Egypt is 1.04× the size of Sea of Japan

Egypt (country) covers about 1,001,000 km² (387,000 mi²) and the Sea of Japan (sea) about 959,000 km² (370,000 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other. The Sea of Japan outline is Natural Earth’s, checked against the published area.

1,001,000km²Egypt
959,000km²Sea of Japan

200 km

Egypt
Sea of Japan

What fits

Sea of Japan is 96% of the size of Egypt.
Egypt is larger by 42,500 km² (16,400 mi²), which is 4.4% of the area of Sea of Japan.
Measured in Belgiums: Egypt is about 32.6, Sea of Japan about 31.3.

How they differ

Their centres are about 9,290 km apart.
On a standard web map Sea of Japan looks larger than Egypt: Egypt at 26°N is drawn about 1.2× too large and Sea of Japan at 41°N about 1.8×, so the map shows Sea of Japan as 1.35× the size of Egypt, when Egypt is 1.04× the size of Sea of Japan.
Together Egypt and Sea of Japan cover 1,960,000 km², close to the size of Mexico (1,958,000 km², 0.1% smaller).
The gap between them, 42,500 km², is about the size of Denmark (42,700 km²).
Sea of Japan's centre is 14.7° of latitude, about 1,630 km, farther north than Egypt's.
Egypt ranks 30th of 212 countries by area.
The Sea of Japan is a sea and ranks 9th of the 42 seas on sizeversus by area.
Laid out flat, Egypt stretches about 1,080 km north to south and 1,230 km east to west; the Sea of Japan about 1,960 km by 1,130 km.
Poured over Egypt, the 1,630,000 km³ that Wikidata records for the Sea of Japan would stand 1,628 m deep.
Wikidata’s published figure of 978,000 km² agrees with our measured 959,000 km², to within 2%.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Egypt	1.04×
Farther north	Sea of Japan	14.7° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Sea of Japan	1.8× against 1.2×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Egypt	Sea of Japan
Belgium 30,700 km²	32.6×	31.3×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	4.11×	3.93×
Germany 358,000 km²	2.80×	2.68×
Japan 374,000 km²	2.68×	2.57×
France 548,000 km²	1.83×	1.75×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.32×	0.30×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.12×	0.11×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.11×	0.10×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.06×	0.06×

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

Side by side

	Egypt	Sea of Japan
Is a	CountryAfrica	Seasea on sizeversus
Area, measured	1,001,000 km²387,000 mi²	959,000 km²370,000 mi²
Area, published	1,010,000 km²Wikidata	978,000 km²Wikidata
Rank by area	30th of 212countries	9th of 42seas
Greatest depth	–	3,742 mWikidata
Volume	–	1,630,000 km³
Latitude range	22°N to 32°N	34°N to 52°N
On the shore	–	4 on the shore

Published figures: Wikidata (CC0). A lake or a sea has no legal boundary: the measured area is that of Natural Earth’s outline, and it is shown beside the published one.

Natural Earth’s outlines of Japan, Russia, North Korea and South Korea lie within 25 km of the outline of the Sea of Japan. That is what its geometry says, and it is not a statement about who owns the water or where any border runs in it.

Similar in size to Egypt

Similar in size to Sea of Japan

More comparisons

Sources and method

Outlines: Lakes and seas: Natural Earth 1:10m physical vectors (public domain), kept only where the measured area is within 10% of the published one. Countries and regions: Natural Earth, 1:10m Admin 0 and Admin 1, public domain.
Boundary: De facto, as drawn by Natural Earth. A lake or a sea has no legal boundary of its own; the outline is a cartographic one.
Area: Measured on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outlines, shown rounded. The published figure comes from Wikidata (CC0), fetched 2026-11-11, and is shown beside the measured one.
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