Japan needs a thread too

[Josquius]

Not news, but I stumbled on this site and had a mapgasm.

http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/chiri/map/c_koku/2010.htm

In particular this one stood out to me as being of interest:

http://www.stat.go.jp/data/chiri/map/c_koku/mitsudo/pdf/2010.pdf

Its a shame it lacks labels, it would be nice to see what various spots are (on others too...). But it really shows you just how rural most of Japan is.
The East Asian definition of city is dumb.

[LaCroix]

http://www.stat.go.jp/data/chiri/map/c_koku/mitsudo/pdf/2010.pdf
But it really shows you just how rural most of Japan is.
The East Asian definition of city is dumb.

uhhhhhhhh

[MadImmortalMan]

Tyr--How exactly do you define rural, brother?

That looks like a person driving through rural Japan would never have to calculate how far to the next gas station to me.

[jimmy olsen]

Most of the blue areas are mountains.

[Josquius]

Whats the issue? There's loads of blue there.

I posted because usually think of Japan and they think of it being a super crowded place, a nation of Tokyo.When acutally its one of the more rural developed countries. I can't find the actual numbers anywhere but I recall only a few obvious places like Finland being more rural.

I was thinking of adding to my last post  that it would be nicer if they would use old municipality borders. Or even if they could somehow use grid squares. Most of these municipalities have quite a dark coloured centre but are surrounded by mountains. A pink dot in a sea of blue.

[Eddie Teach]

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0934666.html

People think Japan is crowded because it is crowded. Greater population density than the UK(and 10x that of the US).

[Josquius]

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0934666.html

People think Japan is crowded because it is crowded. Greater population density than the UK(and 10x that of the US).

That's the country taken as a whole. Tokyo is really freaking crowded. National population density doesn't mean too much with anything other than the smallest of countries

[MadImmortalMan]

True but the lowest category even shown there is "<50". Many NA maps will typically have "1-5" and "5-10" gradients. Look up Wyoming's pop density. Or Canada. It doesn't even matter which province. 

There are literally three places to get gas between Reno and Salt Lake. That's an 8 hour drive. Two of those places close at sunset, and only one of them has diesel.

[Josquius]

Well yes, of course it doesn't compare to the US, Canada or Australia or the like, they go beyond being rural and into the land of being empty :p - the other day I saw a rather cool map of the US that highlited census districts with no inhabitants, it was rather bright.
Compared to much of Europe though Japan is very rural.
It has plenty of places with well under 50 per square km, I don't know if there's anywhere as low as 5 though.

[grumbler]

The map shows that Japan is mountainous, that's all.  I don't think anyone finds that revelation shocking.

Japan has about 14% of its land in urban areas, compared to 8% for England and Wales, 28% of Germany, 13% for France, 9% for Spain, and 20% for Italy.
See http://www.demographia.com/db-intlualand.htm

Seems like Japan would fit into the middle range for Europe.

[PDH]

I'll just order pocky and beat off to those schoolgirls as Aircraft carriers pictures.

That will give you the Lettow experience of Japan.

I'll wear my Col Sanders suit while doing so then. 

The string tie is what makes the ensemble.

[Ed Anger]

I'll just order pocky and beat off to those schoolgirls as Aircraft carriers pictures.

That will give you the Lettow experience of Japan.

I'll wear my Col Sanders suit while doing so then. 

The string tie is what makes the ensemble.

The Asians love the fried chicken.

[Iormlund]

That looks like a person driving through rural Japan would never have to calculate how far to the next gas station to me.

That's probably true of any place in Europe and we're not just a giant megacity.

[Josquius]

The map shows that Japan is mountainous, that's all.  I don't think anyone finds that revelation shocking.

Japan has about 14% of its land in urban areas, compared to 8% for England and Wales, 28% of Germany, 13% for France, 9% for Spain, and 20% for Italy.
See http://www.demographia.com/db-intlualand.htm

Seems like Japan would fit into the middle range for Europe.

Hmm, something is messed up in these numbers.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/japan/rural-population-percent-of-total-population-wb-data.html

The earlier ones fit with all I've heard and what I've observed, but no way there  was such an actual change in 2011
I can only guess it's down to the looking at the last census counting people living in a "city" as urban and huge numbers of villages uniting into cities in name only in the mid 00s.

30%ish puts it towards the top of the range compared to Europe

[Josquius]

For some interesting light news, Japanese drivers suck, but...

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/04/21/japanese-driver-fails-to-stop-at-a-yellow-light-turns-herself-in-to-the-police/

Japan is one of the safest countries in the world, so it is no surprise to hear that the majority of the Japanese population are law-abiding citizens. How law-abiding are the Japanese? We could pull up some statistics and numbers for you, but we believe that you internet-savvy Rocketeers are more than capable of finding such information online. Here's a little incident that may be slightly unusual, but just goes to show how serious some Japanese are when it comes to keeping the law.

A driver in Oita Prefecture surrendered herself to the police because she beat the yellow (or amber, if you live in the UK) light at a traffic junction. It wasn't even a red light. More details after the break!


Traffic regulations may differ slightly from country to country, but the general understanding that green means "go", red means "stop", applies more or less everywhere. In places where the yellow (or amber) light is used, it usually signifies that the traffic light will soon turn red and drivers should slow down and stop at the intersection if you think you can't make it across in time.

Recently, a woman thought to be in her forties to fifties approached the Oita Prefectural Police at their Chuo Branch, saying, "I have regrettably violated the traffic regulations so please issue me a ticket." The station staff were baffled by her request since they had never met a driver who turned themselves in requesting for a traffic ticket.

After questioning her for details, it turned out that the woman had been on the road and as she was driving across a traffic intersection, she looked up at the traffic light and realized that it had just turned yellow, but she proceeded to drive straight past it. Feeling guilty for not stepping on the brakes then, she immediately turned herself in to the police thinking that she had broken the law. The staff explained that "as long as you entered the intersection while the traffic light was still green, it's not an offence".



The police commented that, "if only everyone could drive with such caution, there would be no accidents." However, some netizens had different views on the matter:

"Having a high level of awareness is great, but it would had been more dangerous if she had abruptly braked there. Don't beautify the incident."
"She's too serious."
"She's so strict with herself, I'm more concerned if she's psychologically sound."
"Even if what she beat was a red light, if there wasn't photographic evidence they wouldn't be able to penalize her."
"I wouldn't want to drive behind her...Then again, there are so many drivers in Tokyo who stop their cars anywhere and everywhere, and taxi drivers who accelerate at the yellow light, sometimes even driving straight through a red light, I wish they would learn from her attitude of following the regulations..."

While I think that the woman's honesty is certainly commendable, I don't have a driving license, so I wouldn't be in the best position to comment on who is in the right or wrong. What do you think, drivers? Enlighten us non-drivers on the right driving etiquette, just in case we might feel inspired to pick up driving someday!

I always run yellows