American Geographical Society

The Population of Japan by Irene B. Taeuber; Population Density of Japan by TatsutaroHidaka; Population Maps of Japan by The Bureau of StatisticsReview by: Glenn T. TrewarthaGeographical Review, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Apr., 1959), pp. 283-286Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/211993 .

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GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEWS

THE POPULATION OFJAPAN. By IRENE B. TAEUBER. xx and 461 pp.; maps, diagrs., bibliogr., index. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N. J., 1958. $15.oo. 1214 X 9

inches.

POPULATION DENSITY OF JAPAN. By TATSUTARO HIDAKA. Maps, diagrs. Bull. Geogr. Survey Inst., Ministry of Construction, Vol. 5, Parts 1-2, 1957, pp. 31-64.

POPULATION MAPS OF JAPAN. Compiled and constructed by the Geographical Survey Institute, Ministry of Construction, and the Bureau of Statistics, Office of the Prime Minister. Published by the Bureau of Statistics, Office of the Prime Minister, Tokyo. (In color.)

Maps based upon the 1950 population census of Japan. Published March, 1956. Legends inJapanese and English. (i) Population density map (choropleth method), 3 sheets, i: 8oo,ooo. (2) Population dot map, 1: 2,000,000. (3) Population isopleth map, 1:2,000,000. (4) Population density at the beginning of the Meiji era (choropleth method), 1:2,000,000. (5) Urban population (spheric method), 1:2,000,000. (Re- printed, 1957, colors slightly changed and legends in Japanese only: Map 1, 3 sheets. 1: 800,000; Maps 2, 3, and 5, 1: 3,500,000, and Map 4, 1: 5,ooo,ooo, insets on Map 1.)

Maps based upon the 1955 population census of Japan. Published March, 1958. Legends in Japanese and English. (i) Population distribution and density, 3 sheets, 1: 800,000. (2) Population growth by districts, 1950-1955, 3 sheets, 1: 8oo,ooo.

The complementary nature of these three publications seems to warrant their treatment within a single review. Dr. Taeuber's book is a demographic analysis ofJapan as a national unit, and the treatment of population at the intranational level is relatively brief. All maps are at a very small scale, and on most of them data are shown by prefecture only. Density and distribution maps for present-day Japan are completely lacking. For geographers, therefore, the almost concurrent publication of several large-scale and detailed population maps ofjapan based on the 1950 and 1955 censuses is an event of some importance.

"The Population ofJapan" makes available the results of the long-continued research of one of America's most distinguished demographers. The hope that the product of this research would be definitive has been realized to the highest degree. The book is the cul- mination of nearly two decades of investigative effort focused on Japan; it bears the hall- mark of a scholarship which has matured through experience and the progress of which has been indicated by interim reports in the form of useful papers. This is much more than a narrowly conceived demographic study; the author visualizes population as part of the warp and woof of the social and economic life of Japan. To treat her topic successfully with the breadth and depth to which she aspired, the author was obliged to gain an under- standing of the historical backgrounds, traditional cultures, and modern institutional life of the country. Thus the book has a strong evolutionary flavor, and the reader is led to recognize the developmental nature of population and to appreciate its interactions with the socioeconomic and political climates at different periods. Dr. Taeuber has enriched her work through the cooperation and aid received from population specialists inJapan-the book is dedicated to "my colleagues in Japan"-and copious footnotes and an extensive bibliography give evidence of the abundant use made ofJapanese-language sources.

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284 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

Dr. Taeuber's study is unique for several reasons. Unlike most other Asian nations, Japan has not experienced the effects of Western political control; moreover, it is an insular nation that has been afflicted with a critical demographic problem for centuries. But theJapanese case is even more peculiarly important. Up to now generalizations con- cerning population change during the transition from an agrarian to an urban-industrial society have been based on the experience of nations with a Western culture. In Japan an opportunity is provided for testing the extension of these generalizations to an Oriental context, and to a nation that has reached an advanced stage of industrial development without a colonial interlude. It is this special demographic situation, together with the unusual wealth of research materials, that warrants such a detailed and inclusive study.

