Explore the vast range of titles available.

Japan: a land plagued by volcanoes, earthquakes and typhoons, yet blessed with a climate suitable for all manner of agriculture and forestry, and positioned where ocean currents collide and bring an abundance of the ocean's resources to its people; a country which moved quickly from an agrarian pre-industrial society to become one of the world's great economic powerhouses in only a few decades, spoiling water, air and land in the process, bringing misery to many of its people; a country with expansionist desires, colonizing neighboring lands, leading to war, defeat, destruction and, for the first time in history, nuclear devastation and its aftermath; a land and its people which share a remarkable resilience and ability to evaluate and correct their mistakes and renew their trajectory towards a better future.

What do readers imagine when they hear the words “environmental history in Japan”? Many people might think first of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The air pollution in Yokkaichi or Itai-itai disease in Toyama are also well known. However, this book does not deal with the above case studies head-on. Rather, it actively focuses on themes that are not necessarily well-known outside of Japan and may not even be well-known within Japan. Using this approach, we believe we can present a more vivid picture of Japan's environmental history to our readers, moving away from clichés.This book, compiled with these intentions in mind, would not have been possible without the contributions of many people, of course.First, the contributors to this book responded sincerely to my difficult request that they write a chapter that explains their unique issues and perspectives in a way that readers—specialists and non-specialists alike—would understand and value.Second, the reviewers of this book read through the draft and appreciated the fact that it was written largely by Japanese speakers who had little experience presenting in English on a variety of fascinating topics.Third, I would like to thank Mark Gresham, Managing Director of MHM Limited. He supported me, anxious about editing a book in English for the first time, by his meticulous editing work down to the smallest detail. I will never forget the beers we drank together at the yakitori restaurant “Saezuri” in Kyoto and the conversations we had about our lives.Notes on the Romanization of JapaneseThe Hepburn system of romanization has been used for Japanese terms, including the names of persons and places. Long vowels are indicated by a macron, except for place names and words that are in everyday use in English (such as Tokyo). The Japanese custom of placing the family name first has been followed for the names of Japanese persons. In the case of citations of works in English by Japanese authors, we have deferred to the romanization style and name order given in the original work.

Structure of this bookThe arc-shaped Japanese archipelago, which is dotted along the eastern coast of the Eurasian Continent, stretches 3,000 kilometers from north to south. It has a total area of about 377,900 square kilometers, almost all of which belongs to the humid and temperate zone. Mountainous areas account for 70 percent of the land area, and farmland and residential land spread out in the narrow plains. Volcanic activities have continued unchanged since ancient times, typhoons repeatedly hit from the southern oceans in autumn, and there are many earthquakes and floods. We can easily characterize the archipelago as a disastrous one.On the other hand, the Kuroshio current, a warm current from the south, and the Oyashio current, a cold current from the north, collide off the coast of Japan, and there are abundant fishery resources. In autumn, the whole country is ablaze with colored leaves; in winter, it snows mainly on the Sea of Japan side, and in spring, flowers bloom all at once and rice fields are planted. The so-called rainy season begins, and when the rainy season ends, hot summer comes.This book is about the history of such an environment. The 16 contributors’ specialties include environmental sociology, human geography, history of science, medicine, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, cities and the like. They do not necessarily specialize only in environmental history, but they are all researchers who have been deeply involved in the history of the environment in a broad sense and the history of environmental change in Japan.As the editor, I asked each author to convey both a general story that is easy for readers to learn and the detailed content of their own research. In this way, it was my intention that both those who are new to Japan's environmental history and those who have experience in the field would find this handbook a valuable resource. By selecting topics which span multiple fields and disciplines and balancing these with authors who can address the issues deeply, I can divide the book into five sections.In Part 1 “Topology of Environmental History” three contributors discuss the importance of “topography” in the environmental history in Japan.

In this chapter, I show the development history of modern Japanese agricultural technology, focusing on rice breeding, tractors, chemical fertilizers and the spread of pesticides. To that end, we must consider not only the mainland of Japan, but also the transformation of the former colonies. Furthermore, the short history of organic farming and Teikei (“partnership”) movement to connect producers and consumers, which was born to compete with these modern agricultural techniques, is also touched upon.IntroductionThe Japanese archipelago, surrounded by the sea, has a mild and humid climate. About twothirds of the country is mountainous forested area and the remaining is plains. Most Japanese people live and have lived on the plains, amid rivers and natural and human-made ponds of various sizes, cultivating rice, wheat, soybeans and many kinds of vegetables. Currently, the total area of cultivated land in Japan is about 2.4 million ha of paddy fields and about 2 million ha of plowed fields, occupying about 12 percent of the total area of Japan.If one travels across the Japanese archipelago by rail and sees the landscape through the window of the train, it would not be strange to regard Japan as a rich agricultural country with its many paddy fields with systematic irrigation and plowed fields for other crops. It is not difficult to identify mandarin orange orchards on the sides of hills, well-manicured tea fields, apple orchards, and vineyards in the rural areas of Japan. In Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, which has a humid continental climate, there are vast fields of potatoes, onions, soybeans, red beans and sugar beets, while subtropical island regions such as Okinawa have fields of sugarcane and pineapple.However, from an economic point of view, agriculture does not now comprise a significant sector in Japan as compared with other industrial countries. According to 1970 statistics, the percentage of Japan's GDP accounted for by agricultural production was about 5.56 percent; but according to 2018 statistics, it is only about 0.86 percent. In addition, the area of cultivated land per operator averages 2.87 ha (2017) in Japan, as compared to 179 ha (2016) in the United States, 58.6 ha (2013) in Germany, and 16.1 ha (2013) in the European Union as a whole.