The wildlife of Japan includes its flora, fauna, and natural habitats. The islands of Japan stretch a long distance from north to south and cover a wide range of climatic zones. This results in a high diversity of wildlife despite Japan's isolation from the mainland of Asia. In the north of the country, north of Blakiston's Line, there are many subarctic species which have colonized Japan from the north. In the south there are south-east Asian species, typical of tropical regions. Between these areas lies the temperate zone which shares many species with China and Korea. Japan also has many endemic species that are found nowhere else in the world, making it home to many endangered/rare species.
Fauna
Mammals
About 130 species of land mammal occur in Japan. The largest of these are the two bears. The Ussuri brown bear (Ursus arctos), the largest land animal in Japan, is found in Hokkaidō, where it plays an important role in the culture of the Ainu people. The Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus) inhabits mountainous areas in Honshū, Kyūshū and Shikoku. Smaller carnivores include the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) and Japanese marten (Martes melampus). There are two wild cats in Japan: the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) of mainland Asia occurs on Tsushima Island while the Iriomote cat (Prionailurus iriomotensis) is unique to the island of Iriomote.
Grazing mammals include the sika deer (Cervus nippon), Japanese serow (Capricornis crispus) and wild boar (Sus scrofa). Among Japan's most famous mammals is the Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata), the world's most northerly monkey.
Marine mammals include the dugong (Dugong dugon), finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides) and Steller's sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus).
The extinct elephant Palaeoloxodon naumanni and giant deer Sinomegaceros yabei also formerly inhabited Honshu. Two wolf species found in Japan, the Hokkaido wolf (Canis lupus hattai) and Honshū wolf (Canis lupus hodophylax), went extinct in 1889 and 1905, respectively.
Birds
Over 600 species of bird have been recorded in Japan and more than 250 of these breed. A number of birds are endemic including the Japanese woodpecker (Picus awokera), copper pheasant (Syrmaticus soemmerringii) and Japan's national bird, the green pheasant (Phasianus versicolor). Several species are unique to the smaller islands including the Okinawa rail (Gallirallus okinawae), Izu thrush (Turdus celaenops) and Bonin white-eye (Apalopteron familiare ). Most of the non-endemic birds are shared with China but a few originate in Siberia or south-east Asia.
Large numbers of birds migrate through Japan in spring and autumn including many waders. In winter, several sites are important for swans, geese and cranes.
Reptiles and amphibians
Japan has about 73 species of reptile of which nearly half are endemic. Sea turtles and highly venomous but non-aggressive sea snakes including the black-banded sea krait occur in warmer waters around southern Japan. Venomous snakes include the mildly venomous tiger keelback, and the more venomous front fanged vipers the elegant pit viper, Okinawa habu, Tokara habu, hime habu and the mamushi. Many pitviper species, known as habus throughout Japan are endemic to islands in the warmer Ryukyu Islands chain however the mamushi (Gloydius blomhoffii) is found on the main islands. Non-venomous rat snakes found in Japan are the endemic Japanese rat snake, Japanese forest rat snake, Japanese four-lined rat snake, and the king rat snake and beauty rat snake (subspecies Orthriophis taeniurus schmackeri) which in Japan are found only in the warm Ryukyu islands but have much wider distributions on mainland Asia. Three species of odd-scaled snakes are present in the southern islands including the Formosan odd-scaled snake, Japanese odd-scaled snake, and the Amami odd-scaled snake.
Lizards include many endemic skink species (especially in the southern islands), the viviparous lizard (found as far north as the island of Hokkaido), and the Okinawa tree lizard (Diploderma polygonatum). Freshwater turtles found in Japan include the endemic Japanese pond turtle, Ryukyu black-breasted leaf turtle. The Chinese box turtle is found only on the southernmost islands of Iriomote and Ishigaki in its Japanese range.
At least two crocodilian species are known to have occurred in the recent geological past of Japan: the Chinese alligator and Toyotamaphimeia.