The book is divided into 7 parts and 18 chapters. Part I is historical. It traces the evolu- tion of population during the period of prehistory and down to the mid-nineteenth century. Emphasis on rice cultivation, early development of irrigation and soil fertilization, and the evolution of a stable social structure had as their consequence a rapid multiplication of population and a resulting pressure on resources in the settled areas even by the twelfth century, and population pressure has been a recurring motif down to the present. Part II continues the historical treatment for the critical period of transition from an agrarian to an industrial society, when a growing population, concentrating in multiplying and ex- panding cities, was undergoing important demographic changes. In Part III the demo- graphic maturing of a modern industrial state is traced from World War I to the present (1955). Separate chapters analyze population changes, the labor force, and the nature of the family. Part IV focuses on the rural-urban movement of people as industrialization developed, and on the growth of cities and metropolitan areas. The expansion of the Japanese into the frontier areas of Hokkaido and Karafuto and into overseas areas is traced in Part V. Part VI provides a detailed treatment of such demographic features as marriage, fertility, mortality, and natural increase, and Part VII diagnoses the demographic effects of the recent war, and government policies relating to population, and ends with a look at the dimensions of the population in the future.

Since the treatment is focused at the national level, the geographical flavor of the book is not conspicuous; nevertheless, its content yields rich returns to the geographer who makes careful search. For one thing, the author has not entirely omitted intranational differences; both in the text and on the maps the various population characteristics are dealt with in terms of their areal differentiation withinJapan. But on most of the maps the data are regionalized at the prefectural level, which from the geographer's point of view leaves something to be desired. A few maps have the data segregated by the smaller political subdivisions of gun or shi; none makes use of machi and mtlra. Large-scale maps of population density, distribution, and temporal change, based on data for the smallest sub- divisions, would have made a useful contribution, as would an analysis of the striking features revealed by such maps. In short, it is fair to say that a geography of the population ofJapan remains to be written.

A small part of the essential raw materials for such a book is provided by the ex- traordinarily fine maps compiled jointly by the Geographical Survey Institute and the Bureau of Statistics ofJapan. For no other country does such a wealth of excellent popula- tion maps based on recent statistics exist.

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GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEWS 285

Hidaka's paper is an analysis of the five population maps based on the 195o census. Particular attention is given to the main map, scale 1: 8oo,ooo, showing population density by shi (city), machi (town), and mura (village) by the choropleth method. Eleven density categories, ranging from fewer than 25 per square kilometer to more than 1000, are indi- cated by color gradations. Unfortunately, the color gradations leave something to be de- sired, and the individual shades are difficult to distinguish. Because of the small area of the administrative units, intricate patterns of contrasting densities stand out boldly. Hidaka analyzes the map along three lines: (i) a description of its statistical base; (2) an explanation of the process by which the number and limiting values of the density classes were de- termined; and (3) a description of main features of population distribution as revealed by the map.

In conjunction with his analysis of the scheme of density classes, Hidaka prepared a series of tables and graphs in which 29 density categories are classified according to their frequency by area, population, and number of units, for the country as a whole and for its eight principal subdivisions. In Hokkaido, for example, the density class of fewer than 25

inhabitants per square kilometer is characteristic of 53 per cent of the island's area, 16.07 per cent of its population, and 30.20 per cent of its administrative units. A second set of tables analyzes in the same way the 1 density categories finally adopted, in order to determine whether they bring out the main features of population distribution in each of Japan's principal subdivisions.

The dot map of population distribution uses one dot for every 5oo inhabitants. Two shades of green set apart uninhabited areas and mountain areas; the lowlands are uncolored. Since the ratio of dots to inhabitants was selected with the lower densities in mind, the map does not do justice to the areas of higher density.

