---
title: "Costa Rica vs Japan — area, population, currency"
description: "Costa Rica is 51,100 km² with 5,152,950 people; Japan is 377,915 km² with 123,366,734. Area, density, currency, languages and time zones side by side."
url: https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/costa-rica-vs-japan/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Costa Rica vs Japan

**Costa Rica vs Japan: Japan is larger; Japan has more people**

51,100 km² vs 377,915 km² · 5,152,950 vs 123,366,734

Japan is 7.4 times larger than Costa Rica — 377,915 against 51,100 km². Japan is 24 times more populous than Costa Rica — 123,366,734 against 5,152,950 people.

## Side by side

|  | Costa Rica | Japan |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | San José | Tokyo |
| Area | 51,100 km² | 377,915 km² |
| Population | 5,152,950 (2025) | 123,366,734 (2025) |
| Density | 100.8 /km² | 326.4 /km² |
| Currency | Costa Rican colón (CRC) | Japanese yen (JPY) |
| Official languages | Spanish | Japanese |
| Time zones | UTC-06:00 | UTC+09:00 |
| Calling code | +506 | +81 |
| Drives on the | right | left |
| Continent | North America | Asia |
| ISO codes | CR / CRI | JP / JPN |

## Population density

Japan is 3.2 times more densely populated than Costa Rica — 326 against 101 people per km². Density is where area and population interact, and it often reverses the impression the headline figures give — a large country with a small population can feel emptier than a small crowded one by an enormous margin.

## Practical differences

- They drive on opposite sides — Costa Rica on the right, Japan on the left.
- Different currencies: the Costa Rican colón and the Japanese yen.
- Different continents — North America and Asia.

## Costa Rica

Costa Rica covers about 0.03 percent of the Earth's surface but holds roughly five percent of its known species. More than a quarter of the country is protected, forest cover has roughly doubled since the 1980s, and it runs on close to 100 percent renewable electricity most years. It has around sixty volcanoes, six of them active.

## Japan

A 2023 government survey using digital mapping counted 14,125 islands, more than double the long-quoted figure of 6,852. About three-quarters of the land is mountain, so nearly everyone lives on a narrow band of coastal plain. Japan sits where four tectonic plates meet and records a fifth of the world's magnitude-6-and-above earthquakes.

> Neutral facts only. Nothing here addresses politics, government, economics or which country is preferable in any respect — population is the one figure that dates, and it carries its year.

## Common questions

### Is Costa Rica bigger than Japan?

Japan is larger — 377,915 km² against 51,100 km².

### Which has more people, Costa Rica or Japan?

Japan, with 123,366,734 against 5,152,950.

### What is the time difference between Costa Rica and Japan?

Costa Rica is UTC-06:00 and Japan is UTC+09:00. Daylight saving shifts the gap during the year in places that observe it.

## Related pages

- [Costa Rica](https://atoneplace.net/country/costa-rica/)
- [Japan](https://atoneplace.net/country/japan/)
- [India vs Japan](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-japan/)
- [China vs Japan](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-japan/)
- [China vs Costa Rica](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-costa-rica/)
- [Japan vs United States](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-united-states/)
- [Japan vs United Kingdom](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-united-kingdom/)
- [Japan vs New Zealand](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-new-zealand/)
- [Japan vs Russia](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-russia/)
- [Japan vs Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-mexico/)
- [Japan vs Spain](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-spain/)
- [Japan vs South Korea](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-south-korea/)
- [Japan vs Netherlands](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-netherlands/)
- [Japan vs Nigeria](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-nigeria/)

## Sources

- The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/) [Public domain (US Government)]
- World Bank Open Data — The World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org/) [CC BY 4.0]