Geographic HistoryMap of the Empire of Japan
On the Geographic History map, the Empire of Japan appears from 1869 to 1946. It reaches its largest mapped extent in 1942: about 6.8 million km² across 252 provinces.
The Empire of Japan was the state that emerged from the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and industrialised the country at great speed. It defeated China in 1894-1895 and Russia in 1904-1905, annexed Taiwan and Korea, occupied Manchuria in 1931, went to war across China from 1937 and overran Southeast Asia and much of the Pacific in 1941-1942. After its defeat in 1945 Japan was occupied, and the constitution of 1947 replaced the imperial system with a parliamentary democracy.
Mapped area over time
The Empire of Japan on the world maps
Largest other states in 1942
| State | Mapped area |
|---|---|
| Union of Soviet Socialist Republics | 20 million km² |
| United Kingdom | 14 million km² |
| United States of America | 9.4 million km² |
| Brazil | 8.6 million km² |
| Canada | 8.5 million km² |
| Vichy France | 7.8 million km² |
| Australia | 7.8 million km² |
| Republic of China | 4.5 million km² |
About this map
Territory comes from the Chronas historical dataset used by the Geographic History app. Areas are approximate, computed from about 2,400 province shapes, and describe this map rather than official historical figures - border data for the ancient and medieval world is necessarily a reconstruction.
Every year has a map
Drag a timeline across 2,500 years in the free Geographic History app - every province, ruler and battle, also offline.
