mainland Japan

[ meyn-land juh-pan, -luhnd ]

noun

1. Japan’s four principal islands (Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku), as designated to distinguish them from the thousands of smaller islands of the Japanese archipelago.

Word History and Origins

Origin of mainland Japan¹

First recorded in 1800–10

Example Sentences

Nature has been able to develop on its own terms here, far from both humans and the warm Kuroshio current, which acts like a shuttle, moving marine species from Taiwan, over the Ryukyu Islands, and up the Pacific coast of mainland Japan.

From Science Daily

Under normal conditions, streaked shearwaters typically fly at speeds of 10-60 km/hr and altitudes below 100 m, and remain at sea; by contrast, tracking data indicated that the bird caught in the storm had attained speeds of 90-170 km/hr, soared to an altitude of 4700 m, and was carried over mainland Japan before the typhoon swung back into the Pacific Ocean.

From Science Daily

This is what piqued plant scientists' curiosity when they discovered Goodyera henryi, an orchid which on mainland Japan is pollinated exclusively by a very specific bumblebee, on remote Japanese Kozu Island where the bumblebee doesn't exist.

From Science Daily

With his team he studied the pollination of the orchids both on mainland Japan and on Kozu Island, and also employed genetic analysis to learn about the relationship patterns between the different populations of the plants.

From Science Daily

Slow-moving Khanun lashed Okinawa in the middle of the week and threatens to curve back to mainland Japan while intensifying rains in China.

From BBC