Japanese Geography

Many people in the world know something about Japan but they don't know where Japan is. The country is east of mainland China across the Japanese Sea. Japan is a relatively small country, approximately 1/48 the size of Russia and 1/25 the size of China in land area. Moreover, Japanese land area is smaller than the state of California in the United States! About 1.27 million Japanese people live in the country where available land is limited. High population densities cause many social problems such as rising land costs and land contamination because of a concentration of people in a small area.

Japan is surrounded by the sea and is composed of 4 major islands and many small islands. The 4 major islands are Hokkaiodo, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Japan stretches from northeast to southwest, and the length is approximately 3500 km (2173.91 miles). One of major islands, Hokkaido, is at about the same longitude with Minnesota. The island of Kyushu is about the same longitude as northern Florida or the state of Georgia. According to experts, about 60% of the Japanese landscape is steep mountainous regions covered with forest. Approximately 70% of the total Japanese population is concentrated in the plains and basins, an area comprising just 24% of the habitable land.

Volcanic activity in Sakura Island

Japan is located in an area where 4 tectonic plates are connected to each other. The land sits on two plates, the north American plate and the Eurasian plate. The boundary between the two plates is in the middle of Honshu Island. This is one of the reasons why Japan experiences so many earthquakes. Also, there are many volcanos throughout the country. Those volcanos are still active and some of them frequently erupt .

A volcanic eruption usually causes a great deal of damage, destroying residential and public areas, burning forests, and destroying crops. Volcanic eruptions can also take human life. Earthquakes are the primary reasons for volcanic eruptions. They are only one of the severe natural disasters that occur in Japan. The latest tragic incident caused by an earthquake in Japan was the "Greater Kobe Earthquake" in the early morning of January 17, 1995. The number of dead and missing people reached more than 6400. It is interesting to note that the area where the earthquake occurred, had not had a history of earthquakes. Therefore, people used to say " If you are scared of earthquakes, live in Kobe (or Hyogo)."

Large and small earthquakes occur frequently. As a result, many buildings in Japan are built to have greater endurance to the destruction of an earthquake.

Even with the earthquakes and volcanoes, nature is not completely destructive. The natural beauty of Japan is spectacular. The lush green mountains, the seashore and the basin areas allow for an appreciation of nature that is part of Japanese culture.

Link

• Web Camera in Japan

Written by Rie Yamada, 2001 and Taku Kurashige, 2003