Japanese Archipelago

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(i)

The JAPANESE ARCHIPELAGO (日本列島, Nihon Rettō) is the group of islands that forms the country of Japan
Japan , and extends roughly from northeast to southwest along the northeastern coast of the Eurasia mainland, washing upon the northwestern shores of the Pacific Ocean . It consists of islands from the Sakhalin island arc and the Northeastern Japan
Japan arc .

The term Home Islands was used at the end of World War II
World War II to define the area of Japan
Japan to which its sovereignty and the constitutional rule of the Emperor would be restricted. 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.

CONTENTS

* 1 Palaeogeography

* 2 Geography

* 2.1 Islands and prefectures

* 3 See also * 4 References * 5 External links

PALAEOGEOGRAPHY

Main articles: Sea of Japan
Japan § Geography and geology , and Japanese Paleolithic

Changes to the Japanese archipelago
Japanese archipelago over time: Japanese archipelago, Sea of Japan
Japan and surrounding part of continental East Asia in Early Miocene
Early Miocene (23-18 Ma) Japanese archipelago, Sea of Japan
Japan and surrounding part of continental East Asia in Middle Pliocene to Late Pliocene (3.5-2 Ma) Japanese archipelago
Japanese archipelago at the Last Glacial Maximum about 20,000 years ago, thin black line indicates present-day shorelines. Vegetated land Unvegetated land Ocean

GEOGRAPHY

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

ISLANDS AND PREFECTURES

* HOKKAIDO – The second largest island of Japan, and the largest and northernmost prefecture.

* Hokkaido
Hokkaido

* HONSHU – The largest and the most populated island of Japan, which consists of five regions.

* Tōhoku region consists of six prefectures.

* Akita Prefecture
Akita Prefecture * Aomori Prefecture
Aomori Prefecture * Fukushima Prefecture
Fukushima Prefecture * Iwate Prefecture
Iwate Prefecture * Miyagi Prefecture * Yamagata Prefecture

* Kantō region consists of seven prefectures, including the capital of Japan
Japan which is the Tokyo
Tokyo Metropolis.

* Chiba Prefecture
Chiba Prefecture * Gunma Prefecture
Gunma Prefecture * Ibaraki Prefecture * Kanagawa Prefecture
Kanagawa Prefecture * Saitama Prefecture
Saitama Prefecture * Tochigi Prefecture * Tokyo
Tokyo

* Chūbu region consists of nine prefectures.

* Aichi Prefecture
Aichi Prefecture * Fukui Prefecture
Fukui Prefecture * Gifu Prefecture
Gifu Prefecture * Ishikawa Prefecture
Ishikawa Prefecture * Nagano Prefecture
Nagano Prefecture * Niigata Prefecture * Shizuoka Prefecture
Shizuoka Prefecture * Toyama Prefecture
Toyama Prefecture * Yamanashi Prefecture

* Kansai region consists of seven prefectures.

* Hyōgo Prefecture * Kyoto Prefecture
Kyoto Prefecture * Mie Prefecture
Mie Prefecture * Nara Prefecture
Nara Prefecture * Osaka Prefecture
Osaka Prefecture * Shiga Prefecture
Shiga Prefecture * Wakayama Prefecture

* Chūgoku region consists of five prefectures.

* Hiroshima Prefecture * Okayama Prefecture
Okayama Prefecture * Shimane Prefecture * Tottori Prefecture
Tottori Prefecture * Yamaguchi Prefecture
Yamaguchi Prefecture

* SHIKOKU – The smallest and the least populated island of the archipelago, which consists of four prefectures.

* Ehime Prefecture
Ehime Prefecture * Kagawa Prefecture * Kōchi Prefecture * Tokushima Prefecture
Tokushima Prefecture

* KYUSHU – The third largest island of the archipelago, which consists of eight prefectures, including Okinawa Islands in Ryukyu island arc .

* Fukuoka Prefecture
Fukuoka Prefecture * Kagoshima Prefecture * Kumamoto Prefecture
Kumamoto Prefecture * Miyazaki Prefecture * Nagasaki Prefecture * Ōita Prefecture * Saga Prefecture
Saga Prefecture

* Ryukyu Islands
Ryukyu Islands and Okinawa Islands

* Okinawa Prefecture
Okinawa Prefecture

Sakhalin
Sakhalin , part of the Russian Federation
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.