japan (; romanised as "nihon" or "nippon") is a country in east asia. it is a group of many islands close to the east coast of korea, china and russia. the pacific ocean is to the east of japan and the sea of japan is to the west. most people in japan live on one of the four islands. the biggest of these islands, honshu, has the most people. honshu is the 7th largest island in the world. tokyo is the capital of japan and its biggest city.