---
title: "Japan vs Taiwan — area, population, currency"
description: "Japan is 377,915 km² with 123,366,734 people; Taiwan is 35,980 km² with 23,600,776. Area, density, currency, languages and time zones side by side."
url: https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/japan-vs-taiwan/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Japan vs Taiwan

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

377,915 km² vs 35,980 km² · 123,366,734 vs 23,600,776

Japan is 11 times larger than Taiwan — 377,915 against 35,980 km². Japan is 5.2 times more populous than Taiwan — 123,366,734 against 23,600,776 people.

## Side by side

|  | Japan | Taiwan |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital | Tokyo | Taipei |
| Area | 377,915 km² | 35,980 km² |
| Population | 123,366,734 (2025) | 23,600,776 (2025) |
| Density | 326.4 /km² | 655.9 /km² |
| Currency | Japanese yen (JPY) | New Taiwan dollar (TWD) |
| Official languages | Japanese | Mandarin Chinese |
| Time zones | UTC+09:00 | UTC+08:00 |
| Calling code | +81 | +886 |
| Drives on the | left | right |
| Continent | Asia | Asia |
| ISO codes | JP / JPN | TW / TWN |

## Population density

Taiwan is 2.0 times more densely populated than Japan — 656 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 — Japan on the left, Taiwan on the right.
- Different currencies: the Japanese yen and the New Taiwan dollar.

## 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.

## Taiwan

A mountainous island: 268 peaks rise above 3,000 m in an area smaller than Switzerland, and Yushan reaches 3,952 m. Taroko Gorge is cut about 19 km through marble. The island sits on the Ring of Fire and the Tropic of Cancer crosses it, so the south is tropical and the high interior gets snow.

> 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 Japan bigger than Taiwan?

Japan is larger — 377,915 km² against 35,980 km².

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

Japan, with 123,366,734 against 23,600,776.

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

Japan is UTC+09:00 and Taiwan is UTC+08:00. Daylight saving shifts the gap during the year in places that observe it.

## Related pages

- [Japan](https://atoneplace.net/country/japan/)
- [Taiwan](https://atoneplace.net/country/taiwan/)
- [India vs Japan](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-japan/)
- [India vs Taiwan](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/india-vs-taiwan/)
- [China vs Japan](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-japan/)
- [China vs Taiwan](https://atoneplace.net/country-vs/china-vs-taiwan/)
- [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/)

## 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]