Jap Musketeers: THE PHYSICAL AND HUMAN GEOGRAPHY OF JAPAN

With Four major islands-Hokkaido, Honshu and Shikoku, as well as thousands of other smaller ones, Japan has a total land area of approximately 145,370 square miles.

Japan’s population of over 126 million makes it the ninth largest nation in the world. Still, when thee amount of usable land in Japan is much smaller than it looks on the map. Japan has the second highest population density per square mile of the world’s ten most populated countries. Because the islands are extremely mountainous and contain few plains, nearly the entire population lives on about a sixth of Japan’s considered mountainous. In Honshu, Alps soar as high as 10,000 feet. Mount Fuji is found in the same part as Japanese Alps. It is an extinct volcano that has a height of 12,389 feet and is Japan’s most famous geographic symbol.

Japan has a temperate climate with most great cities on the main island of Honshu experiencing temperatures between 38.6 ˚F and 79.7 ˚F. Vegetables and rice constitute Japan’s largest crops. No part of Japan is over seventy miles from the sea, and Japan has a total of 16,800 miles of coastline as well as a large inland sea which has always been a wonderful source of food. In traditional Japanese cuisine, it is most unusual to eat a meal that does not include some kind of food from the sea.

There are hazards of being Japanese with an average of 7,500 earthquakes recorded annually and approximately 1500 of them being felt by people. As if earthquakes are not enough, the Japanese must deal annually with an average of six to seven tropical cyclones better known as typhoons. Even with a long list of ill-fated aspects of Japanese life, a life expectancy of almost seventy-seven years for men and eighty-three years for women made the Japanese one of the most long-lived people in the world.

JAPAN’S PREHISTORY

By the time of Yamato rulers, elements of religious practices that are now known as Shinto (meaning “way of the Gods”) were already present. The religion is built around nature worship and presence of spirits. Buddhism is also a religion practiced by some Japanese people since it was introduced to them from the Asian mainland.