Japan
Japan sits at one of the world's densest submarine cable crossroads, with more than two dozen active systems threading across the Pacific, through East Asian seas, and south toward Australia and Southeast Asia.
Connectivity at a glance
- Cable systems
- 23active
- Landing points
- 4
- Resilience score
- 100
Cable systems serving Japan
| Cable | Status | Ready for service | Length | Design capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FASTER | active | 2016 | — | 60 Tbit/s |
| Australia–Japan Cable (AJC) | active | 2001 }} | — | 640 gbit/s (2001)<br/>1000 gbit/s (2008)<br/> >4000 gbit/s (2013) |
| APC | active | — | — | — |
| Arctic Link | active | — | — | — |
| C-J FOSC | active | — | — | — |
| Eagle | active | — | — | — |
| ECSC | active | — | — | — |
| FLAG FP-1 | active | — | — | — |
| HJK | active | — | — | — |
| HSCS | active | — | — | — |
| Japan-US | active | — | — | — |
| JKC | active | — | — | — |
| JNAC | active | — | — | — |
| KJCN | active | — | — | — |
| NACS | active | — | — | — |
| New Cross Pacific Cable System | active | — | — | — |
| NPC | active | — | — | — |
| Okinawa-Luzon-Hong Kong | active | — | — | — |
| RJCN | active | — | — | — |
| SJC | active | — | — | — |
| TPE2 | active | — | — | — |
| VSNL SG HK JP Guam | active | — | — | — |
| VSNL Transpacific | active | — | — | — |
| China-US Cable Network (CUCN) | retired | 1999 }} | 30 km | — |
Landing points
- Chikura, Chiba, JapanChikura
- Maruyama, Chiba, JapanMaruyama
- Okinawa Prefecture, JapanOkinawa Prefecture
- #Shima, Japan#Shima
A Pacific hub by geography and necessity
Japan's position at the northwestern rim of the Pacific Ocean has made it a natural terminus for transpacific cables since the earliest fibre systems were laid in the 1990s. The country's dependence on maritime trade and its role as a major technology exporter have driven consistent investment in submarine connectivity, producing one of the heaviest concentrations of cable landings in Eastern Asia.
The active cable roster runs long: APC, Arctic Link, Australia–Japan Cable (AJC), C-J FOSC, Eagle, ECSC, FASTER, FLAG FP-1, HJK, HSCS, JKC, JNAC, KJCN, NACS, New Cross Pacific Cable System, NPC, Okinawa-Luzon-Hong Kong, RJCN, SJC, TPE2, VSNL SG HK JP Guam, and VSNL Transpacific are all recorded as active. The China-US Cable Network (CUCN), which entered service in 1999, is the sole retired system in the register. AJC, dating to 2001, and FASTER, commissioned in 2016, are among the few systems with confirmed ready-for-service years in current records.
Route diversity and regional reach
The cable mix points to connectivity in multiple directions. Several systems run eastward across the Pacific toward the United States, reflecting the volume of traffic between Japan and North American networks. Others connect southward — AJC being the clearest example — linking Japan with Australia. A further cluster ties Japan into the dense intra-regional web connecting it with the Korean Peninsula, China, and elsewhere across East and Southeast Asia.
This breadth of routes is significant for resilience. A country served by more than twenty active systems, spread across distinct geographic corridors, is far less exposed to single-point failure than one relying on a handful of cables sharing similar paths. That said, the degree of physical separation between landing points and the ownership diversity of individual systems matters as much as raw cable count — factors that the full system records will clarify as data is compiled.
Landing infrastructure
Documented landing points include Chikura and Maruyama, both in Chiba Prefecture southeast of Tokyo, along with locations in Okinawa Prefecture and Shima. Chiba's coastline in particular functions as a major cable gateway for the Japanese mainland, funnelling transpacific and regional traffic toward the country's core network infrastructure. Okinawa's position in the Ryukyu island chain places it naturally on routes running between Japan, the Philippines, and broader Southeast Asian systems.