Japan

I

Introduction

Japan, constitutional monarchy in East Asia, comprising four large islands, as well as the Ryukyu Islands and more than 1,000 lesser adjacent islands. It is bounded on the north by the Sea of Okhotsk, on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Pacific Ocean and the East China Sea, and on the west by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan (East Sea). In Japanese the country’s name is Dai (“great”) Nihon or Nippon (“origin of the Sun”), hence, Land of the Rising Sun. The Japanese islands extend in an irregular crescent from the island of Sakhalin (Russia) to the island of Taiwan (Formosa). Japan proper consists of the large islands of Hokkaido, the northernmost; Honshu, the largest, called the mainland; Shikoku; and Kyushu, the southernmost. The combined area of these islands is about 362,000 sq km (140,000 sq mi). The total area of Japan is 377,837 sq km (145,884 sq mi). Tokyo is Japan’s capital and largest city.

The Kuril Islands, north of Hokkaido and formerly included in Japan proper as Chishimaretto, were occupied by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) at the conclusion of World War II under an agreement reached at the Yalta Conference in 1945. However, Japan claims the southernmost part of the island chain. Until the unconditional surrender of Japan to the Allied powers on September 2, 1945, the Japanese Empire controlled, in addition to present-day Japan and the Kuril Islands, an area of about 1,651,100 sq km (637,500 sq mi), including Korea, Formosa, Dongbei, the leased territory of Guangdong (Kwangtung), the Pescadores (now P'enghu Islands), Karafuto (the southern half of Sakhalin), and the South Sea Mandated Territories, comprising the Marshall, Mariana (except Guam, a United States possession), and Caroline islands, which were made a Japanese mandate by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, after World War I.

II

Land and Resources

The islands of Japan are the projecting summits of a huge chain of mountains originally a part of the continent of Asia, from which they were detached in the Cenozoic era. The long and narrow main island, Honshu, measures less than 322 km (200 mi) at its greatest breadth. The coastline of Japan is exceedingly long in proportion to the area of the islands, and totals, with the many bays and indentations, about 24,950 km (15,500 mi). The greatest amount of indentation is on the Pacific coast, the result of the erosive action of the tides and severe coastal storms. The western coast of Kyushu, on the East China Sea, is the most irregular portion of the Japanese coast. Few navigable inlets are found on the eastern coast above Tokyo, but south of Tokyo Bay are many of the best bays and harbours in Japan. Between Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu is the Inland Sea, dotted with islands and connected with the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan by three narrow straits through which oceanic storms rarely pass. The western coast of the islands of Japan, on the almost tideless Sea of Japan, is relatively straight and measures less than 4,830 km (3,000 mi); the only conspicuous indentations in the coastline are Wakasa and Toyama bays in Honshu.

Topographically, Japan is a rugged land of high mountains and deep valleys, with many small plains. Because of the alternating sequence of mountain and valley, and the rocky soil, only an estimated 11 per cent of Japan is arable land.

The Japanese plains lie chiefly along the lower courses of the principal rivers, on plateaux along the lowest slopes of mountain ranges, and on lowlands along the sea coast. The most extensive plains are in Hokkaido: along the Ishikari River in the western part of the island, along the Tokachi River in the south-east, and around the cities of Nemuro and Kushiro on the east-central shore. Honshu has several large plains. The Osaka plain contains the cities of Kōbe, Kyoto, and Osaka; the Kantō plain is the site of Tokyo; and Nagoya is the main city of the plain of Nobi. The Tsukushi plain is the most important level area in Kyushu.

The mountains of Japan are the most conspicuous feature of the topography. Mountain ranges extend across the islands from north to south, the main chains sending off smaller ranges that branch out laterally or run parallel to the parent range, and frequently descend to the coast, where they form bays and harbours. In the north, the island of Hokkaido is marked by a volcanic range that descends from the Kurils and merges in the south-western part of the island with a chain branching from Point Soya in the north-western tip. These mountains branch into two lines near Uchiura Bay, on the south-western coast, and reappear on the island of Honshu in two parallel ranges. The minor range, situated entirely in the north-east, separates the valley of the Kitakami River from the Pacific Ocean. The main range continues towards the south-west until it meets a mass of intersecting ridges that enclose the plateau of the Shinano River and forms a belt of mountains, the highest in Japan, across the widest part of the island. The highest peak, at 3,776 m (12,389 ft), is Fuji, an extinct volcano near Yokohama, which, because of its unique height and shape, and exceptional beauty, is one of the favourite themes of Japanese art. One of the subsidiary chains in the central mountain mass is called the Japanese Alps because of the grandeur of the landscape; the highest elevation in the chain is Mount Yariga (3,180 m/10,433 ft). Farther south is another chain of high peaks of which Mount Shirane (3,192 m/10,472 ft) is the highest. The islands of Shikoku and Kyushu are dotted with mountain ranges, although none contains any peak higher than Ishizuchi (1,981 m/6,500 ft) on the island of Shikoku. Volcanoes are common in the Japanese mountains; some 200 volcanoes are known, about 50 of which are still active. Thermal springs and volcanic areas emitting gases are exceedingly numerous.

A

Rivers and Lakes

Although Japan is abundantly watered—almost every valley has a stream—no long navigable rivers exist. The larger Japanese rivers vary in size from swollen freshets during the spring thaw or the summer rainy season to small streams during dry weather. Successions of rapids and shallows are so common that only boats of extremely shallow draught can navigate. The longest river in Japan is the Shinano, on Honshu, which is about 370 km (230 mi) long; other large rivers on Honshu are the Tone, Kitakami, Tenryu, and Mogami. The important rivers of Hokkaido include the second-largest river of Japan, the Ishikari, and the Teshio and Tokachi. The Yoshino is the longest river in Shikoku. The many Japanese lakes are noted for their scenic beauty. Some are located in the river valleys, but the majority are mountain lakes, and many are summer resorts. The largest lake in Japan is Biwa, on Honshu, which covers about 685 sq km (265 sq mi).

B

Earthquakes

Earthquakes are frequent in Japan. A survey showed that seismic disturbances, mostly of a minor nature, occurred more than three times a day. Geological research has shown that, possibly under the continuous impact of these disturbances, the western coast of the Japanese islands is settling, while the Pacific coast is rising. The eastern coast is subject to earthquakes affecting large areas and usually accompanied by great tidal waves; these shocks seem to begin at the bottom of the ocean near the north-eastern coast of Honshu, where a gigantic crater is thought to exist more than 8 km (5 mi) below the surface. The most disastrous earthquake in Japanese history occurred in 1923. It was centred in Sagami Bay and damaged Tokyo and Yokohama; about 150,000 people were killed by the earthquake and its aftermath. The most damaging post-war earthquake was the Great Hashin Earthquake of 1995, which struck the port of Kōbe and killed some 5,000 people; its magnitude was roughly 7 on the Richter scale.