Etymology Japonica means Japanese.

Description Rhizome: short-creeping, branching, scaly.
Frond: deciduous, somewhat dimorphic, the fertile ones taller, narrower, more erect, blade/stipe ratio: .
Stipe: green or straw-clored, shallowly grooved above, swollen or not at base, densely scaly at base, upwards along with rachises scaly and multicellular-hairs, vascular bundles: 2, lunate.
Blade: 1-pinnate-pinnatifid, oblong-lanceolate, gradually narrowed toward acuminate apex, sometimes slightly narrowed toward base, herbaceous, multi-cellular hairs along costae, rachis.
Pinnae: 12 to 16 pair, linear to linear-lanceolate, to 12 cm long, 2.5 cm broad, halfway or deeply pinnatifid; costae grooved above, discontinuous with the rachis; margins serrate or lobed, blunt or acute at the tip; veins free.
Sori: elongate, ± straight, or hooked at distal end, to 5 mm long, on veins, arranged generally in a herringbone pattern, indusium: linear, persistent, sinus, brown, sporangia: brownish.

Culture Habitat: woodland, lowlands, foothills. Distribution: Himalayas, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Korea, Japan, eastern Siberia. Hardy to -20°C, USDA Zone 6, but given the range, provenance is important.

Synonyms
Asplenium japonicum Thunb
Athyriopsis japonica (Thunb.) Ching
Athyrium japonicum (Thunb.) Copeland
Diplazium japonicum (Thunb.) Bedd.