Japan is an island nation stretching along the Pacific coast of East Asia. The country is usually called “Nihon” or “Nippon” in Japanese, which means “sun origin” and is often loosely translated as “Land of the rising Sun”. Japan’s national flag also represents the sun and its red and white colors are believed to symbolize joy.

The archipelago consists of four main islands and over three thousand smaller islands that extend north and south. The climate is generally temperate, but ranges from subarctic in the north to subtropical in the south. Seasons are quite distinct and the country is home to wide-ranging flora and fauna.

Japan is densely populated, with 127,690,000 residents (as of 2009) in an area roughly 377,900 square kilometers in size. Major cities include Tokyo (the nation’s capital), Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kobe, Yokohama and Sendai.