The Japanese Brown Frog, Rana japonica, is a species of frog

Frog

Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...

 in the Ranidae family.
It is endemic to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

Its natural habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

s are temperate grassland

Grassland

Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...

, river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

s, swamp

Swamp

A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...

s, irrigated land, and seasonally flooded agricultural land.

Characteristics

Defining characteristics include a slender, reddish-brown body with a long narrow head. The average snout-vent length is 48 mm for males. Females are usually much larger than males, with lengths of about 54 mm. Neither gender has a vocal sac, but males develop yellowish-brown nupital pads and sing during mating season (which lasts from January to March). Songs consist of ten to twenty notes.

Habitat

Rana Japonica occurs in Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu in Japan and southern region of China. Within Japan, Rana Japonica inhabits mostly in hillsides and plains, and is rarely seen in mountain ranges. More specifically, the brown frog resides in temperate grassland

Grassland

Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...

s, hillsides, plains, river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

s, swamp

Swamp

A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...

s, irrigated land, and seasonally flooded agricultural land. It is rarely seen in mountainous terrain.

Translucent breed

By combining two types of recessive genes that cause frogs to become translucent, a breed of Rana japonica, popularly called See-through frogs, were produced by Japanese scientists in 2007 to see the frog's organs, blood

Blood

Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....

 cells, and eggs without dissection

Dissection

Dissection is usually the process of disassembling and observing something to determine its internal structure and as an aid to discerning the functions and relationships of its components....

. The skin is not clear, but translucent. Cancer growths can be seen more easily.