Many geographers say that the grazing on mountain pastures or upland pastures prevailing in almost all mountain lands in the world dose not exist in Japan. But I think it is not necessarily true. In the mountains of Japan there are many types of an “alp” and “mayen” which are necessary to develop the mountain grazing. A pasture on a gentle slope extending from just upon the forest line downwards is a type of alp, and so, a pasture on summit, plateaus, or higher crests in an other type of alp. Its examples are so many in Japan. If the pasture located over 900 m. were an alp, such pastures would be numberless. A pasture on lower slope or foot hill is a type of mayen. Its examples are a few.
Many pastures in Hokkaido and eastern part of Aomori prefecture, have the characters of lowland pasture. Mountain pastures in Japan groups in following four regions ; north-eastern parts in Ôu, dispersed portions from southern Ôu to central upland in Honshu, middle and eastern parts on Chugoku mountains, and central Kyushu (Fig. 1). Those regions are mountain lands which are used roughly, and have low producing capacity of agriculture. The Grazing regions in eastern Japan are in situ correspondence to the unstable regions of rice culture.
There are several types of mountain grazing in Japan, as follows ;
(1) Type of grazing throughout the warm seasons.
(2) Type of grazing in spring and autumn on high and cool land.
(3) Type of grazing in spring and autumn on low-altitude and warm-climate land.
(4) Type of grazing in three seasons.
(5) Type of grazing in one season.
(6) Type of daytime grazing.
(7) Type of grazing of combined form.
Some types have a grazing in the intermediate seasons on mayen, that is a lesser transhumance, or estivage. But the proper or greater transhumance lack in Japan. Some types are turned into new types i. e. the type of free grazing on forests and fields to the type of grazing on pasture, or the grazing in spring and autumn to the grazing in one season, or vice versa. Certain similar kinds of geographical phenomena have a tendency to be seen grouped in a certain area ; i, e. (1) and (2) types group on eastern Japan, (3) group on western Japan, (4) and (5) group on central Kyushu, and (6) group on Tazima province.
The horses and cattle with few caretakers are grazed in those grazing regions. Some pastures have not a hut and caretaker. Japanese graze a smaller number of animals on the mountain pastures than that europeans on the alp, for animal densities in Japan is much less than that in mountain lands in Europe.
