Japan has a plenitude of maps on display to the public. Some of them are utilitarian “land diagrams” that have been designed simply to help people find places, but others also serve as advertisements or explanations and have pictorial embellishments. Six examples of the former and twelve of the latter are reproduced and commented on in this study, which aims to explain the artistic side of such maps by categorizing the types of illustrations (abstract symbols, symbolic resemblances, idealized portraits, realistic portraits, and cartoon characters) and to establish links between the contemporary embellished maps and Japanese maps from the past, as well as to styles of pictorial art that have flourished in the history of Japanese art.

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The variability in sea ice extent in the Sea of Okhotsk during the sea ice disappearance period and its response to the atmospheric circulation in early summer are investigated. Significant correlations were found between the disappearance in sea ice in May and the geopotential heights in and around the northern part of the Sea of Okhotsk in June. A disappearance in sea ice is defined as the difference in the sea ice area between the end of the current month and the end of the previous month. Thus, large sea ice disappearance years and small disappearance years are selected from a time series of sea ice disappearance for the month of May. Composite maps of the geopotential heights in the northern part of East Asia are investigated annually. In small sea ice disappearance years, anticyclones and ridges of the geopotential heights are prominent in and around the Sea of Okhotsk in June. Conversely in large sea ice disappearance years, surface cyclones and troughs are dominant in and around the Sea of Okhotsk. A strengthening of the Okhotsk anticyclone is presumed to be related to variability in the decrease in sea ice in the Sea of Okhotsk.

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This paper reconstructs the flow directions and extent of glaciers on the western slopes of Mt. Tateyama (3, 015m asl) in central Japan from distribution, materials, and facies of two glacial sediments and related deposits. The timing of the larger glacial expansion during the Last Glacial period is then discussed on the basis of their stratigraphic relationships with dated tephras such as K-Tz (95 to 90 ka), Tt-E (ca. 70 ka), and DKP (52 to 50 ka), The wider glacial extension occurred and deposited the Jodosawa Gravel during Murodo Stade I (95 to 70 ka) in MIS 5b to 4 (marine oxygen isotope stage 5b to 4). In this substade, the glaciers extended from the non-volcanic Tateyama Main Ridge onto the flat surface of the pyroclastic flow deposits erupted from the Tateyama Volcano, and overflowed to the north from the basin. The glaciers eroded the pyroclastic flow deposits during Murodo Stade I, and extended to at least 2, 300m asl. Between Murodo Stades I and II, the glaciers were forcefully melted by the pumice fall erupted from the Tateyama Volcano, and temporarily retreated upstream. During Murodo Stade II (70 to 50 ka) in MIS 4 to early MIS 3, the snout of glaciers readvanced to about 2, 350m asl, and deposited the Murodo Gravel. The glacial readvance was restored in size soon after the pumice fall had finished.

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This article is concerned with sustainable development of coastal and marine areas in East Asia. It argues that coastal and marine environment is under serious onslaught from human activities in this most populous of world regions. While the basic processes affecting coastal and marine environment in the region are the same as elsewhere in the world, the rapid economic growth, urbanization and industrialization put specifically high stress on the environment in East Asia. Furthermore, many of the region's countries are major maritime nations that both depend on the ocean and have an impact on it. It is recognized that many development pressures are conflicting in the coastal and ocean space, and that the environment often loses out to economic considerations. Due to the transboundary nature of the oceanic environment, governance at global, regional and local levels is a must. The article highlights the main international mechanisms governing the use of oceans. It also introduces the main funding mechanism for supporting sustainable coastal and marine management in the developing countries, the Global Environment Facility. The main part of the paper highlights two major international projects aimed at protecting the marine and coastal environment in East Asia from ship-based and land-based sources of pollution, respectively. Lessons that can be learned from these projects include the need for regional cooperation while at the same time responding to the needs of the individual countries; the necessity of involving all sectors of the society, including national and local governments, the civil society and the private sector; and the importance of a sound scientific basis for decision-making and public education.

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This paper explores the relationship between migration and the life course in Japan. It does so by analysing a matrix of correlation coefficients where each coefficient measures the relationship between a set of age-specific net internal migration rates by prefecture (for example, for people aged 24-29), and a set of age structure location quotients by prefecture (for example, for people aged 60-64) (the location quotient measures the ratio of the local % in a particular age-group to the national % for the same age-group). An extremely distinctive pattern of correlation emerges. This is analysed both on its own terms, and through a comparison with the equivalent pattern for Britain (England, Wales and Scotland). Surprising differences are discovered and interpreted.

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Three research frontiers need to be explored by geographers in understanding Japanese immigrants and their overseas communities: analyses of immigrant communities in the context of local and national host societies, comparative studies of immigrant groups settled in the same local host society, and economic segregation and occupational sequent occupance. This paper explored the third theme by presenting a case study in southern California prior to World War II. Japanese immigrants successfully attained vertical dominance in production, wholesale, and retail of fruits and vegetables in Los Angeles and the surroundings of southern California from the 1900s through the early 1940s. The process in which Japanese came to occupy such economic niches was documented with special reference to the adaptive strategy they applied in establishing their economic bases. Ethnic organizations and occupational preference played an important role, while growing economy and population created a soaring demand for fresh produce, marketing system had not yet been established, and the role of the Chinese was fading after the turn of the century. Considering the fact that the economic niche that Japanese occupied in the supply of fresh produce was taken over by other immigrant groups following World War II, the idea of “occupational sequent occupance” was proposed. Documenting such sequence in the occupational structure will contribute to the comprehensive understanding of immigrant groups as well as culturalhistorical geography of American cities.

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In Japan, so-called Chinatowns have been formed only in three cities of Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki, and are named respectively Yokohama Chinatown, Kobe Chinatown, and Nagasaki Chinatown. Based on the author's previous studies and fieldwork, this paper aims to clarify the regional characteristics of Chinatowns in Japan. Every Chinatown in Japan exists as a very important tourist spot with highly concentrated Chinese restaurants of various sorts. From the global point of view, this appears to be the most remarkable regional characteristic of Chinatowns in Japan. Compared with those in Southeast Asia, Europe and North America, Japanese customers and tourists play a more important role than the ethnic Chinese in the functions of Chinatowns in Japan. This remarkable characteristic would be that the ethnic Chinese in Japan have been trying to adapt themselves to the Japanese community by promoting Chinatowns as tourist spots. They have been positively utilizing the tradition of Chinese culture, especially food culture, as a tourist resource. Chinatown in Japan is a town that embodies the image of China, cherished by so many Japanese. This is based upon the historical interest in Chinese culture among the Japanese people.

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