Japan on five projections
Japan covers 404,385 km² of ground. Mercator draws it 1.61 times over. Area and shape readings on all five projections, each one measured.
Japan is the size of Norway
Japan covers 404,385 km² and Norway 394,806 - 2.4 percent apart. Japan's anchor sits at 37.3° N and Norway's at 66.7°, 29 degrees away. Mercator draws Japan 1.61 times over and Norway 9.38. Two equal pieces of ground, and on that map one is nearly six times the other.
Why Japan gets used as a ruler
"How many Japans fit in Russia" is one of the most asked questions in the subject, and it works precisely because Japan is barely distorted: at 37° N Mercator inflates it only 1.61 times, and all five projections read within 1.2 on area. Something that is itself stretched cannot be a measuring stick.
The cost lands on shape. Equal Earth stretches Japan to 1.84, the largest of its five shape readings. The area survives; the outline does not.
This object
- True area
- 404,385 km²
- Anchor latitude
- 37.3° N
- Angular radius
- 8.9°
- Draggable latitude range
- -81.6° … 77.5°
On five projections
Each number is measured against its own projection's equator, not against another projection. These five rows do not share an axis - they are five answers to the same question: what did this map give up to lay this place flat?
| Projection | Area distortion | Shape distortion |
|---|---|---|
| Equirectangular | 1.27 | 1.26 |
| Mercator | 1.61 | 1.00 constant |
| Natural Earth | 1.18 | 1.55 |
| Equal Earth | 1.00 constant | 1.84 |
| Gall-Peters | 1.00 constant | 1.27 |
Mercator inflates it most, 1.61 times over. Equal Earth stretches it most: its long axis is 1.84 times its short one.
The same size, drawn otherwise
These are within 5 percent of Japan's true area, and sit at a very different latitude. It is a fact about the Earth, and it is interesting because most projections disagree with it.
- Norway: Norway covers 394,806 km²; this covers 404,385. They sit 29 degrees apart in latitude, and Mercator draws one 4.03 times the other.
Bigger than the map admits
These cover more ground than Japan and Mercator draws them smaller anyway.
- South Sudan: South Sudan is truly 1.55 times larger, and Mercator still draws this one 1.00 times bigger.
- Central African Republic: Central African Republic is truly 1.54 times larger, and Mercator still draws this one 1.01 times bigger.
- Kenya: Kenya is truly 1.47 times larger, and Mercator still draws this one 1.08 times bigger.
- Thailand: Thailand is truly 1.27 times larger, and Mercator still draws this one 1.17 times bigger.
On an equal-area projection this section is empty, for every object there is. An equal-area map draws in proportion to true area, so it cannot draw a larger thing smaller. That is a definition, not a coincidence.
Open it in the tool
Drag Japan across the latitude bands and the readout follows.