though many of the man-made pressures society and the consequent problems of pollution are to those of Great Britain, Japan has more serious natural hazards to with than British people have. It lies on a point two continental plates meet that there is a constant risk of volcanic eruption and earthquakes. Tokyo therefore with San Francisco the unenviable reputation of a city certain to affected the future by an earthquake like the that killed of people in 1923. To matters worse, the land has subsided then so that 60 sq. km. of the Tokyo city area are now below sea , with the consequent additional dangers of widespread flooding, is in any a perennial hazard in Japan. Anyone at Japan's technological achievement in the of these statements is bound to regard it with a mixture of admiration and sympathy.