Notes 11/04 Class 09: Japan and the

1
Notes 11/04Class 09 Japan and the Four
Tigers GEO105 World Regional Geography

• Michael T. Wheeler
• Syracuse University, Geography

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Japan and the Four Tigers
Lecture slide 02

• Last week China
• Cultural center of East Asia
• This week
• Japan
• From 1600-1850, secluded from the world
• From 1868-1905, rapidly westernized and joined
  the ranks of the Great Powers
• After World War I mimicked European countries in
  developing own empire
• World War II
• Deeper and deeper involvement in China
• Pearl Harbor
• Massive expansion across the Pacific
• Firebombings and atomic bombs (Hiroshima,
  Nagasaki)
• Post-World War II
• Economic Miracle
• Emulation (the Four Tigers)
• South Korea (former Japanese colony)
• Taiwan (former Japanese colony)
• Hong Kong (former British colony)
• Singapore (former British colony)

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Japans Physical Geography
Lecture slide 03

• Japan
• Like England
• Island (archipelago) off of a large continent
• Seafaring and fishing
• Few natural resources
• Four Tigers
• In critical shipping locations
• South China Sea (HK, Taiwan)
• Straits of Malacca (Sing)
• Infrastructure
• Japanese empire
• British empire
• Skilled workforce
• Few natural resources
• Importance of North Pacific Ocean

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Global Tectonics

• Lecture slide 04

2.5 Major tectonic plates (p. 39)
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Northern Pacific Tectonics

• Lecture slide 05

A
B
6
North Pacific Bathymetry

• Lecture slide 06

7
Pacific Ocean Currents

• Lecture slide 07

8
Natural Disasters

• Lecture slide 08

• Volcanoes
• Sakurajima
• Mount Fuji
• Earthquakes
• 1995 Kobe (Richter 6.9)
• 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake (7.9)
• 1906 San Francisco (8.25)
• Two weeks ago, Niigata (6.8)
• Hot Springs (onsen)

9
Chinese Cultural Influence

• Lecture slide 09

10
Syncretic Buddhism

• Lecture slide 10

11
Japanese Pirates, 15th and 16th Centuries

• Lecture slide 11

12
Japanese Feudalism Closed Country

• Lecture slide 12

13
Edo Period Tokugawa Shogun

• Lecture slide 13

14
Commodore Perrys Black Ships, 1853

• Lecture slide 14

15
Bonin (Civil) War

• Lecture slide 15

16
Meiji Restoration, 1868

• Lecture slide 16

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Cultural Transfer
Lecture slide 17

• Two great cultural transfer in Japanese History
• 6th-7th Century from the Chinese
• Rice cultivation, Buddhism, kanji (Chinese
  characters)
• Meiji Restoration from the West
• Modern Western technology
• Confidence to do this because there is a unique
  Japanese essence (wa)
• Technologies
• Great Britain
• Navy
• Political organization
• Industrial economy (Companies, railroads,
  steamships)
• Prussia / Germany
• Army
• France
• Education
• United States
• Agriculture (red barns in Hokkaido)
• Terms of trade
• Export silk to get hard currency

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Break

• Lecture slide 18

9.15 Population density, Japan Korea (p. 414)
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European-style Empire

• Lecture slide 19

• Empire
• 1874 Okinawa
• 1875 Invasion of Korea
• 1894-5 Sino-Japanese War
• Taiwan
• 1898 Occupied Tsingtao
• 1904-5 Russo-Japanese War
• Korea
• Sakhalin
• World War I (Re)Occupied German colonies
  (Tsingtao)
• 1920s Occupied Eastern Siberia
• 1931 Invaded Manchuria (Manchukuo)

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World War II China

• Lecture slide 20

21
World War II United States Britain

• Lecture slide 21

22
World War II Japan Destroyed

• Lecture slide 22

23
Postwar Economic Miracle

• Lecture slide 23

• Foreign Policy
• Close ties to the United States (Asian bilateral
  relationships)
• Financial stimulus from the Korean War
• Economy
• Catch up to the West
• Ministry of International Trade and Industry
  (now, Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry)
• Select key industries
• Automobiles
• Steel
• Consumer electronics
• Aerospace
• Politics
• Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
• Majority in Diet and Prime Minister, 1955-present
  (except 1993-6)
• Strong support of rural districts vs. the big
  cities
• Johnson, Chalmers. MITI and the Japanese miracle
  the growth of industrial policy, 1925-1975.
  Stanford University Press, 1982.

