The General Background

Abstract

Japan consists of four main islands and thousands of smaller islands and islets lying off the eastern coast of the Asian continent in an arc 3,800 kilometres (2,360 miles) long. It covers an area of 377,435 square kilometres (145,730 square miles). Japan’s total land area is about one-twenty-fifth that of the United States, one-ninth that of India, and one-and-a-half times as big as that of the United Kingdom. In terms of world land area, Japan occupies less than 0.3 per cent.