Japan | PLACE

Japan (help·info) (Japanese: 日本/日本国 (Nihon or Nippon, officially Nihon-koku or Nippon-koku, (Japanese: 日本/日本国?) is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of China, Korea, and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name literally mean "sun-origin," thus Japan is sometimes identified as the "Land of the Rising Sun," derived from the country's eastward position relative to China. Its capital and largest city is Tokyo.

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