Japan topography. North is at top. Aerial view of Japan, showing land the height of the land (green) and depths of the seas (blue) around it. Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan (blue, centre left), China (upper centre-left), North Korea and South Korea (lower centre-left), and Russia (top left), and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk (blue, upper right) to the East China Sea (blue, lower left). The Philippines Sea is at lower right).