Tag Archives: Study in Japan

(Nippon). State of East Asia (372,824 km²). Capital: Tōkyō. Administrative division: prefectures (ken) (47). Population: 127.931.339 residents (2008 estimate). Language: Japanese. Religion: Shintoists and Buddhists 90.8%, Christians 1.2%, others 8%. Monetary unit: yen (100 sen). Human Development Index: 0.956 (8th place). Borders: East China Sea (SW), Sea of ​​Japan (W), Pacific Ocean (E). Member of: APEC, EBRD, OCDE, UN, Council of Europe and WTO observer. According to COUNTRYAAH, Japan is a nation in Eastern Asia, the capital city of which is Tokyo. The latest population of Japan is 126,476,472. ACEINLAND: Lists and descriptions of main religions and beliefs in Japan, including religion demographics and statistics on Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc.
CLIMATE
Due to its remarkable latitudinal development and the variety of influences, Japan has a very varied climate from one side to the other, despite its maritime nature. Seasonal changes in the climate are also sensitive and a tropical or subtropical summer that invests almost the entire islands results in a cold and rainy winter that is felt even in the southeastern part, the most tropical of the archipelago. The mechanism of the influences is rather complex, being connected to the movements of the following air masses: the polar sea air masses (known as the Sea of ​​Okhotsk), the Siberian continental air masses and, on the opposite side, the masses of tropical maritime air (masses of Bonin), the equatorial masses and the continental tropical masses (of the Yangtze Kiang). Winter is mostly subject, throughout the northern section, to air masses of Siberian origin, which bring cold NW winds. Above the Sea of ​​Japan these winds absorb a lot of moisture which they discharge on the western hills of Honshū, where there is significant winter precipitation, often snowy. The influence of the Siberian anticyclone is followed, in late spring, by the establishment of the polar sea anticyclone, that is, the air masses of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, humid and cold; colliding with the air masses of Bonin, tropical maritime, they form a depression front, called Bai u, responsible for the abundant summer rainfall that is discharged mainly on southwestern Japan. In general, the Japanese summer is humid and cloudy, although not necessarily very rainy everywhere; the season ends in September with the arrival of typhoons, which go up the coasts of East Asia, determined by the collision of humid equatorial air with cold continental air. They bring abundant rainfall along the southern coasts of the archipelago and are often violent and ruinous. Autumn and spring are configured as the calmest and sweetest seasons of the Japanese climate, whose contrasts are indicated by the summer and winter temperatures of some places. In the coldest month (January) the lowest temperatures are recorded in Hokkaidō (in Sapporo -4 ºC); in Tōkyō, which is however close to the sea, they are 4-5 ºC. In Kagoshima, that is in southwestern Japan, in the middle of the tropical area, they are 6 ºC, a very low value in relation to latitude. Summer records everywhere high values: in the hottest month (August) there are 26-27 ºC in Kagoshima, 25-26 ºC in Tōkyō and 20-21 ºC in Sapporo. Also with regard to rainfall (over 1200 mm per year in most of Japan) there are notable contrasts. The wettest areas are the internal side of Honshū, where there is over 2000 mm of precipitation per year (largely snowy) and the external slope of Kyūshū and Shikoku, where over 2000 mm of annual rainfall is also recorded. Precipitation decreases northward along the Pacific coast. Thus in Tōkyō there is an average of 1500 mm per year, which are still lower in Hokkaidō (in Sapporo even less than 1000 mm). In the climatic context of Japan, the marine currents that lap the archipelago have a not insignificant influence: the warm one Curoscivo, which has a humidifying and moderately tempering action in the southern coastal areas, and the cold Ogascivo, which exerts an influence especially in Hokkaidō. When the currents meet, the conditions suitable for the reproduction of plankton are formed, which explains the exceptional abundance of fish in certain stretches of the Japanese sea.