On the isopleth map of population density an attempt is made to remedy some of the deficiencies of the choropleth map. The mosaic of density classes imposed by use of the small administrative subdivisions has been eliminated, and the map may be said to repre- sent population-density "relief." Isopleths are drawn for density classes as low as 25 persons per square kilometer and as high as 1000, but the number of intervening isopleths varies from area to area. Three shades of green differentiate density classes of 100-500, 500-1000,

and more than wooo; areas with densities of fewer than 1oo are left uncolored. Hidaka de- scribes in some detail an experiment in techniques for drawing isopleths of population.

On the map of urban population all official cities (shi) are included, and also the towns in which the length of the built-up area is greater than one kilometer or the population density more than 2000 persons per square kilometer. Urban population was calculated by the formula U-P[(P'-A)/P'], in which U equals urban population, P total population of city or town, P' employed population, and A population in agriculture, forestry, and small-scale mining. Urban places with less than 200,000 population are shown by spheres of four different diameters, and each of the 17 cities with a population of more than 200,000

is represented by a sphere proportionate to its size. The population-density map of Japan at the beginning of the Meiji era is of the

choropleth type, based on gun and shi. It might be questioned whether there was sufficient reason for constructing a detailed

population-density map based on the 1955 census when an excellent map had been pub-

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286 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

lished two years earlier using the census returns of 1950. The answer is that between 1950 and 1955 there was an extensive revision and consolidation of administrative subdivisions, with concomitant boundary changes.

The choropleth population density and distribution map based on the 1955 census differs from its earlier counterparts in several ways. Because of the reduction in number of administrative subdivisions, and of density categories from eleven to seven, the later map has a somewhat more simplified choropleth pattern. But its general appearance is more complicated because dots and spheres have been superimposed to represent distribution. Cities and towns with a population of more than 30,000 are shown by spheres of five classes, and Osaka and Tokyo have spheres proportionate to their populations.

The map of population change represents the growth or decrease in numbers of per- sons between 1950 and 1955. Change is shown by five classes of percentage increase and four classes of percentage decrease.-GLENN T. TREWARTHA

REVOLUTION DANS LES CAMPAGNES CHINOISES. By RENE DUMONT. 463 PP.; maps, diagrs., bibliogr. (Collections Esprit "Frontiere Ouverte.") Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1957. Frs. 1200. 9 X 5 Y2 inches.

The author of this volume has studied farmers and farming in Europe, in Asia, and in the Americas and is well qualified to discuss Communist China, where the most profound as well as the largest-scale agricultural revolution in the world is taking place. Of some 1oo

million hectares under cultivation in China in 1949-1950, almost one-half (47 million hectares) was confiscated by the reform and distributed to 70 million families. As early as March, 1952, the Communist party made it plain to the peasants that the goal was collec- tivization of all land. But for those who have had no land at all or who have been victim- ized by rack-renting landlords, a cooperative holds few terrors.

More significant than quotations from "official" statistics regarding the agrarian re- form are observations made of progress in the fight against illiteracy, in the building of agricultural schools and libraries, in the wide diffusion of public-health measures. To min- imize the underemployment consequent upon the introduction of a certain amount of mechanization, rural agricultural stations emphasize household industries, kitchen gardens, and the acquisition of manual skills. industrial crops such as tea and cotton pay higher wages than the cereal crops, so labor is entering those fields. Work, formerly considered a punishment, has begun to be considered respectable.

Expansion of agricultural production requires rapid expansion of purchasing power widely distributed in the hands of the rural population, but this in turn is closely tied to an accelerated industrialization. Which comes first? Chinese Communist leaders seem to be aware that only a rejuvenated agricultural system can supply vast quantities of raw mate- rials, large accumulations of capital, and more protective foods for the workers. A healthy agriculture is the sinae quia noni of an industrialized society. China is trying to avoid some of the mistakes of the Russian Soviets of the nineteen-twenties.

The author feels that Chinese Communist leaders have cleverly exploited the feeling of nationalism by pointing out that Communism has forever terminated Chinese "semi- colonial" dependence on the West, with its unilateral capitulations and extraterritorial rights. The party has been able to form a kind of new rural elite through an agrarian reform

that has created faith, on the part of the Common Man, in the Common Good. As dis-

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