Jansenists, Pedagogy of the

GIANSENISTI, PEDAGOGIA dei: V. PORTOREALE.
GIAPPONE. - Il G. (dal cinese Jih pèn, localmente pronunciato Nippon, o Nihon) è costituito da

an archipelago of over 400 islands, located off the extreme eastern coasts of Asia and stretching from 30° (Togora Strait) to 46° N (La Pérouse Strait). These islands are arranged in an arc around the four major ones: Hondo, or Honshū (223,520 sq km, about the size of Great Britain), Yezo, or Hokkaidō (77,993 sq km, slightly less than Ireland), Kyūshū (35,657 sq km), and Shikoku (17,756).

I. GEOGRAPHY

The territory has a markedly mountainous and volcanic character: plains are few and mostly of modest dimensions. More than three-quarters of the country consist of short, elevated bands of medium height. The highest peaks correspond to recent volcanoes (Fujayama, 3776 m); out of 165 of these, 60 are active, and their lava flows alone cover 1/5 of the surface of Japan. Seismic activity is intense (on average more than one earthquake per day), with a sad frequency of catastrophes (also due to the concomitant action of tidal waves and eruptions). The coastal perimeter is more rugged and indented with ports than that of Greece. The meeting of the two marine currents of Kuroshio and Oyashio (the one warm, the other cold), off the eastern coast, makes the coastal regions extremely rich in fish. The climate is rather varied: at the same latitude, winters are colder and summers hotter than in Europe, as a consequence of the monsoon regime (cold continental winds in winter; warm marine winds in summer). On the whole, these are healthy, temperate or warm-humid subtropical climates. Rainfall is everywhere copious and distributed across all seasons, but the rivers, given the conditions of the terrain, are short and torrential in character. The land is covered with magnificent forests of conifers and broadleaved trees (in the higher zones) in the north and center, while in the south a luxuriant subtropical vegetation develops, with cedar and bamboo groves, and patches of evergreens.

The population of the archipelago, ethnically com-

compact (the Japanese are Mongoloids, and therefore of short stature, with oblique eyes, straight black hair, sparse beard, and a yellowish complexion, somewhat different, however, physically and spiritually, from the Chinese and even more so from the 17 thousand Ainu, of perhaps Europoid characteristics, who live in Yezo) has more than doubled in the last 80 years: from 30 million in 1868, the era when the country opened up to European influence, it went to 60 million in 1925, to 72 in 1940, and to 83 in 1950. The average annual increase was 17% between 1937 and 1940; its pace has returned to being equally very strong after the war. The very high average density (220 inhabitants per sq. km.) indicates strong demographic pressure, which is not aided by an adequate migratory movement (Japanese living abroad were, in 1935, less than one million). In 1937, 36% of the Japanese population lived in urban centers, of which 4 had more than 1 million, 30 more than 100 thousand, and 54 more than 50 thousand inhabitants.

The country's economy is centered on agriculture. Rice, which alone occupies half of the cultivated land, is the basis of the local diet. Among other crops (cereals, tobacco, sugar cane), those of soybeans and tea prevail. The scant importance of livestock farming is offset by sericulture, which has undergone enormous development throughout the country, and by fishing, which holds the world record for product quantity (3-4 million tons per year) and also feeds thriving industries (canning, fertilizers, fish meal and oils). Great is the benefit derived from the conspicuous forestry resources (timber, camphor, celluloid, essences).

Despite the inadequate availability of raw materials of mineral origin (except for copper, and, to a much lesser measure, for some metals, but not for iron), Japan had managed, before 1940, to create a formidable apparatus no less for the variety and capacity of its branches (especially textile, mechanical, chemical), than for the affordability of its products and the commercial organization designed to market them. On the other hand, modern large-scale industry has failed to suppress a craftsmanship that is equally active and highlighted by the exquisite artistic sense of production respectful of the best traditional forms. The war has roughly halved the capacity of industries and closed many prospects for them: an efficient recovery will also depend on the possibility of balancing the increased deficit in the trade balance.

Internal communications, rather than by the road (8,550 km) and rail network (24,400 km), are favored by

easy maritime transport. The Japanese merchant fleet, which before the war was the third largest in the world, is now reduced to a second-rate position (1.5 million tons).

As a consequence of the defeat suffered in World War II, Japan lost its entire colonial empire, which in 1941 made it a State of 690 thousand sq. km with 110 million inhabitants: Korea has become independent, the southern part of the island of Sakhalin and the Kurils have passed to the U.S.S.R., Formosa has returned to China, the mandated oceanic territories (Caroline, Mariana, Marshall) were taken into trusteeship by the U.S.A., and the Ryū-Kyū are still of uncertain destiny.

Data concerning the major islands are summarized in the following table:

According to the new constitution (1947), the Japanese State is a hereditary constitutional monarchy. The democratic government rests on an elective bicameral representation. Pending the peace treaty with the victorious powers, the United States military occupation continues.

2. Nara and Heian Epochs (710-1191). - The fall of the Sogas led to the Taikwa reform (648), which aimed to strengthen imperial authority and to create a political and social order of the type implemented in China by the T'angs. The reform entailed the creation of a capital (Nara), the appointment of governors in the eastern provinces, and the abolition of hereditary offices. The lands, declared state property, were given in usufruct to the peasants who, removed from the authority of the elders, became taxpayers to the State. During this period, as the government was engaged in the struggle against tribes not controlled by central authority (among them those of the Ainu, among the most ancient inhabitants of Japan of proto-Caucasian origin), relations with the continent weakened. This gave the Japanese time to assimilate and to "Japanize," so to speak, the imported elements