One can hardly disagree that Japan is a nation of many beautiful and complex features with an atmosphere that is peaceful and vibrant. As Japan has developed, most of the world has stared in awe. However, while being one of the most peaceful and economically advanced countries in the world, Japan has had many issues to deal with in its historical upbringing, such as its overpopulation, overcrowding of cities, and its involvement in one of the worst wars in world history WWII.
As stated in many articles on the internet, as well as many books you find in the library, Japan has a mountainous terrain. “Japan is a mountainous, volcanic island chain located in the western Pacific Ocean. The islands arc from Russia in the north toward the Korean Peninsula in the south” (Stratfor Enterprises, LLC, 2019). A couple of issues arise for Japan from operating an entire country on an island.
First, natural resources are limited to the available land controlled by the country. For many resources, Japan must reach outside of its borders and rely on countries with greater resources. As explained in an article published by Stratfor, “When Japan unifies under strong centralized control, it is often drawn toward the continent for resources and land. This happened in the late 1500s and again in the early 1900s, leading to World War II.” Also, the fact that the country is an island does not diminish its population.
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According to Worldometers, Japan is currently populated by 126,995.791 occupants. This number is based on the latest estimates from the United Nations (worldometers.com). With such a vast population, others may think the island would have multiple cities; however, the country consists primarily of rural areas with several large cities scattered across the island. Most citizens of Japan reside in the large cities, such as Tokyo, with little inhabitants residing in rural areas.
Life in an overpopulated city can be difficult to understand for those that do not experience this phenomenon. Most residents who live in urban areas in the United States would say New York is crowded. Residents of Japan would most likely disagree. “An area that covers only a couple of blocks is often packed with sports stadiums, a variety of schools, office buildings, lower middle-class apartments, rich homes, pachinko parlors, restaurants, parks, playgrounds, busy streets and supermarkets with parking lots on their roof” (Hayes, 2009). As mentioned, life in japan is commonly cramped and tough to navigate. Most citizens still prefer to live in these highly congested areas, however, due to the opportunity they offered.
Major shopping centers are located downtown as opposed to suburban areas, keeping the attention of the young citizens (Hayes, 2009). For this reason, most of the population in the rural areas are people of an older generation. Those who work on Farms can be as Old as sixty years of age. According to Jeffrey Hayes, the lack of individual space in Japan shapes the culture and personalities of citizens helping to define their customs and values (Hayes, 2009). Despite the lack of natural resources, the large population of Japan aids in making the country productive.
Many of the cars driven by people all over the world are produced in Japan. Japan is a major producer of many other products as well, such as steel, rubber, plastics, paper and textiles, just to name a few. More people living in the country inevitably leads to more work getting done as individuals work to provide for their families. As stated above, however, limited natural resources make it difficult to rely on domestic goods, therefore, Japan is required to import sources of energy from outside country. A substantial amount of oil, natural gas and uranium, including many other natural resources, are imported to aid in the production of the aforementioned goods (countrystudies.us).
Japan has had many militaristic issues in its history, the most referenced war that Japan has taken apart in is World War II (WWII). After the great and terrible war, the government of japan has become relatively peaceful, as so they have no true military such as the other great nations of the world. The constitution in place denies them the ability to have such a military presence it is a reformed version of the old constitution called the Meiji Constitution.
“Article 9 of the Japanese constitution forbids all military activity It states: ‘The Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right, and the threat of use of force as means of settling disputes’ and armed forces will never be maintained” (‘Japan Mullling Pre-emptive Strike Force,’ n.d.). Japan’s pacifistic stance is mostly due to the great distrust they have of the military. The United States military was then made a protector of Japan, because even though the country was now forbidden to have a military presence it still had multiple enemy’s just to the west of its shores. When the United states started having issues with North Korea the Japanese government took notice that it did indeed need an unconventional force, and so the establishment of the Self Defense Force (SDF) came into effect.
The SDF is not a combat military force in fact it has taken no casualties and has not killed a single person since its establishment. As such the SDF still takes part in many international issues by providing aid to countries in the form of supplies and infrastructure. However, being the technological giant that Japan is, when North Korea started to build up its nuclear arms Japan started to emplace multiple spy satellites to keep an eye on the aggressive country as stated in an article by Stratfor.
Japan is still one of the top countries in the world even though they have had many issues to contend with such as WWII, overcrowding of cities, and over population. Being that the people in the country are mostly pacifist it can be assumed that Japanese involvement in future wars will be limited to support countries of the United Nations. One day if one chooses to visit the country of Japan, a place to visit would be the Yushukan War Memorial to learn about the soldiers in WWII.
