Japanese Geography

Abstract

Geography as description of the world and production of maps dated back to eighteenth century in Japan. Academic geography started after Japan opened up to the West in the late nineteenth century. There was certain division of labor: a geography department with emphasis on physical geography and geology was set up in Tokyo Imperial University; and that on human geography in Kyoto Imperial University. Commercial geography was taught in what is now Hitotsubashi, which set up the first academic unit of economic geography. Chorography became the mainstay at the Tokyo Higher Normal School. Although Western conceptions gave instigation, Japanese geographers made serious attempts to create their own concepts of geography in its wide areas with variegated political positions. Before World War II, Tanaka injected dynamism into chorography through the concept of three phases along which geographical objects develop and disappear. Komaki propagated geopolitics that was uniquely Japanese to give academic glitter to Japan's own imperialist aggression. Sato developed the concept of the dialectical human–nature relationship based on the ideas of Wittfogel. After World War II, Suizu identified ‘basic region’ as the fundamental tangible object of social geography. Ueno was almost a decade ahead than his Western counterparts in introducing thoughts of Lefebvre and phenomenology into critical geography. Mizuoka proposed a general theory explaining relations from a critical perspective.