Japan

Japan, constitutional monarchy in East Asia, comprising four large islands, as well as the Ryukyu Islands and more than 1,000 lesser adjacent islands. It is bounded on the north by the Sea of Okhotsk, on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Pacific Ocean and the East China Sea, and on the west by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan (East Sea). In Japanese the country’s name is Dai (“great”) Nihon or Nippon (“origin of the Sun”), hence, Land of the Rising Sun. The Japanese islands extend in an irregular crescent from the island of Sakhalin (Russia) to the island of Taiwan(Formosa). Japan proper consists of the large islands of Hokkaido, the northernmost; Honshu, the largest, called the mainland; Shikoku; and Kyushu, the southernmost. The combined area of these islands is about 362,000 sq km (140,000 sq mi). The total area of Japan is 377,837 sq km (145,884 sq mi). Tokyo is Japan’s capital and largest city.