All the granitoids in the Japanese Islands are Phanerozoic and of arc-type. They are part of the Late Mesozoic Circum-Pacific granite superprovince. Most of the Japanese granitoids were formed when the Japanese Islands belonged to the Eurasian continent, as the growing front of the continent. They are mostly of I-type, and S-type granitoids are very small in amount. The origin of these granitoids is mostly partial melt of mantle-derived mafic lower crust of arc without an involvement of ancient cratons or their derivatives.The granitic magmatism was quite episodic. % of their surface exposure area is occupied with -Ma, Paleogene to Cretaceous granitoids. In Southwest Japan, they constitute three arc-parallel granitic provinces called Ryoke, San-yo and San-in belts. A transect from the Ryoke to San-yo belt represents the hypothetical crustal cross section of the Cretaceous Eurasian continental margin. The Hidaka belt in Hokkaido is another example of a crustal cross section, exposing the deep Kuril arc at Miocene. On the fore-arc side of the Southwest Japan, -Ma, Middle Miocene granitic rocks are exposed sporadically but widely. The magmatism was very short-lived, supposed to be generated in an unusual tectonic setting related to back-arc opening and incipient subduction of the Philippine Sea plate. Middle Miocene and still younger granitoids are exposed in the Izu Collision Zone. The Quaternary granitoids of ~ Ma are exposed at the Central Highlands in central Japan. Jurassic and Triassic granitoids occur in the Hida belt, which is the most back-arc side unit of the Japanese Islands. Paleozoic granitoids are rare. They are exposed as geologically isolated small bodies or tectonic blocks.