JAPANESE

Japan has a population of about 126 million (the eighth largest in the world), 75% of whom live in urban areas where population density is very high. In the industrial areas of Kansai and Kanto there is no discernible gap between cities. Yokohama and Tokyo, although separate in name, really make up a single urban conurbation - the largest in the world.

Much of Japan however is very sparsely populated; there are large national parks and vast mountainous regions where the people's way of life is unrecognisable from urban Japan. Indeed, in order to protect Japan's rice crops from cheaper foreign imports, rural lives are government protected, although for how long no one can be sure.

Be it in the sparsely populated countryside or in the large cities, Japan is still a country of remarkable ethnic and cultural homogeneity. Inhabitants of non-Japanese origin make up only just over 1% of the overall population. The vast majority of these are Koreans.

Of course, the ancestry of the Japanese is a matter of much debate. The indigenous population of Hokkaido originally included a variety of ethnic groups, now collectively known as the Ainu. Many place names in Japan can be traced back to the Ainu language.

One striking thing about Japan is that amongst the young there is a whiff of rebellion in the air. Their parents were brought up with the promise of a job for life and worked day and night as the post-war bubble grew seemingly inexorably bigger. However, for the younger generation the bubble burst in the 80s crash and the old certainties no longer hold true. Add to this concoction, kids who have until now been denied nothing, who see no need to work the inflexible and long hours their parents did and the spectre of rising unemployment and it is clear why dissatisfaction is growing.

Symbolic of this is perhaps the furita, the twenty-something taking on a number of part time jobs and then going to Bali to escape for a month or two of surfing.

Change is a slow process in Japan, a cultural reality not helped by the fact that politics are stagnant and the ruling LDP coalition has been in power for nearly all the post-war years. Economic problems and general dissatisfaction with the Japanese work miracle has meant an increase in crime. Having said all this, Japan is still a very wealthy and relatively extremely safe country.