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The five main islands, from north to south, are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. [6] Honshu is the largest and referred to as the Japanese mainland. [9] The topography is divided as: Hokkaido, Honshu, and Shikoku and its surrounding islands; Kyushu and the Ryukyu arc, which is composed of the Ryukyu Islands and other surrounding ...
The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands—Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu—and thousands of smaller islands, covering 377,975 square kilometres (145,937 sq mi). Japan has a population of over 123 million as of 2025, making it the eleventh-most populous country .
Honshu – the largest and most populous island, with the capital Tokyo. Honshu is connected to the other three main islands by bridges and tunnels. Kyushu – the third largest main island, second most populous and the nearest to the Asian continent. Shikoku – the smallest and least populous main island, located between Honshu and Kyushu.
"Mainland Japan" (内地, naichi, lit. "inner lands") is a term used to distinguish Japan's core land area from its outlying territories. It is most commonly used to distinguish the country's four largest islands (Hokkaidō, Honshū, Kyūshū, and Shikokū) from smaller islands such as the Bonin Islands and the Ryukyu Islands.
[87] [88] Honshu has the highest population density at 450 persons/km 2 (1200/sq mi) as of 2010, while Hokkaido has the lowest density of 64.5 persons/km 2 as of 2016. [89] As of 2014, approximately 0.5% of Japan's total area is reclaimed land (umetatechi). [90] Lake Biwa is an ancient lake and the country's largest freshwater lake. [91]
81% of the population lives on Honshu, 10% on Kyushu, 4.2% on Hokkaido, 3% on Shikoku, 1.1% in Okinawa Prefecture, and 0.7% on other Japanese islands such as the Nanpō Islands. Nearly 1 in 3 Japanese people live in the Greater Tokyo Area, and over half live in the Kanto, Kinki, and Chukyo metropolitan areas. [115]
The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands—Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu—and thousands of smaller islands, covering 377,975 square kilometres (145,937 sq mi). Japan has a population of nearly 124 million as of 2024, making it the eleventh-most populous country .
Shikoku (四国, Shikoku, pronounced ⓘ, lit. ' four provinces ') is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is 225 kilometres (140 miles) long and between 50 and 150 kilometres (30 and 95 miles) at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands.