---
title: "Ethiopia vs Japan — area, population, currency"
description: "Ethiopia is 1,104,300 km² with 135,472,051 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/ethiopia-vs-japan/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Ethiopia vs Japan

**Ethiopia vs Japan: Ethiopia is larger; Ethiopia has more people**

1,104,300 km² vs 377,915 km² · 135,472,051 vs 123,366,734

Ethiopia is 2.9 times larger than Japan — 1,104,300 against 377,915 km². Ethiopia is slightly more populous, by 9.8% — 135,472,051 against 123,366,734 people.

## Side by side

|  | Ethiopia | Japan |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | Addis Ababa | Tokyo |
| Area | 1,104,300 km² | 377,915 km² |
| Population | 135,472,051 (2025) | 123,366,734 (2025) |
| Density | 122.7 /km² | 326.4 /km² |
| Currency | Ethiopian birr (ETB) | Japanese yen (JPY) |
| Official languages | Amharic | Japanese |
| Time zones | UTC+03:00 | UTC+09:00 |
| Calling code | +251 | +81 |
| Drives on the | right | left |
| Continent | Africa | Asia |
| ISO codes | ET / ETH | JP / JPN |

## Population density

Japan is 2.7 times more densely populated than Ethiopia — 326 against 123 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 — Ethiopia on the right, Japan on the left.
- Different currencies: the Ethiopian birr and the Japanese yen.
- Different continents — Africa and Asia.

## Ethiopia

Ethiopia has the highest mean elevation of any country in Africa, with more land above 3,000 m than the rest of the continent combined. The Blue Nile leaves Lake Tana here and supplies most of the Nile's flow during the flood season. The country keeps its own calendar of thirteen months, running seven to eight years behind the Gregorian one.

## 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 Ethiopia bigger than Japan?

Ethiopia is larger — 1,104,300 km² against 377,915 km².

### Which has more people, Ethiopia or Japan?

Ethiopia, with 135,472,051 against 123,366,734.

### What is the time difference between Ethiopia and Japan?

Ethiopia is UTC+03:00 and Japan is UTC+09:00. Daylight saving shifts the gap during the year in places that observe it.

## Related pages

- [Ethiopia](https://atoneplace.net/country/ethiopia/)
- [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 Ethiopia](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-ethiopia/)
- [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]