Japanese archipelago

[ jap-uh-neez ahr-kuh-pel-uh-goh, jap-uh-nees ]

noun

1. the nearly 2,000-mile (3,220-kilometer) chain of more than 6,850 islands in the North Pacific Ocean that form the country of Japan and the Russian island of Sakhalin, with the Sea of Japan to the west and the Sea of Okhotsk to the northeast.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Japanese archipelago¹

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

Yet the Japanese Archipelago was inhabited long before the dawn of history.

From Project Gutenberg