Abstract
The writer has been studying the character of regions in Hokkaido through its population density, with results as here outlined.
1. The distribution of population in 1887 (Fig. 1) was dense in Osima Peninsula and along the Japan Sea, while the Pacific coasts along Kusiro, Nemuro, and its neighbourhood were also thickly populated, although here are many uninhabited regions also in the interior of the mainland and along the coast of the Okhotsk Sea. This. distribution is controlled mainly by the extent of contact with Japan Proper, and the herring fishery grounds, the chief industry of colonized Hokkaido. This fact is clearly shown by the population density maps, of the same year (Fig. 2 & 6).
2. The distribution of population in 1935, as already discussed in. detail, is widest in the western half of Hokkaido, that is, west of the two mountain ranges, Hitaka and Kitami. But in eastern Hokkaido, every agricultural region in the interior has its thickly settled centres. We can see in Fig. 5 the regional development of populations, which has resulted in the distribution of to-day, and it is noteworthy from the figures for early 1897, that the Isikari Plain and the Kamikawa (Asahigawa) Basin were cultivated, but the districts north of the above mentioned places were developed for the first time about 1916, which was in accord with the stability (absence of risks in. cultivation) of rice culture. Since rice cultivation in eastern Hokkaido. is a hazardous venture, it is clear from the cultivated condition of the Nemuro Plains, that we can secure colonization free from risk of failure only from the standpoint of “right cultivation in the right place” in the matter of farming.
