The plate is bordered mostly by convergent boundaries:[2] To the north, the Philippine Sea plate meets the Okhotsk microplate at the Nankai Trough.

The thickened crust of the Izu–Bonin–Mariana arc colliding with Japan constitutes the Izu Collision Zone.

The east of the plate includes the Izu–Ogasawara (Bonin) and the Mariana Islands, forming the Izu–Bonin–Mariana Arc system.

(The adjacent rendition of Prof. Peter Bird's map is inaccurate in this respect.)

It also meets the Yangtze plate due northwest.