Best Time to Visit Japan

Geographical location

With an area of about 236000 square miles, Japan is the fourth largest island state in the world in East Asia and consists of a total of 6,852 islands. Japan is located in the Pacific Ocean and borders indirectly on Russia, North and South Korea, China and Taiwan.

Japan has a relatively high population density of 337 inhabitants per square kilometre with around 128 million inhabitants. The most important islands of the state are Hokkaido in the north, the largest island Honshu as well as Shikoku and Kyushu in the south.

Almost over the whole archipelago runs a mountain range, whose highest point is the Fujisan on Honshu with 3776 meters. The special geological location between the fault zones of the North American, Eurasian, Philippine and Pacific plates provides for volcanism and the possibility of earthquakes in the region.

Tokyo, the capital of Japan and the country’s undisputed economic centre, is also located on the main island of Honshu. Japan is one of the world’s leading industrial nations.

Climate in Japan

The climate in Japan is very different due to its large north-south extent and ranges from cool temperate regions to subtropical zones in the very south. The Japanese mainland is strongly affected by winds. In winter cold air masses from Siberia blow over the country, in summer there are monsoon winds from the Pacific Ocean, which bring a lot of precipitation and typhoons.

Rainfall occurs all year round in many parts of Japan. The summer months are characterized by warm temperatures between 25 °C to 35 °C. The north of Japan is relatively dry and has short, warm summers and quite long, cold winters. In winter, snow can fall in the western regions, and the summer is also significantly cooler here than on the Pacific side.

In central Japan there are strong temperature differences between summer and winter, but also between day and night during the course of the year. Only a small amount of precipitation occurs. The Pacific coast has hot and humid summers and cool winters with little snowfall. Japan’s south is dominated by a subtropical climate with hot summers and mild winters, with very heavy rainfall from June to July.