Geography of Japan
Japan is an island nation comprising a stratovolcanic archipelago over along East Asia's Pacific coast. It consists of 6,852 islands. The main islands are Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Hokkaido. The Ryukyu Islands and Nanpō Islands are south of the main islands. The territory extends . It is the largest island country in East Asia and fourth largest island country in the world. Japan has the sixth longest coastline and the eight largest Exclusive Economic Zone of in the world.
Telephone numbers in Japan
Geographic numbers are nine digits long, including the area code, but not including the leading zero. Consequently, densely populated areas have shorter area codes, while less populated areas have longer area codes. For example:Area codes increase from north to south; Sapporo in Hokkaidō (the northernmost prefecture) has 11, and Setouchi's 99-73 is far to the south in Kagoshima. When the telephone system was devised, Okinawa was still under U.S. occupation, so when it was returned to Japan in 1972, its telephone numbers were squeezed between Miyazaki (98x) and Kagoshima (99x) and begin with 988, 989, and 980.