General information and documentation on Japan

To summarize:

East Asia archipelago located in the Pacific Ocean ;
In Japanese: Nippon 日本, the Land of the Rising Sun;
7,000 islands, whose 4 principals are north to south: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu + Okinawa archipelago in the south-west;
9 regions, 47 prefectures;
Official language: Japanese (99% literacy rate);
127 million inhabitants, 37 million living in the “Great Tokyo”;
Constitutional monarchy: an emperor, a parliament and a governing Prime Minister;
Third economic power in the world, the longest life expectancy;
Use of the metric system, left-hand traffic;
Two main religions: Buddhism and Shintoism;
National sports: baseball and sumo

Useful addresses

U.S. Embassy in Tokyo : Ambassade de France au Japon : 1-10-5 Akasaka
Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8420 Japan - Phone: (03) 3224-5000
Saint Luke's International Hospital (emergencies 24h/24) : 9-1 Adashi-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

The Japan National Tourism Organization provides online documentation and downloadable PDF on this page to help planning travels in Japan.