The entire territory is surrounded by the sea. It consists of long and slender islands spanning 3,500 km from northeast to southwest. Besides, most of the country is mountainous. Due to such complicated soil conditions, the climate in Japan is diverse.


Because of its proximity to the Eurasian continent, the influence of seasonal winds is remarkable. That is why the changes of the four seasons are apparent.

・Hokkaido / Honshu / Shikoku / Kyushu mountain region: Subarctic humid summer cold climate. (Dfa / Dfb)
・Honshu mountain area: Subarctic winter with light rain (Dwb)
・Honshu / Shikoku / Kyushu-Okinawa Islands / Daito Islands: Temperate rainy summer with high-temperature climate (Cfa)
・Miyako Islands / Yaeyama Islands / Oki Daito Island: Rainforest Climate

* From Köppen climate classification


To define it roughly, the Japanese climate is warm and humid, with hot and humid summers and cold and dry winters. We can say that the weather is quite mild the whole year-round.

However, Japan is a country with a lot of rainfall. From summer to autumn we have the rainy season and typhoons, whereas the snow sometimes and in some parts of Japan falls in winter, with an annual precipitation of about 1700mm. Especially when it comes to snowfall, Japan it is one of the world’s leading dense snowfall areas.