Japan

Japan: capital Tokyo, population 123.4M, area 377,930 km². The 12th most populous country, in Asia. Facts, map, neighbours and more.

Japan arcs through the Pacific on four main islands and thousands of smaller ones, with most people concentrated on narrow coastal plains. Its recorded turning points include typhoon-scattered invasion fleets, the remaking of Edo as Tokyo and the first railway to sustain regular speeds above 200 kilometres per hour. Card games, animation and pocket-sized digital symbols sit beside practices maintained for centuries.

• Mongol-led fleets attacked Japan in 1274 and 1281; destructive typhoons around the second invasion helped give later currency to the term kamikaze, or divine wind.
• Commodore Matthew Perry entered Edo Bay with four steam-powered Black Ships in July 1853, carrying a letter that pressed Japan to open ports to American vessels.
• In 1868, Emperor Meiji moved the imperial seat from Kyoto to Edo, which was renamed Tokyo, while the new government dismantled the Tokugawa shogunate.
• The Tokaido Shinkansen opened on 1 October 1964, nine days before the Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first railway with regular service above 200 kilometres per hour.

• Katsushika Hokusai produced more than 30,000 works; his early-1830s series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji includes The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
• Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon won the Golden Lion at Venice in 1951, unexpectedly opening Western markets to Japanese cinema and changing the director's international career.
• Hayao Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985; Spirited Away became the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003.
• Hideki Yukawa predicted the meson as a carrier of nuclear force in 1935; his 1949 physics prize made him Japan's first Nobel laureate.

• Mount Fuji rises 3,776.24 metres above Honshu, yet its last eruption was the Hoei event of 1707–1708, which spread ash across the region around Edo.
• Himeji Castle's World Heritage complex contains 83 buildings, including 74 designated Important Cultural Properties, linked by gates and confusing passages designed to slow attackers.
• Itsukushima Shrine's present sea torii dates from 1875, while a gate has stood there since 1168; at low tide, visitors can walk out to its base.
• Tokyo Skytree opened in 2012 at 634 metres; the digits 6-3-4 can be read mu-sa-shi, recalling the old province around Tokyo.

• Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo in Kyoto on 23 September 1889 to make hand-painted hanafuda cards, almost a century before the company released its first home console.
• Shigetaka Kurita designed a set of 176 emoji for NTT DoCoMo in 1999; the original 12-pixel symbols later entered the Museum of Modern Art's collection.
• Architect Kisho Kurokawa designed the world's first capsule hotel, which opened in Osaka in 1979 with stacked sleeping pods for travellers who missed the last train.
• Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan says it has welcomed guests since 705; Guinness recognised the Yamanashi hot-spring inn as the world's oldest hotel in 2011.

What is the capital of Japan?

The capital of Japan is Tokyo.

What is the population of Japan?

Japan has about 123.4M people — the 12th most populous country in the world.

How big is Japan?

Japan covers 377,930 km², making it the 61st largest country by area.

Which region is Japan in?

Japan is in Eastern Asia, Asia.