Innovative region: Japan

Bound by the Sea of Japan to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east, Japan spans a territory of close to 378,000 sq km, 364,000 of which are land and the rest water. Often referred to as “the Land of the Rising Sun” because of its Japanese name “Nippon” – literally “the sun’s origin” – the country consists of 6,850 islands, the largest of which are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, which together make up about 97% of…