Japan

Japan is an island nation located east of continental Asia. It is made up of 6,852 islands, but almost all the land mass is accounted for by the four largest islands: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Its total land area is 377,944 square miles. Japan has a population of 126 million people, of which 98.5 percent are of Japanese descent, 0.5 percent is of Korean descent, 0.4 percent is of Chinese descent, and 0.6 percent identified as other. Japan is a highly developed country that has access to most modern medications. Traditional medicine plays a larger role there than it does in most developed countries. Japan is the world’s second-largest market for pharmaceutical drugs.

Traditional medicine in Japan dates back to sometime between the seventh and ...