Environmental Geography

Japan consists of several thousands of islands, but there are four main islands, which are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku. 



Most of the islands and land areas in Japan are full of steep mountains, plains, natural lakes volcanoes and hot springs.

Climate of Japan varies widely from one region to region. Most parts of the country has four distinct seasons. Spring months are March, April, and May. Summer months are June, July, and August. Fall months are September, October, and November. Winter months are December, January, and February. 

The winter is mild and the summer is hot and humid. There is a rainy season in early summer, and typhoons hit parts of the country every year during late summer. The climate of the northern island of Hokkaido and the Sea of Japan coast is colder, and snow falls in large amounts. In Okinawa, on the other hand, the mean temperature of January is a warm 17 degrees Celsius.












Spring and Summer

The Siberian air mass warms and loses density, enabling atmospheric currents over the Pacific to steer warmer air from south of the Himalayas into northeast Asia. This warm, moisture-laden air blanckets Kyushu and over-spreads Shikoku and Honshu during June and July. The resulting late spring rains, or baiu, then give way to a drier summer that is sufficiently hot  and muggy, despite the island chain’s northerly latitude, to allow widespread rice cultivation.









Fall
Summer heat is followed by the highly unpredictable autumn rains, shuu, which accompany typhoons. These cyclonic storms originate over the western Pacific and travel in great clockwise arcs, initially heading west toward the Philippines and southern China, curving northward later in the season, and finally tracking eastward. The first typhoons to reach Japan generally hit the Ryukyus and souther Kyushu, later ones working their way  eastward across Shikoku and Honshu as autumn advances , until by November they usually wheel harmlessly  across the sea southeast of the archipelago. This eastward shift of the cyclonic storm paths is caused by the return of cold weather, which revitalizes the Siberian air mass, enabling it to push out oceanic  air, re-establish its dominant winter position over Japan, and usher in a new annual weather cycle.







Winter

During the winter, heavy masses of cold winds swim across the Sea of Japan from the northwest, picking up moisture that they deposit after several feet of snow on the western side of Honshu’s mountain rangers. As the cold air drops its burden of noisture, it flows over  high ridges and down eastern slopes to bring cold, relatively dry weather to inter-montane valleys and coastal plains and cities.





Video: Japan's Four Seasons Youtube Video

Environmental Issues 

Waste management

Japan has of recent taken a much more proactive approach to waste management. In particular, Japanese city and prefectural authorities have focused on the reduction of solid waste going into landfills. This of course is in response to the lack of affordable space available for landfill sites. Their approach relies heavily on four major factors: 1) technological advancements in incineration, 2) technological advancements in plastics recycling, 3) Comprehensive production-side recycle stream package labelling, and 4) wide consumer-side/household participation in recycling and waste material separation, called "Bunbetsu" in Japanese.




Nuclear power

Japan maintains one third of its electric production from nuclear power plants. While a majority of Japanese citizens generally supported the use of existing nuclear reactors, since the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Dai Ichi power plant on March 11, 2011, this support seems to have shifted to a majority wanting Japan to phase out nuclear power. Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan was the first leading politician to openly voice his opposition to Japan's dependence upon nuclear energy and suggested a fazing out of nuclear energy sources towards other sources of renewable energy. Objections against the plan to construct further plants has grown as well since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami which triggered the nuclear melt down of three reactors at the Fukushima dai ichi plant in Eastern Japan.
The treatment of radioactive wastes also became a subject of discussion in Japan. New spent-nuclear-fuel reprocessing plant was constructed in Rokkasho in 2008, the site of the underground nuclear-waste repository for the HLW and LLW has not yet been decided. Some local cities announced a plan to conduct an environmental study at the disposal site, but citizens' groups oppose strongly against the plan.