Basic Information

Japan is an island nation located along the east coast of the Asian continent. The Japanese archipelago is composed of four large islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu—see below), the islands of Okinawa, and thousands of other smaller islands, with a…

Summary Japan has 4 distinct seasons starting with a cold and dry winter. The welcome spring is mild and brings out Japan’s famous cherry blossoms. The summer starts with the rainy season in late June or early July, followed by…

Japanese (Nihongo 日本語), spoken by around 128 million native speakers, is the national language of Japan, though not officially designated as such. The literacy rate in Japan is said to be close to 100% of the population, and the country…

Japan Standard Time The standard time zone in Japan is Japan Standard Time (JST), which is 9 hours ahead of UTC (UTC+09:00). The 24-hour clock is widely used. Currently, daylight savings time (DST, summer time) is not observed in Japan.…

Japanese Manners Having cut itself from the rest of the world until the late 19th century, Japan has preserved many of its traditional customs, though western influences continue to grow. Many of these customs are closely linked with the changing…

The Yen (¥ / 円 / JPY) is the official currency in Japan. Banknotes and coins The Bank of Japan issues four types of Japanese paper banknotes, and 6 different coins. The banknotes, with value denominations of ¥1,000, ¥2,000, ¥5,000,…

Traditional Japanese Units Although the metric system is used in Japan, some traditional units of measurement are still in wide use as well. A common unit of area used when describing room size is , which is the size of…

The power supply is 100V/50Hz in Eastern Japan and 100V/60Hz in Western Japan, but most electrical items can be used in both areas. Electric outlets are identical to 2-pin North American outlets, and many portable electrical devices from the U.S.…