PEOPLE
Few
people in the modern world are not affected in some
way by the ideas, culture, and economy of Japan, yet
this country remains for many an enigma, an unsolved
riddle. Westernized, but different from any Western
country, part of Asia, but clearly unlike any other
Asian society, Japan
is a uniquely adaptable place where tradition and modernity
are part of one continuum.
With over 3,000 islands lying along the Pacific Ring
of Fire,
the Japanese archipelago is prone to frequent
earthquakes
and has 60 active volcanoes. Much of the
country is mountainous, of flat land and coastal plain.
The Tokyo-Yokohama area is the largest urban concentration
in the world, and 70 percent of Japan's 127 million
people live along the Pacific coast stretch between
Tokyo and Kyushu.
The remaining slivers of cultivable land are farmed
to yield maximum crops. Generous amounts of rainfall,
melting snowcaps, and deep lakes enable rice to be
cultivated in near perfect conditions.
Each spring, the Japanese are reminded of their country's
geographical diversity as the media enthusiastically
tracks the progress of the sakura zensen, the "cherry-blossom
front," as it advances from the subtropical islands
of Okinawa to the northernmost island of Hokkaido.
The Japanese
regard themselves as a racially integrated tribe,
though different dialects and physical features distinguish
the people of one region from another. Moreover, there
are many minority peoples in Japan, from the indigenous
Ainu to Okinawans, and an admixture of Koreans, Chinese,
and, more recently, Southeast Asians and Westerners
who have made Japan their home.
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