Is Japan Really a “Small Island Nation”? How the Japanese Forced a Land Divided by Mountains and Sea into a Single Country

Every so often, I come across a map online proclaiming, “Japan is actually this big!”

These maps place the Japanese archipelago over Europe or China to emphasize its length from north to south. Japan is certainly long and narrow. But if a country’s size were measured by length alone, Chile would be a superpower.

Normally, we compare the size of countries by area.

Japan covers about 380,000 square kilometers. It is slightly larger than Germany and ranks somewhere in the sixties worldwide. It is by no means a small country, but neither is it large enough to be called a great power.

What makes Japan interesting, however, is not its area but its unusual shape and terrain.

The Japanese Archipelago Is Divided by Mountains and Sea

Japan is long and narrow from north to south, and it is divided among four large islands: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Add Okinawa and its many other smaller islands, and the total becomes enormous. Moreover, mountains cover roughly 70 percent of the country, separating its plains and basins from one another.

In other words, Japan is divided twice over: by mountains and by sea.

In the past, even traveling to a neighboring region was difficult. Naturally, each area developed its own culture and language. Even today, the Tohoku region in northern Honshu and Kyushu in southwestern Japan differ considerably in dialect and food culture. When local people speak entirely in their regional dialects, even other Japanese people may have no idea what they are saying.

Historically, the Japanese archipelago was not a single country from the beginning.

The ancient Yamato state was centered in the Kinki region of central Japan, while areas such as Tohoku were gradually brought under central control over a long period. Hokkaido and Okinawa have their own ethnic and cultural histories and were not incorporated into the modern Japanese state until the Meiji era.

Before the modern period, domains existed throughout Japan, each with its own finances, administration, and military forces. The Meiji government brought these regions together into a centralized state through measures such as abolishing the domains and establishing prefectures, as well as promoting a standard national language.

When you think about it, that was a remarkably forceful reform.

Britain still faces the question of Scottish independence today. Without Japan’s unification policies after the Meiji Restoration, stronger regional independence movements might have survived here as well.

Railways, Expressways, and the Shinkansen: Japan’s Determination to Connect Itself

What I find especially interesting is the development of Japan’s transportation network.

From the Meiji era onward, Japan built a railway network across the country. It cut through mountains, dug tunnels, constructed bridges, and extended tracks to regional towns.

After World War II, Japan developed expressways and even connected islands separated by sea with massive bridges and undersea tunnels. The Seikan Tunnel and the Great Seto Bridge are emblematic examples.

Japan connected regions divided by mountains and islands separated by sea. The Japanese quite literally continued enormous civil engineering projects to turn the country into a single physical whole.

Even today, plans to extend the Shinkansen network are moving forward.

What is interesting is that some planned sections have been criticized for lacking enough demand to justify their enormous construction costs and are expected to struggle financially even after opening.

Japan’s population is declining, and there is little reason to expect more passengers in rural areas. Yet the country still intends to build the lines.

Local economic benefits and political calculations are no doubt involved. But I sense something beyond simple economic rationality.

It is a determination to connect every corner of the Japanese archipelago through transportation infrastructure and preserve it as one country.

First came the railways, then the expressways, and now the Shinkansen. The era changes, but the idea of connecting the country remains the same.

How Do We Maintain the Country We Brought Together?

Judged by area alone, Japan is not an especially large country. Yet it is fascinating that regions divided by mountains and sea, with different histories and cultures, have been brought together as a single nation.

We take it for granted that everything from Hokkaido to Okinawa is part of the same Japan. But that unity is also the result of an immense amount of time and money.

Recent Shinkansen plans, however, give me pause.

In the past, a new railway moved people and helped towns grow. Today, Japan is preparing to spend enormous sums extending the Shinkansen into rural areas whose populations continue to shrink.

The ideal of connecting the entire country is admirable, but it may be time to find a compromise with economic reality.

In the past, Japan built railways where people lived. Today, it is trying to build Shinkansen lines where the people are disappearing.

Perhaps the next national project will be figuring out how to secure enough people to ride them.