Japan is an island country in East Asia, located in the Pacific Ocean.
The Japanese archipelago consists of nearly 7,000 islands, of which the four main ones (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu) represent more than 95% of its territory.
Japan is divided in 9 regions from north to south: Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kansai (also called Kinki), Chugoku, Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa. On the administrative level, the country is managed through 47 prefectures.
126 million Japanese people live on a territory stretching over 3,000 kilometers long and 378 000 km². Mountains cover 71% of the land and the coastline extends up to 30,000 kilometers long.
The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the capital and the neighboring prefectures, is the largest metropolis in the world with over 37 million inhabitants in what is called the 'Capital Region'. The other largest cities by population in Japan are, from the biggest: Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kobe, Kyoto and Fukuoka.
Japan is the 11th most inhabited country in the world. However, the country has been in demographic decline for many years due to a very low birth rate.
