The Climate of Japan

Japan’s yearly weather cycle has played a key role in shaping its civilization. (A) It has assured the islands ample precipitation, ranging irregularly from more than 200 centimeters annually in parts of the southwest to about 100 in the northeast and averaging 180 for the country as a whole. (B) The moisture enables the islands to support uncommonly lush forest cover, but the combination of precipitous slopes and heavy rainfall also gives the islands one of the world’s highest rates of natural erosion, intensified by both human activity and the natural shocks of earthquakes and volcanism. (C) These factors have given Japan its wealth of sedimentary basins, but they have also made mountainsides extremely [#highlight3]susceptible[/highlight3] to erosion and landslides and hence generally unsuitable for agricultural manipulation.

(D)The island chain’s mountainous backbone and great length from north to south produce climatic diversity that has contributed to regional differences. Generally sunny winters along the Pacific seaboard have made habitation there relatively pleasant. Along the Sea or Japan, on the other hand, cold, snowy winters have discouraged settlement. Furthermore, although annual precipitation is high in that region, much of it comes as snow and rushes to the sea as spring runoff, leaving little moisture for farming.