The country is traversed by two chains of mountains, one a part of Sakhalin Island, the other southeast of China crossing Formosa. Mountains.-In Japan the mountains cover two-thirds of the surface of the soil. Only fifteen are 40 ri and more long, the longest being 110 ri in length. They are for the most part only torrents, few of them capable of carrying boats, but they are utilized for rafting and thus supplement the roads. Rivers.-The slopes of the mountains being so close to the sea, the watercourses are not very long. The cascade of Kegon, one of the most beautiful and renowned of Japan, is on this lake. After Lake Biwa the best known are Lake Suwa in Shinano, Lake Hakone, on the summit of the mountain of the same name, Lake Chiusenji in Shimotsuke, west of Nikko, 151 miles in circumference, 4375 feet above sea-level. Renowned for the beauty of its scenery, its praises have often been sung by the poets. According to tradition Lake Biwa was formed by an earthquake in 286 B.C. Lakes.-The largest is Lake Biwa, which is about 180 miles in circumference, 361 miles long, and 121 miles wide. on the Sea of Japan, the bays of Fukuoaka, Wakasa, Tsuruga, Nanao, Otaru on the China Sea, the bays of Kagoshima, Yatsushiro, Amagusa, Shimabara, etc. On the Pacific Ocean are the gulfs of Sagami and Tosa, the bays of Tokyo, Suruga, Ise, Omi, Tsuchiura, Seto, etc. The straits separating the principal islands are the Strait of Soya or La Perouse between Hokkaido and the Sakhalin Islands, the Strait of Tsugaru between the Great Island Honshiu and Hokkaido, and the Strait of Shimonoseki between Honshiu and Kiusiu.Ĭoasts, Gulfs, and Bays.-The coasts are very irregular, the gulfs and bays very numerous. Seas and Straits.-The seas which surround Japan are the Pacific Ocean on the east, the Sea of Okhotsk on the north, the Sea of Japan on the west, and the China Sea on the south. Number of foreigners resident in Japan, 18,908 Chinese, 12,273 Coreans, 459 Englishmen, 2293 Americans from the United States, 1624 Germans, 664 French, 498 Russians, 194 Portuguese, 197 the remainder belong to various nationalities. Recipients of passports to foreign countries, 43,627 Japanese resident abroad, the civil condition of whom is registered at the consulates, 234,124 in China, 34,006 in Corea, 81,754 in the United States, 20,080 in Hawaii and the Philippines, 73,974 in Europe, 694 the remainder in various countries. mile, exclusive of Hokkaido, where it is twenty-three to the sq. The number of the population increases rapidly.
The population is divided according to castes into the Kwazoku (nobles), heads of families, 902 members of families, about 4600 Shizoku (former knights or Samurai), heads of families, 439,194 members of families, 1,728,650 Heimin (private citizens), heads of families, 8,285,448 members of families, 47,358,760. On March 31, 1908, the total population of Japan was 49,092,000 inhabitants that of Formosa 3,155,005 that of the Ainus (aborigines), 17,632. The word Japan is the collective name of the whole territory, exclusive of Formosa and Karafuto. There are besides about six hundred small islands, among which Sado, Oki, Tsushima, Iki, Awaji, and the four archipelagos of the Pescadores, Chishima (Kuriles), Ogasawara, Shima (Bonin), and Okinawa (Riu-kiu) deserve mention. It consists of six large islands, Honshiu or Hondo, Kiusiu, Shikoku, Hokkaido (Yezo), Taiwan or Formosa, and the southern part of Karafuto (Sakhalin).
(meridian of Greenwich), and between 21° 62′ and 50° 56′ N. Japan, called in the language of the country Nihon or Nippon (Land of the Rising Sun), and Dai Nihon or Dai Nippon (Great Japan), is situated northwest of the Pacific Ocean and east of the Asiatic continent.
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