Night Views Related Question
- Thread starter Zenbone
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- 26 Feb 2003
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Japan is considered one of the most densely populated countries in the world with nearly half the population of the U.S. in a geographic territory slightly smaller than the state of California (see enclosed image). Interestingly enough, Hokkaido (the northernmost island) represents 22% of Japan's total landmass yet only 5% of its total population.
Yes, Japan can be very congested and dealing with urban sprawl has always been an issue, nevertheless Japan is not solely representative of what you see on the Night Views site. In fact, Japan is home to some truly spectacular natural landscapes, forested areas, and mountainous regions beyond the major population centers you see depicted in their collection of photos. Hope that helps answer your question.
Yes, Japan can be very congested and dealing with urban sprawl has always been an issue, nevertheless Japan is not solely representative of what you see on the Night Views site. In fact, Japan is home to some truly spectacular natural landscapes, forested areas, and mountainous regions beyond the major population centers you see depicted in their collection of photos. Hope that helps answer your question.
den4
先輩
- 15 Nov 2002
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Yeah, the Tetsujin is right....If you get out of the Tokyo or Osaka area and head straight out into the countryside, there are places where you won't find the urban sprawl....however, no matter where you go, you will find a vending machine.....that's one thing that you cannot escape....
Maciamo
先輩
- 17 Jul 2002
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Well, of course, as Japanese people always like to compare their country to the US, China or Russia, Japan indeed looks small. Compare to Australia and Canada (even the US), it is crowded. However, by European standard, Japan is a large country (extremely long, as it stretches the distance from Denmark to Spain, or the other way, from England to Turkey).
Several places in Europe have comparable or higher population density (England, the Netherlands, Belgium, Rheinland-Westfalen in Germany...). As for the land area, Japan is bigger than any European country, except France and Spain. It is twice bigger than England (or about 50% bigger than the UK).
If you take only Eastern China, without Tibet and the Gobi desert, which anyway is not really Chinese historically and ethnically, China's population density is completely comparable to that of Japan (have a look at this map). India also has almost the same population density as Japan.
In Indonesia, if I believe Lonely Planet's stats, the island of Java (3rd biggest) has a population slightly higher than Japan for only 1/3 of the land area. Having been to Java myself, I can tell you how mountainous it is. What's more, there are about 25 active volcanos on the island.
So, after all, I don't think Japan is so crowded, especially if you remove Tokyo and go to the countryside.
Several places in Europe have comparable or higher population density (England, the Netherlands, Belgium, Rheinland-Westfalen in Germany...). As for the land area, Japan is bigger than any European country, except France and Spain. It is twice bigger than England (or about 50% bigger than the UK).
If you take only Eastern China, without Tibet and the Gobi desert, which anyway is not really Chinese historically and ethnically, China's population density is completely comparable to that of Japan (have a look at this map). India also has almost the same population density as Japan.
In Indonesia, if I believe Lonely Planet's stats, the island of Java (3rd biggest) has a population slightly higher than Japan for only 1/3 of the land area. Having been to Java myself, I can tell you how mountainous it is. What's more, there are about 25 active volcanos on the island.
So, after all, I don't think Japan is so crowded, especially if you remove Tokyo and go to the countryside.
- 6 Mar 2003
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The thing is, most people live in places like you see on that site or this one:
Tokyo Neighborhood
Stories and photos from my experiences of living and working in Japan
www.chachich.com
However, most of the land of Japan is rural or mountainous. It's like living in the middle of LA but being able to hop on a high-speed train and quickly go to the San Bernardino mountains.
There's a variety of Japan pics at
Welcome TrekEarth users! - FlyerTalk Forums
Travel Photography - Welcome TrekEarth users! - Hello everyone, For those unaware, we recently, regrettably, shuttered another site. It was home to some of the best photos from around the world I've ever seen. We wanted to give the users of that site a second chance, where their diversity...
www.trekearth.com
Basically 80% of Japan is mountains. We live in the other 20%. This is why it's so dense. So in a sense yes, the majority of inhabited Japan is large urban sprawls. I think the Tokyo-Yokohama conurbation is supposed to be the largest urban sprawl in the world.
Tiger
Tiger
den4
先輩
- 15 Nov 2002
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This reminds me of an episode of SCTV, back in the early '80's, before Rich Moranis, John Candy and the rest of the gang became really famous as movie actors, and one of the SCTV gang was doing this skit called CCCPTV, making a parody of Soviet TV.
The one in particular was when the news anchor would have this humongous map of Mother Russia and the guy would say,
in the russian accent in English:
"Welcome, comrades, to What Fits Into Mother Russia!" and the guy picks up the outline of a particular country or state, say Hawaii, and looks into the camera, laughing, "Last week, we tried with the pineapple state, and...Look! It disappears in the vastness of Mother Russia!
"Ok, comrades....this week, we have the state you know for big tales....That's right! The Lone Star state, Texas. Let's see how it looks against the vastness of Mother Russia?"
then he puts the state against the map. "Ha ha ha! Mother Russia just swallows up Texas! So long lone star state!"
well, the parody was fairly funny at the time.....and the statement above just reminded me of that show....
Maciamo
先輩
- 17 Jul 2002
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Russia is so big (17m square km) you could put in the EU (3,2million sq km), India (3,2m sq. km), Indonesia (1,9m sq km), Australia (7m sq km), Japan (0,37 sq km), both Korea (together 0,22m sq km) and a few more countries. And I am not even talking of the ex-USSR.
What surprises me is that the US land area is about the same as the EU + India + Indonesia + Mexico, which would have a population of 1,8 billion, so more than 6x that of the US! Add China (same size as the US, 1,3billion people), and half of the world lives in only 5 countries (the EU being one for me), smaller than the US and Canada together.
After, that the US which is sparsely populated. Pakistan and Bangladesh together have a similar population (145m + 130m = 275m) to the States on just less than 10% of its land area (0,8m + 0,14m = 0,94m sq km, about the same as Texas !).
What surprises me is that the US land area is about the same as the EU + India + Indonesia + Mexico, which would have a population of 1,8 billion, so more than 6x that of the US! Add China (same size as the US, 1,3billion people), and half of the world lives in only 5 countries (the EU being one for me), smaller than the US and Canada together.
After, that the US which is sparsely populated. Pakistan and Bangladesh together have a similar population (145m + 130m = 275m) to the States on just less than 10% of its land area (0,8m + 0,14m = 0,94m sq km, about the same as Texas !).
senyonjusan
後輩
- 10 Apr 2003
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Compared to Canada and Australia almost every country in the world is crowded. Both countries have a population within a few million of Tokyo, ;plus Canada is the second largest country in the world (Australia falls somewhere in the top 10, I think it might be 5, not sure of that I've only ever had to remember the top 4.
senyonjusan
後輩
- 10 Apr 2003
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wow, did't realize Australia had a population that small, the rest I knew, but I'm surprised population is so low.
