Japan is an archipelagic country comprising a stratovolcanic archipelago over 3,000 km (1,900 mi) along the Pacific coast of East Asia. It consists of 14,125 islands. The four main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku. The other 14,120 islands are classified as "remote islands" by the Japanese government. The Ryukyu Islands and Nanpō Islands are south and east of the main islands.
Honshu, historically called Akitsushima, is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separates the Sea of Japan, which lies to its north and west, from the North Pacific Ocean to the south and east. It is the seventh-largest island in the world, and the second-most populous after the Indonesian island of Java.
Shikoku, Japanese pronunciation:[ɕikokɯ] is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is 225 kilometres long and between 50 and 150 kilometres at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima (伊予之二名島), Iyo-shima (伊予島), and Futana-shima (二名島), and its current name refers to the four former provinces that make up the island: Awa, Tosa, Sanuki, and Iyo.
Iwo Jima, officially romanized and pronounced Iōtō, is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands, which lie south of the Bonin Islands and together with them make up the Ogasawara Archipelago. Together with the Izu Islands, they make up Japan's Nanpō Islands. Although 1,200 km (750 mi) south of Tokyo on Honshu, Iwo Jima is administered as part of the Ogasawara Subprefecture of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
The Volcano Islands or Iwo Islands are a group of three Japanese-governed islands in Micronesia. They lie south of the Ogasawara Islands and belong to the municipality of Ogasawara, Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. The islands are all active volcanoes lying atop the Izu–Bonin–Mariana Arc that stretches south to the Marianas. They have an area of 32.55 square kilometres (12.57 sq mi), and a population of 380. The island of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands lies about 1,240 kilometres southeast of Miyazaki.
Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park is a national park in Yamanashi, Shizuoka, and Kanagawa Prefectures, and western Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. It consists of Mount Fuji, Fuji Five Lakes, Hakone, the Izu Peninsula, and the Izu Islands. Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park covers 1,227 square kilometres (474 sq mi).
The Japanese archipelago is an archipelago of 14,125 islands that form the country of Japan. It extends over 3,000 km (1,900 mi) from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East China and Philippine seas in the southwest along the Pacific coast of the Eurasian continent, and consists of three island arcs from north to south: the Northeastern Japan Arc, the Southwestern Japan Arc, and the Ryukyu Island Arc. The Daitō Islands, the Izu–Bonin–Mariana Arc, the Kuril Islands, and the Nanpō Islands neighbor the archipelago.
The Izu Islands are a group of volcanic islands stretching south and east from the Izu Peninsula of Honshū, Japan. Administratively, they form two towns and six villages; all part of Tokyo Prefecture. The largest is Izu Ōshima, usually called simply Ōshima.
Nii-jima (新島) is a volcanic Japanese island administered by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. It is one of the Izu Seven Islands, group of the seven northern islands of the Izu archipelago, and is located approximately 163 kilometres (101 mi) south of Tōkyō and 36 kilometres (22 mi) south of Shimoda Shizuoka Prefecture. The island is the larger inhabited component of the village of Niijima Village, Ōshima Subprefecture of Tokyo Metropolis, which also contains the neighboring island of Shikine-jima and the smaller, uninhabited Jinai-tō. Nii-jima is also within the boundaries of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park.
Kōzu-shima (神津島) is a volcanic Japanese island in the Philippine Sea. The island is administered by Tōkyō and is located approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) northwest of the Miyake-jima and 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) southwest of the Nii-jima. It is one of the Izu Seven Islands, a group of the seven northern islands of the Izu archipelago. Kōzushima is administratively part of Kōzushima Village, under Ōshima Subprefecture of Tokyo Metropolis. As of 2017, the island's population was 1,952. Kōzushima is within the boundaries of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park.
Miyake-jima is a volcanic island in the Izu archipelago in the Philippine Sea approximately 180 kilometers (110 mi) southeast of Tokyo, Japan. As with the other islands in the Izu Island group, Miyake-jima forms part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park.
Toshima is a village located in Ōshima Subprefecture, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. The village comprises the whole of Toshima Island.
Tori-shima 'Bird Island', or Izu-Torishima 'Bird Island of Izu Province') is an uninhabited Japanese island in the Pacific Ocean. The volcanic island is part of the Izu Islands.
The geography and administrative subdivisions of Japan have evolved and changed during the course of its history. These were sometimes grouped according to geographic position.
In Japanese mythology, Kuniumi is the traditional and legendary history of the emergence of the Japanese archipelago, of islands, as narrated in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. According to this legend, after the creation of Heaven and Earth, the gods Izanagi and Izanami were given the task of forming a series of islands that would become what is now Japan. In Japanese mythology, these islands make up the known world. The creation of Japan is followed by the creation of the gods (kamiumi).
Shimoshima is the largest island in the Amakusa archipelago. Its coasts are washed by Ariake Sea, Amakusa-nada sea, East China Sea and Yatsushiro Sea. Most of Shimoshima Island is administered as part of Amakusa city, with 67 km2 patch on north-west coast belonging to the town of Reihoku. The island's highest peak is Mount Tenjiku 538.4 m (1,766 ft).
Kamishima is the second largest island in the Amakusa archipelago of Japan. Its coasts are washed by Yatsushiro Sea and Shimabara Bay of Ariake Sea, both being the part of East China Sea. The western part of Kamishima Island is administered as part of Amakusa city, while eastern part is administered as part of Kami-Amakusa city. The island's highest peak is Mount Kuratake 682 m (2,238 ft).
Kamikoshiki Island is the second largest island in the Koshikijima Islands. Its coasts are washed by East China Sea. The island's highest peak is Mount Tomekiyama 423 m (1,388 ft) high.
The Geiyo Islands are a group of islands in the Seto Inland Sea, under the administration of Hiroshima Prefecture and Ehime Prefecture. Some of the largest islands in the archipelago are connected by the Nishiseto Expressway bridge system connecting Honshu and Shikoku, as well as the Akinada Tobishima Kaido from Kure, Hiroshima.
The Northern Izu Archipelagodialects are dialects of Japanese spoken on the inhabited islands north of Mikura-jima in the Izu Archipelago, part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. The various dialects are classified as Eastern Japanese, and are most similar to the Izu dialect of mainland Honshū, but as islands have also developed unique traits which can vary considerably from island to island. On islands with large numbers of migrants from the mainland, such as To-shima, there is increasing standardisation of speech towards the common standard.
