30 Interesting Facts About Japan

The land: islands, mountains and volcanoes

Japan's geography explains a great deal about the country, from where people live to why the trains run through so many tunnels. It is a long, narrow archipelago on the Pacific Ring of Fire, and that shapes its weather, its landscapes and its hot-spring culture.

These first facts are about the ground beneath your feet.

• 1. Japan is made up of more than 14,000 islands. A government recount published in 2023 roughly doubled the previous official figure, mainly because modern mapping picked up many small islands that had been missed.
• 2. Four main islands hold most of the population: Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku. Okinawa, far to the south-west, is the largest of the Ryukyu Islands and has its own distinct history and culture.
• 3. Around three-quarters of the country is mountainous or hilly, so most people live on the coastal plains. That is why cities such as Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya sprawl along the coast and why so much of the interior feels empty.
• 4. Mount Fuji, at 3,776 metres, is the highest mountain in Japan and an active volcano. Its last eruption was in 1707. The official climbing season is short, running roughly from July to early September, when the trails are free of snow.
• 5. Japan has more than 100 active volcanoes. Volcanic heat is also what feeds the country's thousands of hot springs, or onsen, which range from huge resort towns to a single outdoor pool beside a river.
• 6. Earthquakes are a normal part of life. Most are too small to notice, but buildings are designed to modern seismic standards, and your phone may receive an emergency alert. It is worth reading the safety card in your hotel room on the first night.
• 7. The cherry blossom front moves north through the year. Blossoms open in Okinawa as early as January, reach Tokyo and Kyoto around late March or early April, and arrive in Hokkaido in late April or May. Forecasts are published each year and followed closely.

Trains, cities and getting around

For many visitors, the rail network is the highlight of the trip. It is fast, clean and punctual, and it connects almost every place a first-time visitor is likely to want to see.

The cities it links are some of the largest on earth, yet they are surprisingly easy to navigate once you understand a few habits.

• 8. The first Shinkansen line, between Tokyo and Osaka, opened in 1964, just before the Tokyo Olympics. It was the world's first dedicated high-speed railway.
• 9. In its long history, the Shinkansen has never had a passenger fatality caused by a derailment or collision. Trains are fitted with systems that slow or stop them automatically when an earthquake is detected.
• 10. Shinkansen cleaning crews at Tokyo Station turn a train around in about seven minutes, reversing every seat to face the direction of travel. Visitors often stop on the platform to watch.
• 11. Shinjuku Station in Tokyo is regularly listed as the busiest railway station in the world by passenger numbers. Give yourself extra time and follow the exit signs, which are colour-coded and numbered.
• 12. Greater Tokyo is usually ranked as the largest metropolitan area in the world by population. The city itself was called Edo until 1868, when it became the imperial capital and was renamed Tokyo, meaning eastern capital.
• 13. Kyoto was the imperial capital for more than a thousand years, from 794 until the move to Tokyo. That long history is why it has so many temples, shrines and traditional wooden townhouses.
• 14. Japan drives on the left, like the UK and Australia. On escalators, people stand on one side to let others walk past, but which side varies: the left in Tokyo and the right in Osaka.
• 15. Most addresses are based on numbered blocks rather than street names. A map app on your phone is far easier than trying to find a building from the address alone, which is one reason mobile data is so useful there.

History, language and culture

Japan blends very old traditions with a modern, technology-heavy daily life. Some of its customs are centuries old, while some of its most famous exports are only a few decades old.

These facts cover language, religion, calendars and inventions.

• 16. The Japanese name for the country, Nihon or Nippon, means something close to the origin of the sun, which is where the English phrase Land of the Rising Sun comes from.
• 17. Written Japanese uses three scripts together: hiragana and katakana, which are phonetic, and kanji, characters that came originally from Chinese. Station signs in big cities usually add the Latin alphabet as well.
• 18. Japan still uses imperial era names alongside the Western calendar. The current era, Reiwa, began in 2019, and you will see era-based years on some documents and receipts.
• 19. The Grand Shrine at Ise, the most sacred site in the Shinto religion, is rebuilt every twenty years on an adjacent plot, using traditional methods. The practice has continued, with some interruptions, for well over a thousand years.
• 20. Hōryū-ji, a temple near Nara, contains some of the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world, dating back to around the seventh century.
• 21. Instant noodles were invented in Japan by Momofuku Ando in 1958, and the cup version followed in 1971. There is a museum dedicated to them near Osaka and another in Yokohama.
• 22. Karaoke started in Japan in the 1970s. The word combines kara, meaning empty, with oke, short for orchestra.
• 23. Emoji were also created in Japan, in the late 1990s, for mobile phones. The word comes from e, picture, and moji, character, and has nothing to do with the English word emotion.
• 24. Nintendo was founded in Kyoto in 1889 as a maker of hanafuda playing cards, long before it made video games.

Food, etiquette and everyday life

Everyday customs are where visitors notice the biggest differences, and where a little knowledge goes a long way. None of these will get you into serious trouble if you forget, but people appreciate the effort.

The final facts are the ones you are most likely to encounter on the first day of your trip.

• 25. Tipping is not part of the culture. Leaving money on the table can cause confusion, and staff may chase you down the street to return it.
• 26. Slurping noodles is perfectly acceptable and is often said to help cool the noodles and bring out the flavour. Sticking chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice, however, is avoided because it echoes a funeral rite.
• 27. Shoes come off when you enter a home, a traditional inn, many temple halls and restaurants with tatami mat floors. Look for a raised step or a row of slippers at the entrance as your cue.
• 28. Chefs who prepare fugu, the pufferfish that can be poisonous if prepared wrongly, need a special licence. It is served only in restaurants that hold one.
• 29. Vending machines are everywhere, including on quiet rural roads. Many sell both cold and hot drinks, with the hot ones marked in red.
• 30. The electricity supply runs at 100 volts, with flat two-pin plugs similar to those in North America. Unusually, eastern Japan, including Tokyo, runs at 50 hertz, while western Japan, including Osaka and Kyoto, runs at 60 hertz. Phone and laptop chargers handle both without any problem.

What these facts mean for your trip

A few of these facts translate directly into practical advice. Because so much of the country is mountainous and the cities are dense, the train is usually the best way to travel between major destinations, and a map app saves a lot of time when addresses are based on blocks rather than streets.

Seasons matter more than in many countries. Cherry blossom season in spring and the autumn colours in November are the busiest and most popular times, and the national holiday periods, especially Golden Week in late April and early May, the Obon period in mid-August and New Year, bring very crowded trains and full hotels. If you can travel outside those windows, you will have an easier time.

Finally, staying connected makes a real difference. Translation apps, train route planners and maps all work best with mobile data, and a travel eSIM gives you mobile data abroad without needing to find a shop on arrival. Our Japan travel guide covers the main regions, the best time to visit and how to get around in more detail.