Namibia is 2.20× the size of Japan

Namibia covers about 823,000 km² (318,000 mi²) and Japan about 374,000 km² (144,000 mi²). Below, both outlines are drawn at one scale and centred on each other.

823,000km²Namibia
374,000km²Japan

500 km

Namibia
Japan

What fits

Japan fits inside Namibia about 2.20 times by area.
Namibia is larger by 449,000 km² (173,000 mi²), which is 120% of the area of Japan.
Measured in Belgiums: Namibia is about 26.8, Japan about 12.2.

How they differ

Namibia is larger, but Japan has the larger population: 123.8 million against 2.5 million, 48.9× as many people.
Per square kilometre that is 331 in Japan against 3.1 in Namibia: Japan is 108× as densely populated.
Their centres are about 14,100 km apart.
A standard web map misstates the comparison: Namibia at 22°S is drawn about 1.2× too large and Japan at 37°N about 1.6×, so the map shows Namibia as 1.62× the size of Japan instead of 2.20×.
Together Namibia and Japan cover 1,196,000 km², close to the size of Niger (1,181,000 km², 1.2% smaller).
The gap between them, 449,000 km², is about the size of Uzbekistan (448,000 km²).
At Japan's density, Namibia would have 272.7 million people (it has 2.5 million). At Namibia's density, Japan would have 1.2 million (it has 123.8 million).
Japan's centre is 59.5° of latitude, about 6,620 km, farther north than Namibia's.

Who wins on what

Measure	Winner	By
Larger area	Namibia	2.20×
More people	Japan	48.9×
More crowded	Japan	108×
Farther north	Japan	59.5° of latitude
Stretched more on a web map	Japan	1.6× against 1.2×

Both against the same yardsticks

Yardstick	Namibia	Japan
Belgium 30,700 km²	26.8×	12.2×
United Kingdom 244,000 km²	3.37×	1.53×
Germany 358,000 km²	2.30×	1.04×
France 548,000 km²	1.50×	0.68×
India 3,151,000 km²	0.26×	0.12×
Brazil 8,473,000 km²	0.10×	0.04×
United States 9,447,000 km²	0.09×	0.04×
Russia 16,980,000 km²	0.05×	0.02×

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

Side by side

	Namibia	Japan
Area, main territory	823,000 km²318,000 mi²	374,000 km²144,000 mi²
Population	2.5 millionWikidata, 2017	123.8 millionWikidata, 2024
Density	3.1 per km²	331 per km²
Official area	826,000 km²Wikidata	378,000 km²Wikidata
Capital	Windhoek	Tokyo
Latitude range	29°S to 17°S	24°N to 46°N
Continent	Africa	Asia

Population: Wikidata 2017 and Wikidata 2024, covering each whole country. Official figures: Wikidata (CC0).

Wikidata's official figure of 826,000 km² agrees with our measured area of 823,000 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 Namibia

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