Sea of Japan

The numbers

• 959,000km²Area, measured370,000 mi² · Natural Earth outline
• 978,000km²Area, publishedWikidata · agrees within 2%
• 3,742mGreatest depthaverage about 1,700 m
• 1,630,000km³VolumeWikidata

The area is measured from the outline drawn above, on the WGS84 ellipsoid; the published figure is shown beside it, and a water body is kept only if the two are within 10%.

What the numbers say about the Sea of Japan

• The Arabian Sea, the largest of the 42 seas ranked on sizeversus, is 4.31× the size of the Sea of Japan; the Sea of Japan ranks 9th.
• The Sea of Japan sits between the Greenland Sea (1,183,000 km²) and the Labrador Sea (884,000 km²) in the ranking.
• Counted as a country, the Sea of Japan would be larger than 182 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 31st by area, between Egypt (1,001,000 km²) and Tanzania (942,000 km²).
• It is larger than 50 of the 51 US states and districts (the biggest of them is Texas, 685,000 km²) and smaller than 1.
• It is larger than 28 of the 31 provinces and regions of China (the biggest of them is Qinghai, 714,000 km²) and smaller than 3.
• The closest Chinese province is Inner Mongolia (1,144,000 km²): the Sea of Japan is 84% of the size of Inner Mongolia.
• Wikidata records a greatest depth of 3,742 m; with its volume that gives an average depth of about 1,700 m.
• Wikidata records a volume of 1,630,000 km³. Poured over Egypt (1,001,000 km²), that water would stand 1,628 m deep.
• On a standard web map (Web Mercator), a place at 41°N is drawn about 1.8× too large in area, so the Sea of Japan looks bigger there than it is.
• Laid out flat, the Sea of Japan stretches about 1,960 km north to south and 1,130 km east to west.
• Wikidata’s published figure of 978,000 km² agrees with our measured 959,000 km², to within 2%.

About the same size as

On the shore

• Japan
• Russia
• North Korea
• South Korea

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.

Names

• Sea of Japanthe name in this page’s titlesource: Wikidata’s English label
• East Seaalso calledsource: Natural Earth

Governments and organisations use different names for this body of water, or for parts of it. Size Versus uses the name that Natural Earth’s file gives as the title, lists the other names it can source, and takes no position on which is right. The wording is the same in every language.

Compare the Sea of Japan

• Sea of Japan vs Tanzania
• Egypt vs Sea of Japan