Japan consists of a group of islands situated to the east of the
continent of Asia, somewhat as the British Isles are situated to the
west of the continent of Europe. But the Japan islands are of volcanic
origin and are very numerous. There are said to be 4223 of them.
However, there are only four that are of important size, and it is
these that are usually thought of when Japan is spoken of. The area of
these four islands is 147,655 miles, which is almost a fourth more
than that of Great Britain and Ireland. The population (census of
1895) is 42,270,620, which is 4,000,000 more than that of Great
Britain and Ireland. The population per square mile is 286, which,
though large, is not quite so large as that of Great Britain. If,
however, we do not take into consideration the northern island (Yezo),
which is still partly inhabited by uncivilised aborigines, the
population per square mile is 375, which is considerably in excess of
that of both China and Great Britain and Ireland, though still
considerably less than that of England alone. The above statistics do
not include the island of Formosa (area 13,500 miles, population
almost 2,000,000), which was transferred from China to Japan in 1895,
at the close of the late Chino-Japanese war.