Mountain and Ecumene in Japan

Abstract

The Japanese have not used their mountainland as much as they could have, given Japan's technical level in the sectors of stock-breeding and slope cultivation. Neither is the origin of this neglect to be sought for in natural causes: the mountain in Japan is indeed a harsh environment, but much of it could still be reclaimed. Mental factors account for many difficulties, but in some respects they have, more than in Europe, integrated mountains into man's social life. In fact, it is not in the mountains themselves that one is to seek the reasons why they have been neglected; but in the plains, i.e. in the complex which paddy fields and cities have formed in Japanese history: this complex was conducive, and prone, to high densities, and it has prevented Japanese society from extending its farmland.