Countries

Japan

Also Known As Nippon

Citation Formats

General Reference

Geography Atlas. "Japan." Accessed August 29, 2026. https://dev-geography.interactiveatlas.org/countries/japan.

APA Style

Geography Atlas. (n.d.). Japan. Retrieved August 29, 2026, from https://dev-geography.interactiveatlas.org/countries/japan

BibTeX

@misc{geographyatlas-japan,
  author = {Geography Atlas},
  title = {Japan},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-geography.interactiveatlas.org/countries/japan},
  note = {Accessed August 29, 2026}
}

An archipelago nation off the eastern coast of the Asian mainland, comprising four main islands, Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, and thousands of smaller ones. Its Heian period (794 to 1185), centered on the imperial capital at Heian-kyo, present-day Kyoto, produced a highly refined aristocratic court culture that gave rise to some of the earliest and most fully realized works of Japanese prose literature. Minted here as the home setting Murasaki Shikibu and The Tale of Genji are described against in LiteratureAtlas's own founding wave (ruling 632, mint-on-mention).

Facts

Capital

Tokyo 1

Formerly Edo; became the imperial capital in 1868, replacing Kyoto.

Population

122,587,000 1

Britannica 2026 estimate. The atlas own earlier region-era figure, 123,900,000, is not overwritten; this population-year fact dates THIS value specifically.

Population Estimate Year

2026 1

Area (sq km)

377,975 1

Total land area across the four main islands and thousands of smaller ones.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

East Asia

Kyoto

This source names Japan directly: "basin in the Kansai region of Honshu, Japan, ringed by mountains that historically limited its growth and gave the city its grid-planned layout, modeled on the Chinese capital Chang'an when it was..."

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Kyoto

This source names Kyoto directly: "capital at Heian-kyo, present-day Kyoto, produced a highly refined aristocratic court culture that gave rise to some of the earliest and most fully realized works of Japanese prose literature."

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Nagoya

Nagoya is a city in Japan.

Source Nagoya (Wikipedia)

Osaka

Osaka is a city in Japan.

Source Osaka (Wikipedia)

Taiwan

Japan lies to the northeast.

Source Taiwan (Wikipedia)

Tokyo

Tokyo is Japan's capital.