Japan has 108 active volcanoes . During the twentieth century several new volcanoes emerged , including Shōwa-shinzan on Hokkaido and Myōjin-shō off the Bayonnaise Rocks in the Pacific . Destructive earthquakes , often resulting in tsunami , occur several times each century . The 1923 Tokyo earthquake killed over 140,000 people . More recent major quakes are the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake , a 9.1-magnitude quake which hit Japan on March 11 , 2011 , and triggered a large tsunami . Japan is substantially prone to earthquakes , tsunami and volcanoes due to its location along the Pacific Ring of Fire . It has the 15th highest natural disaster risk as measured in the 2013 World Risk Index
2011 Tōhoku earthquake
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
Japan