On: Japan Shows the Way to Affordable Megacities (2014)

[barking]

Sorry for being a bit OT but you may remember last year a boy was missing for several days in a remote forest region of Japan. I found that surprising, my prejudice of Japan had been that it was very heavily populated and urbanised but when I looked it up I discovered that it is an incredibly forested country with 70% of the country this way. Practically twice that of the USA.

[ghaff → barking]

>Practically twice that of the USA.

That's a bit deceptive though because the US has huge tracts of wilderness land that aren't forested; they're deserts, tundra, plains, etc.

[barking → ghaff]

That is true but even so it was the complete opposite of what I would have expected given Japan's large population and relatively small size.

[mc32 → barking]

Their problem is arable land. It's mostly mountainous and practically inaccessible. They don't have munch in the way of large plains.

[barking → mc32]

But it's great for them to have such wildernesses. Western Europe is bereft by comparison and we've even cut down the trees on our mountains and put sheep and deer there to prevent them coming back.