Japan consists of four large islands, Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. There are an additional 7,000 islands. When you combine the land area of all of these islands, Japan is about the size of Germany. The modern day capital of Japan is Tokyo, located on the island of Honshu and Japan's largest city with a population of 8 million. Japan has 47 prefectures which are equivalent to our states.