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Serving Students at Santa Ana College and Santiago Canyon College JAPAN Map

Location: Eastern Asia, island chain between the North Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan, east of the Korean Peninsula 

Geographic coordinates: 36 00 N, 138 00 E 

Map references: Asia 

Area: 
total: 377,835 sq km 
land: 374,744 sq km 
water: 3,091 sq km 
Note: includes Bonin Islands (Ogasawara-gunto), Daito-shoto, Minami-jima, Okino-tori-shima, Ryukyu Islands (Nansei-shoto), and Volcano Islands (Kazan-retto) 

Area - comparative: slightly smaller than California 

Land boundaries:  0 km 

Coastline:  29,751 km 

Maritime claims: 
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm 
territorial sea: 12 nm; between 3 nm and 12 nm in the international straits - La Perouse or Soya, Tsugaru, Osumi, and Eastern and Western Channels of the Korea or Tsushima Strait 

Terrain: mostly rugged and mountainous 

Elevation extremes: 
lowest point: Hachiro-gata -4 m 
highest point: Fujiyama 3,776 m 

Natural resources:  negligible mineral resources, fish 

Land use:
arable land: 11% 
permanent crops: 1% 
permanent pastures: 2% 
forests and woodland: 67% 
other: 19% (1993 est.) 

Irrigated land: 27,820 sq km (1993 est.) 

Natural hazards: many dormant and some active volcanoes; about 1,500 seismic occurrences (mostly tremors) every year; tsunamis 

Environment - current issues: air pollution from power plant emissions results in acid rain; acidification of lakes and reservoirs degrading water quality and threatening aquatic life; Japan is one of the largest consumers of fish and tropical timber, contributing to the depletion of these resources in Asia and elsewhere 

Environment - international agreements:
party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified: Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol 

Geography - note: strategic location in northeast Asia 

Geography

Japan is an island country forming an arc in the Pacific Ocean to the east of the Asian continent.  Its coastline is quite varied.  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. 

Map

Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency
Library of Congress