Infographics – How Big Is Japan?

Let me do something I don’t usually do: infographics. I realize that a lot of people, even in this day and age of computers and GPS navigators, have a very weak grasp of basic geography. How many people could place Tokyo on a map of Japan? How many people know how many main islands make up the Japanese archipelago? How many states are the in the US? How many prefectures in Kyushu? Let’s face it, most people, including us, haven’t go a clue.

But I thought I should give you a hint as to how big Japan is. Japan stretches from the subarctic north of Hokkaido and the Sea of Okhotsk to the southern province of Okinawa, a mere few kilometers from Taiwan. So I made maps of Japan compared to the rest of the world (well, to the US and to Europe) for you to have a look at.

In the first map (below) I placed Japan so that Tokyo centered on the city of Vaduz in central Europe. Vaduz is the capital of Lichtenstein, a small country between Switzerland and Austria. With this placement, Japan would reach from the city of Gothenburg in Sweden and way down off the coast of Portugal and Spain.

Yes, look for yourself. Japan would go from Sweden to North Africa. That’s pretty hefty for a single country don’t you think? I colored in the area of Japan affected by the earthquake with red.

Second map shows Japan on top of the US. Well, North America to be honest. If I place Tokyo to correspond with the wonderful city of St Louis, I get Hokkaido all the way up in Ontario, Canada, and Okinawa ending way beyond Chihuahua in Mexico.

I hope this visualization helps you realize just how huge Japan is, and how varied the country is in terms of people, geography and climate.

If you want to test this for yourself (please do, it is important to verify these sorts of things), you can go to the site where I created these maps, at MAPFrappe. I am sure someone can make an even better map mashup, with cities, evacuation zones and reactors and all the bells and whistles. Go ahead, and let us see what you create!