The fiftieth anniversary of the Association of Japanese Geographers was celebrated on the 30th April, 1975 in Tokyo. On this occasion, the author delivered a memorial lecture on a historical overview of the development of the Association.
The Association was established in 1925 for the purpose of promoting geographical research in Japan, only 49 members being then enrolled under the leadership of Professor Naomasa Yamasaki. Its inititial activities were to hold occasional meetings and to publish a monthly serial, “Chirigaku-Hyoron” (Geographical Review of Japan), mostly, in Japanese with English abstract.
In the course of half a century since its establishment, the Association has continuously developed in its scale and activities. The number of members has increased up to 3000 including 50 foreign geographers. Among them, three foreign geographers, Prof. F. Ruellan, Prof. M. Schwind and Prof. H. Boesch were nominated as honorable members of the Association in recognitino of their eminent works in Japan as well as distinguished contributions to the Association at the time of the fiftieth anniversary. The Association now holds monthly discussion meetings, commission meetings and biannual large conferences with more than 500 attendants from all over Japan. In addition to the monthly serial, the Association publishes abstracts of papers submitted to the conferences, guide books of excursions, special issues of “Geographical Review of Japan”. More than 50 copies of the “Geographical Review of Japan” are sent to oversew geographical institutions in exchange.
In the spring conference of 1975, 153 papers were read in eight sectionary meetings, a symposium on quantitative geography was held and five parties of excursions were organized.

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This paper is an approach to the analysis of land and its utilization patterns in Northeastern Brazil. It was based on the field observations of the multiple relationship existing between natural environment and human activities. The Department of Geography, Tokyo Kyoiku University, planned a field study of Northeastern Brazil, and sent the research missions to this area three times, sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education. The first field study was carried on from December, 1966 to February, 1967, the second from January to March, 1971, and the third from December, 1972 to February, 1973. This report outlines the results of field observation in the third field study, mainly in the state of Paralba.
Many geographers have established the areally corresponding relationship between natural environmental factors and land use. Our research group, including myself, proposes a division of land use regions in the state of ParaÍba.
This consists of three regions and ten subregions as follows:
1) Zona da Mata
a) Coastal lowland. b) Tabuleiros. c) Varzea (Rio de Acucar).
2) Agreste
d) Peripheral Tabuleiros. e) Depression Zone (low relief plain formed on crystaline rock). f) Borborema Massif. g) Brejos.
3) Sertão
h) Cariris. i) Piranhas basin. j) Alto-Sertão.

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A Geographical research project was carried out by the members of Research Teams of the University of Hiroshima during the period between 1967 and 1973. The first field research was carried out in the Ganga Plain and the second on the Punjab both in North India. An extensive as well as an o intensive approach were applied.
A. GANGA PLAIN
A brief reference to the field study in settlements in the Ganga Plain will be made first. Major subjects for field research were as follows: (1) villages and agriculture, (2) rural central places, and (3) industrial towns. However, reference is to be made to the first subject alone in this paper. It may safely be concluded that the ricecultivating area in the Ganga Plain is characterized by peasants, peasant village and peasant agriculture. A ringshaped structure was noted with inner, intermediate and outlying land. It may be argued from the ring-shaped arrangement of land-zoning, from the customs of land use, from the villagers' sentimental attachment to different zones, and also from some documents, that the prototype of the ring-shaped structure was a twofold arrangement: an area of enclosed land and its periphery. Traditional and conservative land use were noted everywhere.
B. THE PUNJAB
The geographical field research in the Punjab was carried out from September 27, 1972 to January 31, 1973 on a similar basis to the above-mentioned research in the Ganga Plain. This project aimed at studying the characteristics of the village and the culture on one hand and at probing into ways of modernization and economic development on the other. It was also hoped that a study of the geography of the Punjab would lead us to an understanding of the geography of the dry tropics and also of Indian philosophy. The following research items were proposed: natural environment and land use; historical background; village morphology and function; land use and agriculture; industrialization.
An intensive sample study was made together with an extensive general study. Schedules and checklists were carefully prepared in advance and revised on the spot from time to time. Sample study villages were selected according to the following indices: (1) isopleth of aridity index 20, which separates the wet area from the arid zone; (2) the availability of previous studies; (3) villagers' readiness to co-operate with us in research; (4) facilities for accommodation. Thus, the following four villages were selected:
a. Lohna: A Peasants' and Tribesmen's hamlet using traditional agriculture in a humid valley in the Lower Himalayas.
b. Gaggar Bhana: A Typical Village in the Punjab Plains with Canal and Tube-well Irrigation Facilities.
c. Salmatpur: A Village in Ferment in Cho(torrent)-land without Canal Irrigation Facilities.
d. Mangali: A Village on the Marginal Land of the Dry Farming Area in the Semiarid Zone of Haryana.
It must be first noted that radical changes—transformation—are noted in the Punjab Plains. Major results of the field research may be summarized as follows:
1. Development of irrigation facilities. The Punjab Plains were famous for the early construction of irrigation canals on a large scale not only in the Indian subcontinent but also throughout the world. These irrigation facilities had paved way for the “wheat granary”. However, serious problems were caused by them: raising of the ground water level and particularly waterlogging. Fortunately these problems have been solved by the construction of drainage canal and tube-wells in recent times. Thus, many parts of the Punjab Plains have benefited from the irrigation and drainage facilities, which have paved the way for the “green revolution”. But there is some fear of a lowering of the ground water level by over-construction of tube-wells.
2. The less conservative character of the society.

