Atlas of Japan: Physical, Economic and Social
Japan · International Society for Educational Information · 1974
Related Reviews & Articles
Rezensionen: The national atlas of Japan
Albrecht, W. · 1982
This paper delivers a thorough critical assessment of the first National Atlas of Japan (1977, English edition), supplemented by concise reviews of two other notable geographical publications. The National Atlas of Japan is presented as a national undertaking designed for practical application in economic and informational spheres, serving as both a knowledge repository for foreign specialists and a cartographic benchmark. The reviewer examines the atlas’s conceptual basis, thematic structure, and cartographic methods, including the government‑specified kunrei‑siki transcription system, which alters familiar Hepburn romanizations and complicates identification. The thematic content—ranging from physical geography and climate to population, industry, infrastructure, and culture—is generally well selected and cartographically sound. However, practical shortcomings are noted: the exclusive use of prefectural administrative units limits analytical depth for economic practice; temporal inconsistencies in data across thematic sections restrict comparability; and certain thematic areas, such as commuter flows and industrial location by production value, are absent. Positive highlights include the treatment of natural disasters, recreation facilities, and the extensive small‑scale cartograms and diagrams that supplement the main maps. Despite space‑wasting text pages and occasional gaps in basic data, the atlas is deemed a successful, content‑rich work that surpasses earlier Japanese atlases and significantly enriches the geographical information base. The paper also briefly reviews a geobotanical mapping volume detailing a vegetation classification of the European USSR and Transcaucasia, and an international maps and atlases bibliography cataloguing 15,000 contemporary titles, noting issues with missing publication years and the work’s practical reference value.
Book Reviews: Atlas of Japan: Physical, Economic and Social
Hall, Robert · 1977
This review presents an evaluation of the second, updated edition of *Atlas of Japan: Physical, Economic and Social*, edited by Akira Ebato and Kazuo Watanabe. The atlas is assessed as an excellent and visually appealing cartographic reference work. It comprises 64 maps organized into thematic groups covering physical geography, demography and urban patterns, agriculture and fisheries, mining and power, manufacturing industries, and diverse socio-economic topics such as trade, media, income, and transportation. The review highlights the atlas’s effective use of clear statistical tables, graphs, and a striking color scheme to illustrate population density and economic flows, noting that several maps achieve a rare combination of cartographic precision and artistic presentation. A concise multilingual supplement provides brief, up-to-date explanatory essays for each map, serving as a basic primer on modern Japanese geography. The review concludes that the atlas offers a broad, well-organized overview of Japan’s modernization and constitutes a valuable, handsome reference work for any library. Robert Hall, *University of Rochester*
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