The Japan Trench is an oceanic trench, a part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, in the floor of the northern Pacific Ocean off northeast Japan. This trench is created when the oceanic Pacific plate subducts beneath the continental Okhotsk Plate. The subduction process causes bending of the downgoing plate, creating a deep-sea trench. Continuing movement on the subduction zone associated with the Japan Trench is one of the main causes of tsunamis and earthquakes in northern Japan,