Botswana is 1.55× the size of Japan

Botswana covers about 579,000 km² (224,000 mi²) and Japan about 374,000 km² (144,000 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other.

579,000km²Botswana
374,000km²Japan

500 km

Botswana
Japan

What fits

Japan is 65% of the size of Botswana.
Botswana is larger by 206,000 km² (79,400 mi²), which is 55% of the area of Japan.
Measured in Belgiums: Botswana is about 18.9, Japan about 12.2.

How they differ

Botswana is larger, but Japan has the larger population: 123.8 million against 2.5 million, 49.9× as many people.
Per square kilometre that is 331 in Japan against 4.3 in Botswana: Japan is 77.4× as densely populated.
Their centres are about 13,500 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Botswana at 22°S is drawn about 1.2× too large and Japan at 37°N about 1.6×, so the map shows Botswana as 1.14× the size of Japan instead of 1.55×.
Together Botswana and Japan cover 953,000 km², close to the size of Tanzania (942,000 km², 1.2% smaller).
The gap between them, 206,000 km², is about the size of Belarus (207,000 km²).
At Japan's density, Botswana would have 191.9 million people (it has 2.5 million). At Botswana's density, Japan would have 1.6 million (it has 123.8 million).
Japan's centre is 59.6° of latitude, about 6,630 km, farther north than Botswana's.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Botswana	1.55×
More people	Japan	49.9×
More crowded	Japan	77.4×
Farther north	Japan	59.6° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Japan	1.6× against 1.2×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Botswana	Japan
Belgium 30,700 km²	18.9×	12.2×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	2.38×	1.53×
Germany 358,000 km²	1.62×	1.04×
France 548,000 km²	1.06×	0.68×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.18×	0.12×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.07×	0.04×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.06×	0.04×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.03×	0.02×

Each figure is the place's area divided by the yardstick's.

Side by side

	Botswana	Japan
Area, main territory	579,000 km²224,000 mi²	374,000 km²144,000 mi²
Population	2.5 millionWikidata, 2023	123.8 millionWikidata, 2024
Density	4.3 per km²	331 per km²
Official area	582,000 km²Wikidata	378,000 km²Wikidata
Capital	Gaborone	Tokyo
Latitude range	27°S to 18°S	24°N to 46°N
Continent	Africa	Asia

Population: Wikidata 2023 and Wikidata 2024, covering each whole country. Official figures: Wikidata (CC0).

Wikidata's official figure of 582,000 km² agrees with our measured area of 579,000 km², to within 2%.
Wikidata's official figure of 378,000 km² agrees with our measured area of 374,000 km², to within 2%.

Similar in size to Botswana

Similar in size to Japan

More comparisons

Sources and method

Outlines: Natural Earth, 1:10m Admin 0 - Countries, public domain
Boundary: De facto, as drawn by Natural Earth. Main territory: the largest landmass and every part within 1,000 km of it.
Area: Measured on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outlines, shown rounded. Comparisons use main-territory area.
Drawing: Each outline is projected with an equal-area projection centred on its own centroid, so areas stay true and the two can be laid over each other.
Data built: 2026-11-11

Full method