Japan: Geography Summary. Territory, Population, Settlements, Economic System, Services, Transport, Industry and History.
JAPAN: GEOGRAPHY SUMMARY
Japan is the richest of the Asian states and one of the most advanced in the world . It includes over 3,000 islands that form an arc 2,500 km long, of which four are the main ones, starting from the north: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. The territory is mainly mountainous, the main plain is the Kanto plain and the rivers are short, the lakes small.
Territory
Japan is a geologically young country and this is demonstrated by the continuous presence of earthquakes and the large quantity of volcanoes (Fujiyama 3776m). Despite being slightly larger than Italy, it is densely populated and this is due to three main factors: the soil which is very fertile, the generally mild climate with a notable climatic variety since it extends over a vast latitude (from Libya to the Alps) and the sea which attenuates the cold of the winter.
Hokkaido and northern Honshu have cold and long winters, where coniferous forest and taiga prevail. The large presence of forests, from the boreal forest in the north to the tropical forest in the south, provides large quantities of wood . Finally, the meeting of strong sea currents, warm and cold, generates an environment along the coasts favorable to aquatic fauna.
The population
Over 128 million people live in Japan and the population density is 338 inhabitants/km² . Ethnic minorities are Koreans, Chinese and Ainu . About 65% of Japanese live in cities and in particular in the area between southern Honshu and northern Kyushu, where we find four large urban areas:
- Tokyo-Yokohama-Kawasaki (30 million inhabitants)
- Nagoya (pop. 7 million)
- Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto
- Kitakyushu
- Kyoto was once the capital of Japan, today it is Tokyo (which was called Yedo until 1868). Its density is 5715 inhabitants/km² and its appearance resembles an American metropolis: gray houses, large factories, skyscrapers.
The communication routes
In Japan the main means of transport are the subway and local railways. In Tokyo, a 220 km long subway carries more than 600 million commuters every day and the train carriages hold three times as many passengers as they could possibly contain. The country also enters the Guinness Book of Records for the number of umbrellas lost on trains in a year (600,000). There are also a large number of ports and 40% of transport is by sea, the road network is less developed but the most famous line is the Shinkansen. We also find large airports, the most famous, the one in Osaka, was designed by an Italian.
Economy
The primary sector: agriculture and fishing
Only 13% of Japan’s land is cultivable, so they try to exploit every square meter. To overcome this problem, polderization has been implemented, that is, filling and draining sea basins to conquer them for cultivation or factories. The fertility of the soil and the use of chemical fertilizers and machines allow yields per hectare among the highest in the world and a great variety of products: wheat, legumes, vegetables, potatoes, soy, citrus fruits and mulberry. The latter, used as food for silkworms , allowed Japan to produce up to 2/3 of all the raw silk in the world.
This has decreased due to the presence of less expensive synthetic yarns. However, the basis of the Japanese economy is rice, from which they also obtain sake, a traditional drink. Livestock farming is not very widespread , with the exception of pig farming, while fishing is very important. The Japanese were also the main whale hunters in the world , but this activity has decreased because it threatened the extinction of these mammals.
The secondary sector: industry
Except for coal, underground resources are non-existent, in fact Japan is forced to import raw materials and oil. To reduce dependence on foreign countries, numerous nuclear power plants are built. Japan is the third world producer of electrical, thermoelectric and nuclear energy and is in first place in shipbuilding . It is also in first place in the production of cars, commercial vehicles, motorcycles, televisions, radios, cameras, fax machines… Also very important is the production of cast iron, steel, tires, gasoline, paper… The Tokyo stock exchange is one of the largest in the world and its currency, the yen, is one of the most important.
The keiretsu
They are an alliance of several companies, independent of each other, that act in harmony. In a keiretsu there is a bank, a trading company, an insurance company and a variable number of industries : each of them has a share of ownership in all the others.
