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Japanese Archipelago

Japanese archipelago shown in dark green
Geography
Coordinates	37°30′52″N 137°42′44″E / 37.514444°N 137.712222°E / 37.514444; 137.712222Coordinates: 37°30′52″N 137°42′44″E / 37.514444°N 137.712222°E / 37.514444; 137.712222
Administration
Japan

Topographic map of Japan

Satellite image of Japan

The Japanese archipelago (日本列島, Nihon Rettō) is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan. It extends over 3,000 km (1,900 mi)^[1] from the Sea of Okhotsk northeast to the Philippine Sea south along the northeastern coast of the Eurasia continent. It consists of islands from the Sakhalin island arc, the Northeastern Japan arc to the Ryukyu islands and the Nanpō Islands.

The term Home Islands was used at the end of World War II to define the area of Japan to which its sovereignty and the constitutional rule of the Emperor would be restricted.^{[citation needed]} The term is also commonly used today to distinguish the archipelago from Japan's colonies and other territories in the first half of the 20th century.^[2]

Palaeogeography[edit]

Geography[edit]

The archipelago consists of 6,852 islands^[3] (here defined as land more than 100 m in circumference), of which 430 are inhabited.^[4] The four main islands, from north to south, are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu; Honshu is the largest and referred to as the Japanese mainland.^[5]

The current Japanese archipelago topography is:

• 
  Sakhalin, Hokkaido, Honshu, Japan island arc composed of Shikoku and its surrounding islands;


• 
  Kyushu, Ryukyu arc composed of Nansei Islands and other surrounding islands;


• Eastern part of Hokkaido (part of the Kuril arc);


• 
  Nanpō Islands, Izu Peninsula (part of Izu-Bonin-Mariana Arc).

The Nanpō Islands administered by Tokyo Metropolis.

The Ryukyu Islands administered by Kagoshima Prefecture and Okinawa Prefecture.

Islands and prefectures[edit]

• 
  Hokkaido – The second largest island of Japan, and the largest and northernmost prefecture, which consists of 14 subprefectures.
  
  • 
     Hokkaido
    
    
    
    • Hidaka Subprefecture
    
    
    • Hiyama Subprefecture
    
    
    • Iburi Subprefecture
    
    
    • Ishikari Subprefecture
    
    
    • Kamikawa Subprefecture
    
    
    • Kushiro Subprefecture
    
    
    • Nemuro Subprefecture
    
    
    • Okhotsk Subprefecture
    
    
    • Oshima Subprefecture
    
    
    • Rumoi Subprefecture
    
    
    • Shiribeshi Subprefecture
    
    
    • Sorachi Subprefecture
    
    
    • Sōya Subprefecture
    
    
    • Tokachi Subprefecture
    
    
    
    
  
  

• 
  Honshu – The largest and the most populated island of Japan, which consists of five regions.
  
  
  
  • 
    Tōhoku region consists of six prefectures.
    
    
    
    • 
       Akita Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Aomori Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Fukushima Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Iwate Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Miyagi Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Yamagata Prefecture
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • 
    Kantō region consists of seven prefectures, including the capital of Japan which is the Tokyo Metropolis.
    
    
    
    • 
       Chiba Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Gunma Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Ibaraki Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Kanagawa Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Saitama Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Tochigi Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Tokyo
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • 
    Chūbu region consists of nine prefectures.
    
    
    
    • 
       Aichi Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Fukui Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Gifu Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Ishikawa Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Nagano Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Niigata Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Shizuoka Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Toyama Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Yamanashi Prefecture
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • 
    Kansai region consists of seven prefectures.
    
    
    
    • 
       Hyōgo Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Kyoto Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Mie Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Nara Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Osaka Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Shiga Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Wakayama Prefecture
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • 
    Chūgoku region consists of five prefectures.
    
    
    
    • 
       Hiroshima Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Okayama Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Shimane Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Tottori Prefecture
      
    
    
    • 
       Yamaguchi Prefecture
      
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

• 
  Shikoku – The smallest and the least populated island of the archipelago, which consists of four prefectures.
  
  
  
  • 
     Ehime Prefecture
    
  
  
  • 
     Kagawa Prefecture
    
  
  
  • 
     Kōchi Prefecture
    
  
  
  • 
     Tokushima Prefecture
    
  
  
  
  

• 
  Kyushu – The third largest island of the archipelago, which consists of eight prefectures, including the Okinawa Islands in the Ryukyu island arc.
  
  
  
  • 
     Fukuoka Prefecture
    
  
  
  • 
     Kagoshima Prefecture
    
  
  
  • 
     Kumamoto Prefecture
    
  
  
  • 
     Miyazaki Prefecture
    
  
  
  • 
     Nagasaki Prefecture
    
  
  
  • 
     Ōita Prefecture
    
  
  
  • 
     Saga Prefecture
    
  
  
  • 
     Okinawa Prefecture
    
  
  
  
  

• 
  Sakhalin – Previously known and administered by the Empire of Japan as Karafuto Prefecture and a part of the Russian Federation, is sometimes considered to be geographically part of the Japanese archipelago, although Japan renounced its claim to the island in the 20th century.^[6]
  • 
     Sakhalin Oblast
    
  
  

See also[edit]

• Mainland Japan


• Japan in the Paleolithic


• List of islands of Japan


• Extreme points of Japan

References[edit]