Honshu the economy along the northwestern Sea of Japan coast is largely based on fishing and agriculture. The island is linked to the other three major Japanese islands by a number of bridges and tunnels. Its climate is humid and mild. The island is roughly long and ranges from wide, and its total area is , 60% of the total area of Japan, making it slightly larger than Great Britain. Its land area has been increasing with land reclamation and coastal uplift in the north, but global sea level rise has diminished these effects. Honshu has of coastline. Mountainous and volcanic,
Japan its major contributions to science and modern technology. The Japanese word for Japan is , which is pronounced "Nihon" or "Nippon" and literally means "the origin of the sun". The character means "sun" or "day"; means "base" or "origin". The compound therefore means "origin of the sun" and is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun". The earliest record of the name "Nihon" appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, the "Old Book of Tang". At the end of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan requested that "Nihon" be used as