Japan is made up of around 4000 islands and islets off the east coast of Asia. Japan's chain of islands extends over 3000 kilometres. There are four main islands, running from north to south, are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. Japan's total land area is 377 708 square kilometres - about twice as big as Britain. About 70 per cent of Japan is mountainous and much of this high land is forested. There are few large plains. Only 15 per cent of the land is used for agriculture, and a tiny three per cent for housing. The Japanese Alps in central Honshu are the highest mountains in Japan, at 3000 metres. Most of the other mountains are less than 2000 metres high. Japan lies on one of the Earth's most active earthquake zones and because of this, earthquakes are quite common. There are also many volcanoes. 150 are considered important and around 60 of these are still active. The highest peak in Japan is Mount Fuji, which is a dormant volcano. It is 3776 metres high.
Most of Japan's lakes are in the mountains, in narrow valleys and so they are not very large. Lake Biwa in Honshu is the largest at 674 square kilometres. Because there is so much high land, the
Shinto is Japan's native religion. In Shinto, people talk of the "eight million gods," because it is thought that every natural thing has its own god. Shinto has no founder and no official scriptures like the Bible, but it has a long history. It goes back to ancient times when it was used for protection from enemy tribes and for getting good harvests.
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