than one square km are concerned, there are about 100 across
the nation. The largest is Lake Biwa.
Lake Biwa is one of the oldest freshwater lakes in the
world. It is believed that this lake dates back 5 million years. It
moved north from its original location in Mie Prefecture to
Shiga prefecture because of diastrophism or crust movement
that occured 1.2 million years ago.
The area of the lake is about 670km2, which is far smaller
than some of the largest lakes in the world such as Lake
Superior (82367 km2) and Lake Huron (59570km2), which span
the area between Canada and the United States.
Lake Biwa Sunset