The religion
Today in Japan more than 90% of the population declares itself Shintoist and Buddhist , 1.2% Christian, 8% practices other religions. Shintoism is a very ancient religion and was originally a set of veneration of the forces of nature, of moments of rural life. The highest ideals of Shintoism are collected in Bushido : loyalty to one’s duties and to the emperor, love for the nation, austerity, courage and contempt for death. In the sixth century, Buddhism joined Shintoism and one form of adaptation is meditation while sitting, Zen. At this time the samurai finds the strength to face combat. From China came Confucianism , a set of moral principles of which the most important is harmony. Other values are respect and love for children and parents, a sense of honor, and loyalty of the individual. These ideals are reported in school books so that children develop a strong sense of responsibility.
The story
From the origins to 1800
Over two millennia, Japan has formed and developed autonomously with original characters, a bit like the United Kingdom. In the first centuries AD, Confucianism arrived through Korea, which influenced the culture and institutions of the country, Buddhism and Chinese writing. The writing was adapted to its own language, similar to Korean, which derives from the group of Altaic languages (or according to others it is a language in itself). The Japanese invented their own phonetic alphabet.
The first inhabitants of Japan came from Korea, Southern China and Southeast Asia. The Ainu are the heirs of one of these populations of Asian lineage and, although a minority, today live on the island of Hokkaido . The social structure of Japan remained unchanged for centuries: the emperor was honored but counted for nothing, the empire was divided into 200 fiefdoms governed by daimyo, a title that was passed down from father to son. The Japanese were divided into different classes. The most important was that of the bushi (warriors) which included daimyo and samurai, that is, warriors who remained faithful to the daimyo and fought for him. Then there were the farmers, who lived in poor villages and cultivated the land for their lord. Finally there were the chonin (men of the villages), merchants, usurers, artisans, intellectuals. Around the 18th-14th century the daimyo asserted themselves and not the bourgeoisie who did not invest their money in productive enterprises. Thus in the 19th century the Americans forced the Japanese to open the port to the Westerners . The bourgeoisie took advantage of this: in fact, by decreasing the quantity of products available to the Japanese they could increase prices. The shogun was attacked by peasants and daimyo for not having opposed resistance to the foreigners and they claimed that they had to copy the barbaric techniques that allowed the Westerners to be so powerful.
From 1800 to today
In 1868 Mutsuhito (Mejiià enlightened government) came to power and abolished the shogun to restore imperial power . He made many other reforms . He abolished feudalism, trade had to be free, land could be bought and sold, farmers could change jobs, science and technology were introduced into schools, the institution of military service took away the monopoly of weapons from the samurai and the beginning of parliamentary democracy was introduced. Furthermore, since the bourgeoisie was too weak to invest money in modern economic development, it used tax money for the construction of roads, railways, factories and shipyards. In exchange for their feudal rights, the nobles received money for the title of administrators, technicians, financiers. The reasons why Japan was never colonized were two: one, because the natural resources appeared less rich than other countries, two, because none of the Western powers proved to be stronger than the others to conquer Japan. Furthermore, as a defense against the threats of the West, the Japanese exploited their own weapons: industry, science, modern techniques. The state, when the bourgeoisie became strong enough, ceded to them for a few pennies railways, industries, shipyards.
The new Japanese bourgeoisie organized itself into large companies called zaibatsu that were headed by large families. To sell the products of the factories, the Japanese needed to conquer foreign territories to sell them and obtain raw materials. Thus in 1845-95 it occupied China and took over Formosa, in 1904-05 it defeated Russia and Korea, in 1931 Manchuria and in 1937 China.
When World War II broke out, the country was allied with Hitler and Mussolini and defeated the American fleet at Pearl Harbor . With the two atomic bombs in 1945 on Hiroshima and Nagoya, the Allies defeated them.
After the Second World War the Americans occupied Japan, taking away all the conquered territories and imposing an American-style regime (limiting the power of the emperor), many people were sentenced to death and the zaibatsu were dismantled. Then, however, since China was a communist country and preventing it from having new successes with the regime, it decided to “make friends” with Japan, limiting the reforms imposed against them. The industry was strengthened, to face the competition of other goods the Japanese worked hard and were paid little, the zaibatsu were finally replaced with the keiretsu. In 1952 the Americans left, Japan was becoming more and more powerful with a dominant bourgeoisie. The Liberal Democratic Party has remained in government since the end of the Second World War until today.
