Japan is situated in northeastern Asia between the North Pacific and the Sea of Japan. The area of Japan is 377,873 square kilometers, nearly equivalent to Germany and Switzerland combined or slightly smaller than California. Japan consists of four major islands, surrounded by more than 4,000 smaller islands. The population of Japan is 127 million people. Over half of its citizens are between the ages of 15-62 years and the population growth rate is less than 1% a year. A majority of the people in Japan are Japanese. The other diverse ethnicities, including Korean, Chinese, Brazilian and Filipino, represent just 1% of the total population. The predominant religions in Japan are Shintoism and Buddhism and the literacy rate is 99%. There is only one official language spoken in Japan, which is of course Japanese. However, many Japanese are able to understand English to a certain extent since English is the foreign language that everyone must learn as part of compulsory education.