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Chapter 31 Population Density in Japan: Life in a Crowded Country. I. Geoterms. a. Arable land : land suitable for growing crops. b. Arithmetic population density : the population of a country divided by its total land area.
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Chapter 31Population Density in Japan: Life in a Crowded Country
a. Arable land: land suitable for growing crops. b. Arithmetic population density: the population of a country divided by its total land area. c. Physiologic population density: the population of a country divided by its arable land area. d. Population distribution: where people live in a country, whether crowded together in cities or spread out across the countryside.
a. Introduction i. Japan occupies an archipelago, or chain of islands, that lies off the East Asian mainland. ii. The land area of Japan consists of four large islandsand about 3,900 smaller ones, forming a country the size of Montana. iii. To the west, the Sea of Japan (East Sea) separates Japan from its nearest neighbors, Korea and China.
iv. To the east lies the vast Pacific Ocean. v. Japan enjoys a temperate climate, with warm humid summers and relatively mild winters. Heavy snowfall is limited to high elevations and the most northern of Japan’s islands. Abundant summer rainfall makes Japan an ideal place for growing rice and other crops.
b. A Mountainous Landscape i. The Japanese archipelago was formed millions of years ago by mountains welling up from the sea when tectonic plates collided deep beneath the Pacific Ocean. ii. Volcanoes welled up in the cracks between the plates. iii. Over millions of years, liquid rock flowing from the volcanoes built up into mountains that eventually emerged from the sea. iv. Today a chain of volcanic mountains forms the backbone of Japan. Many volcanoes are still active, although no one knows just when they might erupt again.
v. The highest and most famous Japanese volcano is Mount Fuji, whose snowcapped cone towers above the city of Tokyo. vi. The tectonic plates that gave birth to Japan are still grinding against each other beneath the sea. Occasionally one of them slips, causing an earthquake to rattle the islands. 1. Small tremors occur on an almost daily basis in Japan. 2. Major earthquakes are less frequent but can cause extensive damage and loss of life. 3. Undersea earthquakes can also trigger huge sea waves known as tsunamis. When one of these destructive waves hits the Japanese coast, entire villages can be washed out to sea.
c. Limited Land for Living i. 1/8 of Japan is arable land, or land suitable for agriculture. The remaining land is too steep to plow and plant. Much is also too mountainous to support large towns and cities. ii. The amount of arable land affects population distribution, or where people live. 1. A large population of Japan’s 127 million people live on the four main islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. a. Uneven distribution: about 80% live on limited flat land near the coast or in narrow river valleys.
iii. Because people tend to clump on arable land, geographers have developed two ways of measuring how crowded a country is: 1. Looking at a country’s arithmetic population density, calculated by dividing the number of people in a country by its total land area. a. Japan’s arithmetic population density is about 880 persons per square mile.
2. Looking at a country’s physiologic population density, calculated by dividing the number of people in a country by the amount of arable land. a. Due to limited land for living, Japan’s physiologic population density is 7,219 persons per square mile. b. In comparison, the U.S. has a physiologic population density of 433 persons per square mile.
a. Introduction i. The average commute time in Tokyo, a densely populated megalopolis, is 1 ½ hours each day, equaling 400 hours or more a year.
b. Public Transportation i. The Japanese have adapted to busy rush hours by creating an extensive and efficient public transit system, utilizing underground subways and passenger trains. 1. During Rush hour in Tokyo, mobs of workers mix with large groups of uniformed students. 2. “Pushers” shove as many passengers as possible into the subway cars before the doors close.
ii. The Japanese have developed some of the fastest passenger trains in the world. 1. Bullet trains (named for their shape and speed), called the Shinkansen, race across the Japanese countryside at speeds of up to 180 miles per hour.
c. Private Cars and Parking Problems: i. With an increase in car ownership, traffic congestion has become part of daily life in Japan. 1. With limited parking space in Tokyo, residents are prohibited from owning a car unless they can prove they have a place off the street to park the car. Also, Tokyo has pioneered the use of high-rise parking lots that use computer-controlled elevators to stack cars on top of one another in narrow parking slots. The parking lots look something like giant shoe cabinets.
a. Introduction i. Because flat land for building is scarce in Japan, housing is expensive, homes are smaller than those in the U.S., and many Japanese families live in apartments that are no larger than the typical family room in an American home.
b. From the Country to the City i. 50 years ago when Japan was mostly rural, most people lived in spacious one-story homes. They also lived in extended families, with grandparents, parents, and children together under one roof. ii. 1950s: many Japanese left the countryside to pursue educational or job opportunities in Japan’s growing cities. 1. The houses and apartments available in urban areas were cramped compared to rural homes. 2. With limited space, the number of people living in extended families shrank. 3. Today a majority of Japanese live in nuclear families, or families with just parents and their children.
c. Making the Most of Limited Space i. Japanese ideas for making the most of limited living space: 1. Use rooms for multiple purposes: many homes in Japan do not have separate bedrooms. At bedtime, mattresses called futons are taken from the closets and spread on the floor of living rooms and the futons are put away in the morning. 2. Shrinking almost everything that goes into a home: Japanese appliance makers produce small stoves and refrigerators to fit in tiny apartment kitchens. 3. Some hotels rent sleeping capsules. Each capsule has a mattress, a television with headphones, and a clock. Guests can spend time in the hotel’s public areas and restaurants until they are ready for bed.