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It is well-known that quantitative methods have made a remarkable progress in many disciplines and have brought the diversification of their study objects and the expansion of their applications. These tendencies have clearly appeared in geography. In this field it has been vigorously done to develop various kinds of techniques and appliances for obtaining geographic numerical data, to apply some of quantitative methods to them and to present the findings by these efforts in a form of model. The study along this line was made an accelerative progress by the quantitative revolution in the beginning of 1960's, so that it has greatly contributed toward the development of geography. On the other hand, this progress has met with some problems involving the limitation of quantitative techniques or methods. In addition, it has offered many important and basic themes to the discussion of geographical nature, for the techniques or methods twine closely with the geographical methodology. These themes are idiographic versus nomothetic approaches, quantitative nature as opposed to qualitative one of geographic phenomena, individual versus aggregative approaches, the distinction between correlation and causation, and the possibility for building geographic theory. Although none of these themes have been given adequate answers, it is obvious that they have set a new guideline to both fields of physical and human geography.
The quantitative works which were called Chorometry appeared in the geographical studies in Japan in 1930's. Some of these studies have continuously been done in the field of physical geography, wheares in the field of human geography they were ceased due to the insufficient research for data and the method of analysis. In the recent quantitative studies, however, this shortcoming is fairly but not completely swept off.
The aim of this symposium is to discuss the three questions described below.
(1) What kind of efficiency and limitation the quantitative methods have in terms of geographic studies?
(2) How should the study concerning methods to solve various geographical problems be located in the field of geography?
(3) How could the study mentioned above be related with the nature of geography?
The members of the symposium consisted of twenty-four reporters and commentators, four chairmen, two organizers and a great number of participants. Although there had been some discussions concerning with three questions through the session, there were much left to be discussed.
Twelve papers presented were in the following:
(1) K. Kashiwaya pointed out that model experiment was of much efficient in the case of being difficult to obtain the data of landform development, and he showed the model of gully evolution, which was characterized by considering two parameters, such as the inertial force of water and the resistant force of soil.
(2) M. Pukuda reviewed some applications of harmonic analysis to the landform studies and offered the results obtained in analyzing the spectral power densities of landforms in Hokkaido. He pointed out the relations of estimated spectrum to the interval of sample dots in topographic maps.
(3) M. Hirano and S. Yokota explained some possibilities of numerical analysis for geomorphological phenomena. They indicated the necessity to publish topographic digital maps and to establish a geomorphological data bank.
(4) I. Tsuchiya's concern was directed to suggest the advantages and weaknesses of measuring the surface temperature by the infrared radiation thermometer as a technique of remote sensing. He explained this direction by showing an example of measurements of snow surface temperature in the eastern slope of Mt. Hoken in Nagano Prefecture.
(5) K. Yamabe first showed a hydraulic model to evaluate the fluidity of sea water on the basis of the residence time of fresh water.

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