A Pacific Island Country
Japan is an island country forming an arc in the Pacific Ocean to the east of the Asian continent. The land comprises four large islands named (in decreasing order of size) Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, together with many smaller islands. The Pacific Ocean lies to the east while the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea separate Japan from the Asian continent.

In terms of latitude, Japan coincides approximately with the Mediterranean Sea and with the city of Los Angeles in North America. Paris and London have latitudes somewhat to the north of the northern tip of Hokkaido.

Japan's total land area is about 378,000 square kilometers. It is thus approximately the same size as Germany, Finland, Vietnam or Malaysia. It is only 1/25 the size of the United States and is smaller than the state of California.

Japan's coastline is quite varied. In some places, such as Kujukurihama in Chiba Prefecture, there are long sandy beaches continuing fairly straight and uninterrrupted for 60 kilometers or so, while the coast of Nagasaki Prefecture is an example of an area characterized by peninsulas and inlets and offshore islands (like the Goto archipelago and the islands of Tsushima and Iki, which are part of that prefecture). There are also irregular areas of the coast with many inlets and steep cliffs caused by the submersion of part of the former coastline due to changes in the Earth's crust.

A warm ocean current known as the Kuroshio (or Japan Current) flows northeastward along the southern part of the Japanese archipelago, and a branch of it, known as the Tsushima Current, flows into the Sea of Japan along the west side of the country. From the north, a cold current known as the Oyashio (or Okhotsk Current) flows south along Japan's east coast, and a branch of it, called the Liman Current, enters the Sea of Japan from the north. The mixing of these warm and cold currents helps produce abundant fish resources in waters near Japan.


Land of Many Volcanoes
About three quarters of Japan's land surface is mountainous. The Chubu Region of central Honshu is known as "the roof of Japan" and has many mountains which are more than 3,000 meters high.

Japan's highest mountain is Mt. Fuji (3,776 meters) on the border of Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefectures. Japan's second-highest peak is Kitadake in Yamanashi Prefecture, at 3,192 meters, and its third-highest peak is Hotakadake at 3,190 meters, on the border between Nagano and Gifu Prefectures.

As it is situated along the circum-Pacific volcanic belt, Japan has several volcanic regions—usually considered to number seven —from the far north to the far south. Of the total number of volcanoes, approximately eighty are active, including Mt. Mihara on Izu Oshima island, Mt. Asama on the border between Nagano and Gunma Prefectures, and Mt. Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture. Japan has almost 1/10 of the world's approximately 840 active volcanoes, even though it has only about l/400 of the world's land area. Mt. Fuji, which has been dormant since its last eruption in 1707, is by no means incapable of erupting again in our lifetimes.

Though volcanoes can cause great harm through large eruptions, they also contribute an incalculable tourist resource. Touristic areas such as Nikko, Hakone and the Izu Peninsula, for example, are famous for their hot springs and attractive scenery of volcanic mountains.

As all these volcanoes attest, the Earth's crust beneath the Japanese archipelago is unstable and full of energy. Thus Japan is among those countries most likely to suffer from earthquakes. Every year there are approximately 1,000 earthquakes which are strong enough to be felt. In January 1995, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake killed approximately 6,000 people, injured over 40,000 and left 200,000 homeless.


Fast-Flowing Rivers
Mountainous Japan is blessed with many rivers. Most of Japan's rivers flow very fast, their waters reaching the ocean not long after leaving mountain valleys and basins. An example of the "steepness" of river flows is the Kurobe River, which joins the Sea of Japan after flowing only 83 kilometers from its source in the Japan Alps at an altitude of over 2,900 meters.

Japan's longest river is the Shinano River, which flows 367 kilometers from the mountains of the Chubu region through Niigata Prefecture to the Sea of Japan. Second in length is the Tone River, which flows through the Kanto Plain to the Pacific Ocean, and third in length is the Ishikari River in Hokkaido, at 268 kilometers.

The many rivers descending from mountainous areas have done much to mold Japan's topography, creating large and small valleys and basins and producing fan-shaped deltas near the points where they flow into the sea. Most of the country's plains are small. The largest is the Kanto Plain, which includes parts of Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo and Kanagawa prefectures. Other relatively large areas of flat land are the Echigo Plain (Niigata Prefecture), the Ishikari Plain (Hokkaido) and the Nobi Plain (Aichi and Gifu prefectures).