About Japan
Japanese - the sole national/official language, spoken by the vast majority of the population.
Japanese has approximately 128 million speakers, with Japan being the only country where it is the national language.
Ryukyuan languages are spoken by minority indigenous communities in Okinawa.
Japanese is the sole official language of Japan.
| Geography |
Location: Eastern Asia, island chain between the North Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan, east of the Korean Peninsula
Map references: Asia
Area:
total: 377,915 sq km; an archipelago of more than 6,000 islands, with the four main islands (Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku) accounting for most of the land area and population
| People |
Population: 123,201,945-123,400,000 (2024-2025 est.); 11th most populous country in the world; peaked at 128.5 million in 2010
Age structure:
0-14 years: 10.9-12.1%
15-64 years: 58.4-59.7%
65 years and over: 29.4-29.5% (2024 est.)
Median age: 50.2 years (2025 est.) - among the highest in the world
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 84.83-85.2 years
male: 81-82.3 years
female: 87-88.2 years
Infant mortality rate: 1.9 deaths/1,000 live births
Urbanization: 92% of the population is urban (2023)
Nationality:
noun/adjective: Japanese
Ethnic groups: Japanese 97.5% (includes Yamato, Ryukyuan, Ainu), Chinese 0.6%, Vietnamese 0.4%, South Korean 0.3%, other 1.2% (includes Filipino, Brazilian, Nepalese, Indonesian) (2022 est.)
Religions: Shintoism 48.6%, Buddhism 46.4%, Christianity 1.1%, other 4% (2021 est.)
Languages: Japanese
| Government |
Country name:
conventional short form: Japan
local short form: Nihon/Nippon
Data code: JA
Government type: parliamentary constitutional monarchy
National capital: Tokyo; formerly known as Edo, became the imperial capital in 1868, replacing Kyoto
| Economy |
Economy - overview: advanced, high-income, technologically sophisticated economy; among the world's most economically and technologically advanced societies since 1950; strong industrial base in automobiles, electronics, and machine tools
GDP (purchasing power parity): $7.262 trillion (2026f)
GDP - real growth rate: 0.7% (2026f)
GDP - per capita: $59,207 PPP (2026f)
Inflation rate: 2.8% (2026)
Unemployment rate: 2.3-2.5% (2025)
Labor force: 69.349 million (2023)
Industries: high technology, motor vehicles, electronics, machine tools, steel, nonferrous metals, ships, chemicals, textiles, processed foods
Exports: $738 billion (2025); transport equipment, machinery, electrical machinery, chemicals
Currency: Japanese yen (JPY)
| Military |
Military - note: the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) are equipped largely with domestically produced weapons platforms; most imported arms come from the US; Japan's defense industry is capable of producing a wide range of air, ground, and naval weapons systems (2025)