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Japanese Economic Model

• Lecture slide 24

• Export-driven growth
• Limited Imports
• Trade restrictions?
• Or, language / cultural?
• Large current-account surplus with the United
  States
• State-managed investment
• Japan, Inc.
• Very high degree of urbanization
• Depopulated countryside
• Poor at entrepreneurial, innovation
• 5th Generation (Computer) Language Project

9.13 Japanese manufacturing growth (p. 410)
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Japan Overview

• Lecture slide 25

• Megalopolis
• U.S. Boston Washington (D.C.)
• Japan Greater Tokyo Greater Osaka
• Japanese Core
• 28m in Greater Tokyo
• 20m in Greater Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto
• 75m people
• Depopulated countryside
• Japanese topography
• Mountainous shipping
• Japan Sea side
• Much fewer people
• Lots of snow

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Pacific Corridor

• Lecture slide 26

27
Most-Rapidly Aging Society in the World

• Lecture slide 27

• Longest life-expectancy in the world
• 122m people
• Huge costs for health care and pensions

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Four Asian Tigers
Lecture slide 28

• South Korea
• Emerged from Korean War (1950-3)
• Disciplined, well-educated, low-wage workforce
• 1987, democratic elections
• Today, 12th largest exporter and GNP in the world
• 48m people
• Hong Kong
• One million people left during World War II
• After war, refugee entrepreneurs from mainland
  China, especially Shanghai
• British government, Chinese entrepreneurship and
  labor
• Per-capita GDP passed United Kingdoms in 1994
• 6.1 million person city-state
• Taiwan
• Nationalist / Kuomintang (losing side in Chinese
  Civil War) government
• 1987, relaxed martial law, started becoming
  democratic
• 2000, worlds 14th-largest exporter (country of
  22m)
• Singapore
• City-state of 4m people, dominated by ethnic
  Chinese (77)
• Very controlled society

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China (Peoples Republic)
Lecture slide 29

• Deng Xiaopings Reforms (1979-)
• Adopted policies of Tigers
• 1/5 of worlds population, GDP now 13 of world
  output (at purchasing-power parity)
• By the end of 2004, will probably be the worlds
  3rd largest exporter (after U.S. and Germany)
• Largest recipient of Foreign Direct Investment
  (FDI)
• Produces 2/3 of worlds photocopiers, microwave
  ovens, DVD players, and shoes
• Over ½ of all digital cameras and 2/5 of personal
  computers
• Almost all toys
• World economys emerging giants
• India, Brazil, Russia
• China has bigger GDP than the other 3 combined

• China vs. India
• India
• More developed institutions, less corruption,
  established rule of law, protection of property
• Over the past 20 years, average real GDP growth
  of 5.7
• China
• Adult illiteracy rate of 9 (India 39)
• Personal savings rate 48 (India 24)
• Over the past 20 years, average real GDP growth
  of 9.5

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Asian Economic Model(s)
Lecture slide 30

• NIEs Newly Industrializing Economies
• Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan
• ASEAN-4 (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
• Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand

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Review
Lecture slide 31

• Physical Geography
• One of the most volatile tectonic regions in the
  world
• Frequent, large earthquakes and numerous
  volcanoes
• Climate very dependent on Northern Pacific Ocean
• Currents, typhoons
• History
• Two big cultural transfers
• From China in 6th -7th Centuries
• From West during Meiji Restoration
• Only non-Western nation to join the ranks of the
  Great Powers during the Age of Industrial
  Imperialism
• Militarism part of Japanese growth and expansion
• Only country that has been the victim of nuclear
  attack
• Hiroshima (August 6, 1945)
• Nagasaki (August 9)
• Asian Economic Miracle(s)
• Foreign Policy
• Bilateral treaties with the United States
• Greater Asian distrust of Japanese after World
  War II
• Politically conservative

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Next Week
Lecture slide 32

• For this week
• Reading
• Chapter 10 444-465, 470-2 'Ethnicity, Language,
  and Cultural Traditions,' 475-476 'Political
  Instability and Cooperation,' 478-9 'Opium'
• Review
• p. 489
• Testing Your Understanding 7
• Thinking Geographically 2
• Map Workbook
• p. 75 (use map Figure 10.3 on page 77). Mapping
  Exercise 1 Mapping the Overseas Chinese
  Population," Human-Environmental Geographies,"
  Questions 1-5. (You can ignore question 6).
• Web Page
• classes.maxwell.syr.edu/geo105_f04/class_notes/10-
  Review.htm