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Japan's situation has sometimes
been compared to that of Great Britain but apart from them both
being islands (in the case of Japan it would be more accurate to
say a number of islands) they are not really alike. In terms of
physical geography Britain's position is more stable than
Japan's and its problems are not nearly so acute. For one thing,
only about a third of Japan is habitable because 60 per cent of
it is over 300 m. high, making up the volcanic mountain chain
which runs from north to south. As a result, four-fifths of the
Japanese population of 105 million people are crowded together
in the low-lying, flat areas of the eastern seaboard in great
cities like Tokyo and Osaka.
Even though many of the man-made pressures on society and the
consequent problems of pollution are similar to those of Great
Britain, Japan has far more serious natural hazards to cope with.
It lies on a point where two continental plates meet so that
there is a constant risk of volcanic eruption and earthquakes.
Tokyo therefore shares with San Francisco the unenviable
reputation of being a city certain to be affected in the future
by an earthquake similar to the one which killed 140,000 people
in 1923. To make matters worse, the land has subsided since then
so that 60 sq. km. of the Tokyo city area are now below sea
level, with the consequent additional dangers of widespread
flooding, which is in any case a perennial hazard in Japan. At
least five intense tropical storms, locally known as "typhoons",
sweep in every summer from the Pacific, causing tidal waves,
floods and landslides and as a side effect, fires which
devastate cities built mainly of wood. For example, the Ise Bay
Typhoon of 1959 killed over 5000 people, and destroyed or
damaged 150,000 houses. The Japanese people have long been
accustomed to disasters of this kind. Now their successful
economic development is accentuating the problems in various
ways and making them more difficult to solve. The need to expand
cities up the mountain slopes which enclose them has increased
the likelihood of landslides. As fast as the Government builds
flood embankments to prevent flooding, further man-induced
subsidence stemming from the pressure for land creates new
problem areas.
In the cities themselves, the over-concentration of population
and the growth of industrialisation have in turn produced a
multitude of problems - inadequate housing, traffic congestion,
shortage of water, excessive noise, air and water pollution and
smog. The Japanese government itself admitted in 1972 that it
had not done as much as it could have to regulate the activities
of polluting businesses and that environment disruption at first
proceeded without drawing much attention but is now as serious a
problem as any of the natural hazards. Anyone looking at Japan's
achievement in the light of this statement is bound to regard it
with a mixture of admiration and sympathy. The more we think
about it, the more it may seem not only a potential target for
other societies to reach but also a warning. |
