Japan (日本 Nihon or Nippon?, officially 日本国 Nippon-koku?·i or Nihon-koku) is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin country", which is why Japan is sometimes identified as the "Land of the Rising Sun"....