• Four main islands and many smaller ones
• Area: slightly smaller than California
• Arable land: 11.7%
• Highest point: Mt. Fuji: 3,776m
• Natural hazards: active volcanoes; earthquakes (1,500 seismic occurrences every year); tsunamis; typhoons; heavy snowfalls

• Shintoist 79.2%
• Buddhist 66.8%
• Christianity 1.5% (evangelical 0.3%)
• Other 7.1% (total adherents exceeds 100% because many people belong to both Shintoism and Buddhism)

(source of information: CIA World Fact-book)

• Population growth rate: -0.21%
• 126,451,000 people (July 2017 est.)
• 0-14 years: 13%; 15-24 years: 10%; 25-54 years: 38%; 55-64 years: 12%; over 65 years: 27.9%
• Japanese 98.5%; Korean 0.5%; Chinese 0.4%; other 0.6%
• Life expectancy at birth: overall 85.3 years (women 88.8; men 81.9 years)
• Literacy 99%