Talk:Geography of Japan

Merge with main Japan article?
I think that the information on this link could be merged into the main article: Japan... What do you think, administrators? --154.20.102.96 03:13, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm not an administrator, but I think it's too much. The article on Japan is already too long, and there's no particular reason to merge this, without also merging history, government and politics, and the other daughter articles. The result would be way too big, in my opinion. Fg2 04:12, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes, no reason to include all of this information on the main Japan article. It'd be far too long. Bobo12345 04:56, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
 * This is becoming a fairly good article by itself, and I don't think there's any pressing need to merge. Dekimasu 05:19, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Coordinates?
Should this article really have coordinates? Japan is a location. "Geography of Japan" is not a location, but because this article has been geotagged it shows up in visualization services (like Google Earth) as if it was a location.

I think the coords should be removed.

-Amake 14:33, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Ok not to "burst your bubble" but i think that the coordinates should be there they make it a lot easier instead of going to 100 different websights.

Collective Area
In the introduction the article states that the total area is comparable to Montana (area:381156 kmsq). Then in the next section the size is closer to California(area:410000 kmsq). Japan's actual area is 378000 kmsq. Choose one or the other. Go with Montana for accuracy, or with California for name recognition. Don't be confusing with both of them. High-command (talk) 20:29, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

"Japan's area has been steadily increasing due to construction of artificial islands."
I removed the sentence "Japan's area has been steadily increasing due to construction of artificial islands." While it's true that Japan constructs islands, it's unclear whether the area of the country increases when they are constructed. The area may be naturally decreasing due to erosion, for example, and the artificial islands might or might not be enough to offset that. Whether or not the construction increases the area, it's so tiny a fraction that the increase in area is not worth mentioning. (The construction of islands may be worth mentioning, but probably not in the introduction.) Fg2 (talk) 02:27, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Japan has built some areas in Tokyo and Yokohama on reclaimed land, but it's so insignificant that it does not increase the total size of the country. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.23.216.6 (talk) 19:41, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Home Islands?
Who calls the islands the "Home Islands," and where is the citation for that? Wakablogger (talk) 06:58, 9 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I would claim that the Home Islands, that is the four main islands of Japan, is a common expression in the English language. Here is one simple reference. Here is another from the BBC. Here is one for the NY Times.

Bonin and Volcano Islands separate?
According to the Bonin Islands article, the Volcano Islands are separate from the Bonins, but this article presents them as separate. Wakablogger (talk) 07:14, 9 June 2009 (UTC)


 * You have a point. For that matter, the Bonin Islands article also lists, Marcus Island and Okino Torishima, too. What is not mentioned is whether the Norther Territories are counted or not. imars (talk) 11:36, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

How many islands?
According to List of islands of Japan, there are 6852 islands. Wakablogger (talk) 07:21, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

External links modified
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Confusion related to nuclear power
"As of 2011, 46.1% of energy in Japan was produced from petroleum, 21.3% from coal, 21.4% from natural gas, 4.0% from nuclear power and 3.3% from hydropower. Nuclear power is a major domestic source of energy and produced 9.2 percent of Japan's electricity, as of 2011, down from 24.9 percent the previous year"

What is the correct figure for nuclear power in 2011? 4% or 9.2% ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 181.223.99.198 (talk) 20:44, 5 August 2020 (UTC)

Request for pages
Hello, this is LongRoadLongRoad. I have a request for more pages about the plains and plateaus of Japan. As of now, there only 4 pages i could find on this topic. They are: The reason why I have a request is that I kinda suck at making new pages. LongRoadLongRoad (talk) 19:03, 1 July 2022 (UTC)LongRoadLongRoad
 * 1. Kantō Plain
 * 2. Nōbi Plain
 * 3. Osaka Plain
 * 4. Shirasu-Daichi

Island names Shima Jima
A lot of Japanese islands have the word "shima" or "jima" at the end which means island. In English it is called for example Minami-Tori-shima (南鳥島, southern bird island). It is often written in foreign articles as Minami-tori-shima island. So it says island 2 times. I think a more logical name would be Minami-tori island. There are more examples like this such as Nishinoshima. A better English translation would be Nishino island. Iwo Jima would be Iwo island. Tanegashima would be Tanega island. Such a change would require renaming dozens of articles on Wikipedia though. -Artanisen (talk) 07:47, 2 July 2022 (UTC)


 * Some more examples:
 * Yakushima --> Yaku Island
 * Mikura-jima --> Mikura Island
 * Chichijima --> Chichi Island
 * Tsushima --> Tsu Island
 * Kōzu-shima --> Kozu Island
 * And so on...
 * And also, Titles.
 * Who could change titles? LongRoadLongRoad (talk) 04:32, 3 July 2022 (UTC)
 * It can only be changed if there is approval among a few users and it would need to be changed per article afaik, it's a long process. Many places are known with shima or jima though. Iwo Jima is now called Iō Tō in Japanese. Nishinoshima has been called the same in western media. On Google Maps it is called Nishinoshima, not Nishino island. So if it was renamed on Wikipedia it could confuse some people. For example I've tried for well over a year to get the page Bonin Islands renamed to the official Ogasawara islands, it's been very difficult. The page was originally called Ogasawara islands. -Artanisen (talk) 05:29, 6 July 2022 (UTC)