Japanese Archipelago

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The Japanese archipelago
Japanese archipelago (日本列島, Nihon Rettō) is the group of islands that forms the country of 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.[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.[1]

Contents

1 Palaeogeography 2 Geography

2.1 Islands and prefectures

3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Palaeogeography[edit] Main article: Geology of Japan

Changes of land-forms of Japan
Japan over time

Japanese archipelago, Sea of Japan
Japan and surrounding part of continental East Asia in 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
Last Glacial Maximum about 20,000 years ago, thin black line indicates present-day shorelines Vegetated land Unvegetated land Ocean

Geography[edit] Main article: Geography of Japan The archipelago consists of 6,852 islands ("island" defined as land more than 100 m in circumference), of which 430 are inhabited.[2] The five main islands, from north to south, are Sakhalin, Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu; Honshu
Honshu is the largest and referred to as the Japanese mainland.[3] Islands and prefectures[edit]

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

Tōhoku region
Tōhoku region consists of six prefectures.

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

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

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

Chūbu region
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
Kansai region consists of seven prefectures.

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

Chūgoku region
Chūgoku region consists of five prefectures.

Hiroshima Prefecture Okayama Prefecture Shimane Prefecture Tottori Prefecture Yamaguchi Prefecture

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

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

Ryukyu Islands
Ryukyu Islands and Okinawa Islands

Okinawa Prefecture

Sakhalin
Sakhalin – 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.[4]

Sakhalin
Sakhalin Oblast