Israel vs Japan

Japan is 17 times larger than Israel — 377,915 against 21,937 km². Japan is 12 times more populous than Israel — 123,366,734 against 10,122,800 people.

Side by side

Population density

Israel is 1.4 times more densely populated than Japan — 461 against 326 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 — Israel on the right, Japan on the left.
• Different currencies: the Israeli new shekel and the Japanese yen.

Israel

The Dead Sea shore is the lowest exposed land on Earth, about 430 m below sea level, and the water is around ten times saltier than the ocean. Israel recycles a higher share of its wastewater than any other country — roughly 85 percent — and most drinking water now comes from Mediterranean desalination.

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.