Japan is located in Asia.
Japan ( 日本 Nippon [ ɲip̚poɴ ] or Nihon [ ɲihoɴ ] formally or Nihon-koku , meaning `` State of Japan '' ) is a sovereign island nation in East Asia . Located in the Pacific Ocean , it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian mainland , and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the southwest .