Japan consists of a long island chain extending more than 2,000 km in the NE-SW direction, surrounded by oceans such as the Pacific to the east, the East China Sea to the southwest, the Japan Sea to the west, and Okhotsk Sea to the northeast. Currently, the southern part of Japan is influenced by western boundary currents (Kuroshio), which give it its maritime climate. In addition, Japan is under the strong influence of the East Asian monsoon. As a result, Japan and its surrounding area has a variety of climate regimes ranging from subtropical to subarctic.

Japan has a long history and abundant historical records on climate in the past. This provides a rare opportunity to conduct paleoclimatic studies on land-ocean interaction, high latitude-low latitude linkage, and paleoclimatic impact on human activities. National PAGES Japan aims to provide information on scientific activities and recent research results on these topics.