (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Basile Morin (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Morio (CC BY-SA 3.0) · DXR (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Japan?
Japan lies in Eastern Asia, on the continent of Asia.
It sits in the northern half of the world, roughly 4 008 km from the equator.
Its coastline is about 29 751 km long.
It has no land neighbours — every border it has is with the sea.
How big is Japan?
Japan covers 377 930 square kilometres.
That is about 9.2 times the size of Switzerland.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 61st largest.
If everybody spread out evenly, there would be about 334.8 people on every square kilometre.
Who lives in Japan?
About 126.5 million people live in Japan.
That is the 10th biggest population in the world.
People here speak Japanese.
They pay with the Japanese yen (¥).
On average, people born here can expect to live about 81 years.
The land of Japan
The land in Japan sits on average 438 metres above sea level.
Its coast runs for about 29 751 km. Walking it end to end, at twenty kilometres a day, would take roughly 1 488 days.
It lies between the tropics and the poles, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes Japan different?
A dish the country is known for: Sushi, Japanese curry and Ramen.
Websites from here often end in .jp.
Japan and the rest of the world
Out of every thousand people alive on Earth, about 17 live in Japan.
It takes up about 0.28 % of all the land that countries stand on.
Within Asia it is the 17th largest of 46 countries, and the 6th most populated.
That is busier than the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
Nature and animals
Of the animals on this site, 6 live wild in Japan: Bottlenose dolphin, Sea otter, Great white shark, Clownfish, Giant Pacific octopus and Moon jellyfish. The highest mountain we cover here is Mount Fuji, at 3 776 metres.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons under free licences — every credit is on the page itself and in the picture credits.
Where this country lands in the record lists
Questions children ask
What is the capital of Japan?
The capital of Japan is Tokyo. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in Japan?
About 126.5 million people live in Japan, which makes it the 10th most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
How big is Japan?
Japan covers 377 930 square kilometres, making it the 61st largest country in the world. That is about 9.2 times the size of Switzerland.
Which continent is Japan in?
Japan is in Asia, in the part called Eastern Asia.
Where these numbers come from
Borders and outlines: Natural Earth. Names, capitals, areas, languages and currencies: ISO 3166 data (world-countries). Population: World Bank, 2018. Every derived figure on this page (ranks, density, distance from the equator) is calculated from those values.
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