ii. Burial and Cremation: 1. Most cemeteries in Japan are a jumble of family graves filling every inch of available space. 2. Many Japanese are choosing to have their bodies cremated after death.
a. Introduction i. Conflicts over land use are common in Japan because there is simply not enough land to meet everyone’s needs. ii. Conflicts have forced the Japanese to find better ways to use the land they have and to create new land.
b. Building Up and Down i. Construct taller buildings: 1. Creates severe construction challenges in an active earthquake zone. 2. Until 1964, building heights were limited in Japan for safety reasons. 3. The development of earthquake resistant construction techniques has allowed the Japanese to raise the height limit. 4. So many skyscrapers have gone up in recent years that some people call the construction crane Japan’s national bird.
ii. Build underground: 1. Under many Japanese cities lie subterranean shopping centers filled with shops and restaurants. a. A large underground center in the city of Osaka includes a park, an art museum, a Buddhist temple, and a zoo.
c. Creating New Land i. The Japanese have created new land by filling in shallow wetlands with dirt and rubble. ii. Most of Tokyo is built on filled-in bays and marshes. iii. Filling wetlands saves precious farmland from urban development while destroying valuable fish and wildlife habitat. iv. Filled land is unstable in earthquakes. 1. Example: in 1995, a massive earthquake hit the port city of Kobe, killing some 6,400 people and damaging $100 billion worth of property. Much of that property was on filled land.
v. The Japanese have created new land for farming by cutting terraces into hillsides. Terracing has made it possible to grow rice – Japan’s most important crop – on the islands’ mountain slopes.
a. Introduction i. On average, each of Tokyo’s 12 million residents creates 2 to 3 pounds of trash a day.
b. Pollution Problems i. Ever growing trash. 1. However, Japan’s streets are swept daily. ii. Emissions from factories and cars pollute the air and cause breathing problems for many people. iii. Sewage and wastewater poison rivers and streams, killing fish and threatening drinking water supplies. iv. Acid rain can poison lakes, kills trees, and corrode human structures.
v. In the past, toxic chemicals, such as cadmium and mercury, were dumped into oceans, lakes, and streams. Such chemicals can poison fish and the people and other animals that consume contaminated fish. 1. Example: in the 1950s people living on Minamata Bay began coming down with a “strange disease” caused by mercury dumped into the bay by local factories. People who ate fish contaminated with mercury suffered slurred speech, seizures, and blurred vision. Mothers gave birth to babies with twisted limbs and cats who ate the fish turned from placid pets into screeching monsters. More than a thousand people eventually died from mercury poisoning before Minamata Bay was finally cleaned up.
c. Long Lives i. Automobile accidents are more likely to occur on city streets than rural roads. ii. Disease spreads more quickly in crowded cities than in the countryside. iii. Garbage remains a problem. 1. 1972: Tokyo opened a huge trash dump on an island in Tokyo Bay. It filled up in eight years. 2. Today, Tokyo residents recycle everything from cans and bottles to cookie wrappers.
iv. Even so, the Japanese enjoy a life expectancy that is among the highest in the world. 1. 2004: life expectancy at birth for a Japanese person was 81 years. v. The Japanese have found ways to overcome the health hazards of crowding. 1. People who are sick wear face masks to avoid spreading disease. 2. The Japanese have passed some of the world’s strictest environmental laws to clean up the air and water, resulting in safer air and fish for consumption.
a. Population density affects several aspects of life in Japan, including transportation, housing, land use, and health. b. Despite crowded cities and pollution problems, the Japanese enjoy long and healthy lives. The high life expectancy rate is due in part to strict environmental regulations.
c. Japan is a wealthy, industrialized country: i. Japan can afford to build tall, earthquake-proof apartment and office buildings that make efficient use of limited city land. ii. Japan can afford to maintain an efficient public transit system to move people around quickly. iii. Japan can afford to fund the costs of cleaning up dirty air and polluted water.
d. Other densely populated countries are not as fortunate as Japan. i. Example: India has almost the same population density as Japan, with more than four times as much arable land, and is far richer in natural resources such as coal, minerals, and natural gas. Even so, India is a much poorer country. Life expectancy in India is 64 years.
a. Basic Facts i. People are not evenly distributed around the world: 1. Nine of ten people live north of the equator. 2. One of two live in an urban area. 3. People tend to live in temperate climate zones and relatively near coastlines.
b. Can a place have too many people? i. Yes and No: 1. Example: Bangladesh and Singapore: a. Bangladesh: this southern nation is about three times as densely populated as Japan. Most of its people are poor farmers with a life expectancy of barely 60 years. b. Singapore: nearby to Bangladesh, this nation is almost twenty times as densely populated as Japan. Its people are relatively well-off city dwellers. Life expectancy in Singapore is almost as high as in Japan.
c. What other factors contribute to the well-being of crowded countries? i. Resources and location are important factors: 1. Example: the Netherlands: • It is a small, densely populated country in Western Europe without any significant mineral or energy resources but Netherlanders have learned to make the most of their fertile soil and coastal location. They produce high-quality agricultural and industrial products, which they trade around the world for resources they lack.
d. How does population density affect a nation? i. A high population density or natural resources alone do not make a nation rich or poor. ii. How a people use their resources is as important as what they have.
