Japan

Japan ( Nihon or Nippon) is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean , it lies to the east of China , Korea , and Russia , stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name literally mean "sun-origin," thus Japan is sometimes identified as the " Land of the Rising Sun ," derived from the country's eastward position relative to China . Its capital and largest city is Tokyo.

Over 3,000 islands , the largest of which are Honshu , Hokkaido , Kyushu , and Shikoku , make up the nation of Japan. Most of the islands are mountainous, and many are volcanic including the highest peak, Mount Fuji . Japan has the world's 10th largest population , with about 128 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area , with over 30 million residents, is the largest metropolitan area in

The 11 Japanese cities with a population over one million today are Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kobe, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Kawasaki, Hiroshima, and Kita Kyushu.

Over the last 30 years, the residents in the cities with a population between 1 and 5 million grew considerably. Those who have lived in larger cities with a population over 5 million remained relatively unchanged while the population in smaller cities with less than 1 million people decreased significantly.

There is a high concentration of population in the three metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya where more than 1/2 of the total Japanese population live.

In the large metropolitan areas especially in Tokyo and Osaka and Nagoya small lots have been developed and houses and apartments were built to house the rapidly increasing urban population over the last 50 years. Some apartments fall below the minimum standard. Some of the old wooden rental houses and apartments are totally substandard by today's standard. They need to be rebuilt to make the Metropolis more resistant to big earthquakes and other natural disasters.

The Ginza (main shopping district) - Tokyo

Accommodation - of the total 40 million houses and apartments in Japan, 40% face roads less than 4m in width. The large portions of these houses and apartments are concentrated in urban areas. This means they are not easily accessible by fire engines and other large vehicles in case of emergency.

The Shinkansen reaches speeds of upto 475kph. Shinkansen literally means "New Trunk Line" while the trains themselves are officially referred to as "Super Express".

This resource prepared from many Internet and own resources and updated in 2007 by Robert Mill.

The search engine used for resourcing: www.google.com.au.

There are a number of photo galleries linked here, which you ca use for your graphics. Research every photo gallery, as many of the photos can be used for all topics.

Other photos can be researched on the Internet, using Google web search.