Japan is an island nation located in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean.
It consists of about 3,000 islands, the four largest of which are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. With a total area of around 380,000 square kilometers, it is about one twenty-fifth the size of the United States, or slightly larger than Germany. Just under 130 million people live in Japan, whose capital city is Tokyo. The Group of Eight Summit in 2000 will be held in the Kyushu and Okinawa areas. As shown on the map, across from Japan on the west coast of the Sea of Japan are such countries as China, the Republic of Korea, and Russia.