Japan

Official nameJapan
Name in local languageNippon - 日本 (ja)
ContinentAsia
SubcontinentEast Asia
Population (ranking: 11e)126,050,098 inhabitants (2021)
Population growth-0.14 % / year
Area377,972 km²
Density333.49 inhabitants / km²
GDP (ranking: 3e)5,064.873 billions $USD (2019)
GDP/capita (ranking)40,113 $USD (2019)
GDP growth0.30 % / year (2019)
Life expectancy (ranking)84.60 years (2019)
Birth rate7.80 ‰ (2016)
Fertility rate1.44 children / woman (2016)
Death rate (ranking)10.50 ‰ (2016)
Infant mortality rate (ranking)2.00 ‰ (2016)
Literacy rate100.00 % (2017)
Official languagesJapanese
CurrencyYen (¥ JPY)
HDI (ranking: 28e)0.919 / 1 (2019)
EPI (ranking)74.69 (2018)
GovernmentUnitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy
Head of StateEmperor Naruhito (徳仁) ; Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (岸田 文雄)
National Day23 February (emperor anniversary)
ISO CodesJP, JPN
DemonymJapanese
Tourists (ranking)31,192,000 people (2018)
Japon – petite

Japan is an island state of East Asia, located off North Korea and South Korea, Russia and China. It forms an archipelago of 6,852 islands over a length of 3,000 kilometers.
The economic strength of Japan, undeniable, is losing ground in Asia, especially with the very strong emergence of China, which has won the second place in the world. The low demography is a big part of it.

Mount Fuji. Photo: Wildlife Archives

Population pyramid of Japan (1920-2015)
Population pyramid of Japan (1920-2015)
Enfant dans le parc Hanami au Japon
Child in a park in Japan
See all related maps or articles
Urban areas (2014)
Urban areasPopulation
Tokyo42,796,714 inhabitants
Osaka-Kyoto-Kobé19,777,590 inhabitants
Nagoya11,321,935 inhabitants
Fukuoka-Kitakyushu4,293,873 inhabitants
Sapporo2,622,978 inhabitants
Hiroshima1,882,601 inhabitants
Sendai1,749,503 inhabitants
Shizuoka1,621,685 inhabitants
Okayama1,305,335 inhabitants
Hamamatsu1,234,889 inhabitants
Niigata835,326 inhabitants
Kumamoto677,669 inhabitants
Oita654,213 inhabitants
Toyohashi615,309 inhabitants
Kagoshima610,820 inhabitants
Matsuyama525,051 inhabitants
Wakayama521,990 inhabitants
Nagasaki429,110 inhabitants
See all urban areas
Administrative divisions
Islands and PrefecturesPopulationArea
Aichi7,455,351 inhabitants5,116 km²
Akita1,036,982 inhabitants11,636 km²
Aomori1,321,083 inhabitants9,645 km²
Chiba6,197,218 inhabitants5,082 km²
Ehime1,395,483 inhabitants5,679 km²
Fukui789,604 inhabitants4,190 km²
Fukuoka5,091,106 inhabitants4,847 km²
Fukushima1,935,456 inhabitants13,783 km²
Gifu2,041,207 inhabitants9,768 km²
Gunma1,976,029 inhabitants6,362 km²
Hiroshima2,833,320 inhabitants8,480 km²
Hokkaidō (île et préfecture)5,400,120 inhabitants83,457 km²
Honshū (île)102,971,446 inhabitants231,231 km²
Hyōgo5,541,074 inhabitants8,396 km²
Ibaraki2,918,710 inhabitants6,096 km²
Ishikawa1,155,720 inhabitants4,186 km²
Iwate1,284,426 inhabitants15,279 km²
Kagawa981,082 inhabitants1,862 km²
Kagoshima1,667,830 inhabitants9,045 km²
Kanagawa9,096,022 inhabitants2,416 km²
Kōchi737,737 inhabitants7,105 km²
Kumamoto1,794,091 inhabitants7,268 km²
Kyoto2,609,693 inhabitants4,613 km²
Kyūshū (île)13,059,705 inhabitants42,232 km²
Mie1,825,377 inhabitants5,762 km²
See all administrative divisions
See also