1. Population Density in Japan: Life in a Crowded City
How does a country meet the challenges created by a large and growing population?

3. Analyze the Image What do the bright areas represent?
What countries do you see in this image?
What country appears to be missing? Why?
What do you notice about Japan’s mountainous areas?
The lowland regions?
Why might settlement have occurred in this pattern?

4. Geoterms Arable Land Arithmetic Population Density
Land suitable for growing crops
Arithmetic Population Density
The population of a country divided by its total land area
Physiologic Population Density
The population of a country divided by its arable land area
Population Distribution
Where people live in a country, whether crowded together in cities or spread out across the countryside

5. Population Density Table
Australia
United States
Japan
Total Land Area (square miles)
2,941,283
3,537,418
144,689
Population
21,263,000
307,212,000
127,080,000
Arithmetic Population Density (people per square mile) 7 87
878
Percentage of Arable Land
6.15%
18.01%
11.64%
Arable Land Area (square miles)
180,889
637,089
16,842
Physiologic Population Density (people per square mile)
118
482
7,545

8. Notes How does Japan’s high population density affect transportation?
The average employee in Tokyo commutes (travels) 90 minutes to work
No car can be registered in Tokyo without proof that the owner has a place to park it.
Crowded rush hours led to the creation of an efficient public transportation system with some of the fastest trains in the world.
Parking garages stack cars on top of one another to use less space

9. Notes cont… How does Japan’s high population density affect housing?
The average home in Japan is smaller than the average home in the United States
Many Japanese homes do not have separate bedrooms
People use rooms for more than one purpose
They make things smaller to fit in small spaces
They cremate the dead to save space in cemeteries.

10. Notes cont…
How does Japan’s high population density affect the ways land is used in Japan?
The Japanese have always built very tall buildings because of limited land. They also make them earthquake resistant.
The Japanese grow rice on terraces cut into steep mountainsides.
They build underground public spaces, such as shopping malls and museums.

11. Notes cont…
How does Japan’s high population density affect the environment and people’s heath?
Some Japanese wear face masks to avoid making other ill
People recycle a lot in Japan to reduce the amount of garbage in dumps