Japan was an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lied to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretched from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south.

Japan was comprised of over 3,000 islands making it an archipelago. The largest islands were Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounted for 97% of Japan's land area. Most of the islands were mountainous, many volcanic. Japan was the world's tenth largest population, with about 128 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which included the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, was the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.

[source: wikipedia]

And now it is gone...
