Geography of Japan

Japan is a small island state, occupying 61st place in the world, with a total area of 377,944 square kilometers, located in East Asia. At the same time, 150 million people live in such a relatively small territory. In terms of population, Japan ranks 10th in the world and population density per square meter - 25th out of 195 possible (Russia for comparison - 181 place).

The state is located on 5 large islands (Okinawa, Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu and Hokkaido) and more than 6800 small islands. The length of Japan is almost 3,000 kilometers. In the north it is washed by the Sea of Okhotsk, in the east by the Pacific Ocean, in the south by the Pacific Ocean and the East China Sea, in the west by the Korean Strait and the Sea of Japan. The islands mostly consist of mountainous terrain, the unique islands of Japan are the Bonin Islands.

The Japanese call their country Nihon or Nippon, both names are equally used in Japanese. Nihon, translated literally from Japanese, means the beginning of the sun.

The capital of Japan is Tokyo.

The largest cities in Japan are Tokyo (population is 15 million), Yokohama (number - 4 million people) and Osaka (number - 3 million people).

Administrative and territorial division of Japan.
9 regions, uniting 44 prefectures; capital district and 2 urban prefectures.

The capital of Tokyo.

Japan (Japan) is a constitutional monarchy.

The head of state is the emperor.

The legislature is a bicameral parliament (the House of Councillors and the House of Representatives).

Population 150 million; 99% Japanese. The urban population is 77.6%. The official language is Japanese. Most believers are Buddhists and Shintoists.

Japan is a country where up to 1,000 noticeable soil fluctuations occur annually. In Tokyo, there are 1.5 earthquakes per day of magnitude 2 or higher. Japan (like New Zealand, New Guinea, the Aleutian Islands) is located in a seismically active region called the "Pacific Ring of Fire", in the area of the islands of Japan, the Pacific lithospheric plate is bordered by a number of lying plates, with which there is constant friction. Places where lithospheric plates border each other are always places of increased volcanic and seismic activity.

In Japan, with a frequency of about once every hundred years, large-scale earthquakes occur with a large number of civilian casualties and destruction, but despite the fact that Japan is constantly under the threat of volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, typhoons, earthquakes, the Japanese consider their land fertile and proud of it.