The Fascination of Japan and its Geography Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Japan is known as the Land of the Rising Sun. True or false: Japan contains the most easterly point of Asia.

Answer: False

The International Date Line is seen as the divide between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. However this is not a straight line on the 180 degree meridian. Japan's eastern extremity is 146 degrees East whereas western Russia extends into the Western Hemisphere at 178 degrees West (though it does not cross the International Dateline) Eastern Australia and New Zealand, whilst not in Asia, are both east of Japan.

2. Japan is an archipelago of 6852 islands. How many islands comprise the main islands, also known as the Home Islands?

Answer: 4

The main islands, sometimes called the "Home Islands", are Hokkaido, Honshu (the "mainland"), Shikoku and Kyushu. These four islands comprise approximately 366 000 sq. km. of Japan's total area of 377 000 sq.km. The Okinawa island archipelago are strung out up to 1600 km southwest of Kyushu, the westernmost of the four main islands.

3. Honshu, the largest island, is also called the mainland. It is one of the top ten largest islands in the world.

Answer: True

Honshu at 227 000 sq kilometres is the seventh largest island in the world. It is larger than the island of Great Britain (9th), (but not the area of the UK). It is larger than both the North (14th) and South Islands (12th) of New Zealand (but not the total area of New Zealand). Borneo (3rd) and Sumatra (6th) are the Asian islands bigger than Honshu.
The population of Honshu exceeds 103 million (2016) out of a total Japanese population of 127 million (2016).

4. The size of Japan is deceptive. If the four main islands were superimposed over continental USA, what part would they overlay?

Answer: Eastern Seaboard - Maine to Mississippi

Japan's four major islands are close to each other (There are rail tunnels connecting Honshu with each of the other three islands). However they are comparable with an an area of the eastern seaboard of the USA where the Appalachian Mountains would be the "spine" of Japan as they are the spine of the eastern US states.

The total area of Japan, though is quite a bit smaller than California (377 00 sq. km. compared with 423 000 sq. km.)

5. Japan is the 61st largest country in the world but being an island country it has a large coastline. Where does Japan rate on the countries with the largest coastlines?

Answer: 6

According to the World Fact Book, only Canada, Norway, Indonesia, Russia and the Philippines have longer coastlines. With 29751 kilometres of coastline, it even pips Australia (gasp!) with a mere 25670 km (7th). Both the large number of islands and a rugged coastline with many inlets and peninsulas contribute to this high figure (No wonder fish features heavily in the Japanese diet!). No point in Japan is greater than 150 kilometres from the sea.

6. Japan is consistently one of the top ten rice producers in the world so one might expect it have a large percentage of arable land. What percentage of Japan is considered arable?

Answer: 11%

Japan is very mountainous. Over 70% of Japan is considered mountainous leaving only a small percentage of land (11%) that is considered arable. Rice is the main crop by far as it is a staple of nearly every meal in Japan. Rice is grown in every spare possible space.

The average rice "farm" is 1.3 acres whereas US and Australian farms' average size is 100 times that figure. Japan has a "no-import" rule. It does not allow importation of rice (processed rice products are OK) and it only exports what it does not use domestically, which is little.

7. Mount Fuji, or more correctly Fujiyama is a Japan's highest mountain and a sacred site. It is also an active volcano.

Answer: True

Fujiyama is the highest mountain in Japan at 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft). It last erupted in 1707. Mount Fuji is one of Japan's "Three Holy Mountains" and it is considered a Special Place of Scenic Beauty. It was listed on the World Heritage List as a Cultural Site in 2013.

Japan, located on the Ring of Fire, has over 100 active volcanoes, more than any other country. Japan has about 10% of all active volcanoes in the world.

8. Because of its location on the Ring of Fire, Japan is very susceptible to earthquakes. In 2011 a tsunami created by a deep sea earthquake devastated much of coastal Japan, particularly Sendai and Fukushima. Where are these two places located?

Answer: North eastern Honshu

On March 11, 2011, just before 3pm a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the east coast of Japan.The epicenter was 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Sendai, (which is 360km north of Tokyo). It was the world's fifth largest earthquake since 1900 and the worst in Japan's history. Japan, a country better prepared than any other for earthquakes, could do little in preparation for this national disaster.

9. Rivers in Japan, because of the mountain terrain, tend to be short and swift. What is the main benefit of such a river system to Japan?

Answer: Hydro-electricity

Japanese rivers are short, steep and fast. They are generally non-navigable. The longest, the Shinano River, which unusually, is windy and not steep, curls through Nagano Prefecture to Niigata Prefecture and exits into the Sea of Japan on the western coast of Honshu. It is only 367 kilometers long.
However because of their rapid flow rate, the rivers provide a valuable renewable resource: Hydro-electricity.
Japan, in 2014 was the eighth largest producer of hydro-electricity in the world with over 1200 plants. Even then, this was only around seven percent of Japan's power needs.

10. Whilst this quiz has concentrated on the physical aspects of its geography, it would be impossible to write a Geography quiz on Japan without a nod to its greatest adaptation to its environment: the railway system. Shinjuku is the busiest rail station in the world. Given there are over 35 million people in Greater Tokyo, how many people use this station DAILY?

Answer: Over three million per day

In 2016 3.65 million people passed through Shinjuku station in north central Tokyo per day.
The railway system is the backbone of the transport system with over 100 million passenger trips per day. Japan's bullet trains, the Shinkansen first appeared in 1964 and their speed and punctuality have set standards for the rest of the world.

Source: Author 1nn1

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor spanishliz before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Japan is historically, culturally and geographically a fascinating country. In this quick quiz, we briefly examine the geography of the Land of the Rising Sun.

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