Abstract
Oceanic paleoenvironmental studies in Japan have been performed on marine sediment cores retrieved from the Japan Sea, northwest Pacific Ocean, and East China Sea using different approaches such as sedimentological, micropaleontological, and geochemical methods. In particular, about fifty papers on paleoenvironments of the Japan Sea have been published since the end of the 1960's. Consequently, a detailed paleoenvironmental changes in the Japan Sea over the last 85, 000 years was reconstructed. On the other hand, there are not so many papers on paleooceanogaphy of the northwest Pacific Ocean and East China Sea. Several important studies, however, are included in these papers dealing with global problems related to the climatic changes in the late Quaternary. From these studies, it is suggested that a multidisciplinary study of sediment cores is a very valid method for detailed reconstruction of oceanic paleoenvironments.
