Japan (Japanese: 日本, Nippon [ɲippoꜜɴ] or Nihon [ɲihoꜜɴ] is an island
country in East Asia, located in the northwest Pacific Ocean. It is
bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, and extends from the Sea of
Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south.
Part of the Ring of Fire, Japan spans an archipelago of 6852 islands
covering 377,975 square kilometers (145,937 sq mi); the five main
islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is
Japan's capital and largest city; other major cities include Yokohama,
Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto.
Japan is the eleventh-most populous country in the world, as well as one
of the most densely populated and urbanized. About three-fourths of the
country's terrain is mountainous, concentrating its population of 125.36
million on narrow coastal plains. Japan is divided into 47
administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions. The Greater
Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, with
more than 37.4 million residents.