Germany vs Japan

Japan is slightly larger, by 5.9% — 377,915 against 357,022 km². Japan is 1.5 times more populous than Germany — 123,366,734 against 83,491,249 people.

Side by side

Population density

Japan is 1.4 times more densely populated than Germany — 326 against 234 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 — Germany on the right, Japan on the left.
• Different currencies: the Euro and the Japanese yen.
• Different continents — Europe and Asia.

Germany

Germany borders nine countries, more than any other in Europe. The Rhine carries more freight than any other river in Europe. The country has around 25,000 castles and palaces, and the Black Forest and Bavarian Alps mean about a third of it is wooded.

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.