Japan is an island country in East Asia, in the Pacific Ocean to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North and South Korea and Russia. Japan consists of over 3000 islands, the four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku and these four account for 97% of the area of Japan. Most of the islands have mountainous terrain, and many of them are volcanic and have numerous hot springs - Mount Fuji itself is a volcano. Japan has the tenth largest population of some 128 million and is one of the most densely populated areas in the world because around 80% of the country is mountainous forests and unsuitable for habitation, and people live mainly in coastal areas.
Japans climate is mainly temperate but does vary from the temperate north in Hokkaido, through the winter snowfalls in the west and the seasonal changes in climate of the central zones to the sub-tropical climate of the Ryukyu Islands.