Aimi Nakazawa

GEOG 100
Intra-Regional Comparison Paper
October 31, 2014
Intra-Regional Comparison Paper
I would like to compare Japan and China. The reason why I chose these
countries are that, first I came from Japan and I know very well about Japan, so I
thought it is good choice to choose Japan, then after learning about East Asian countries,
I had impression that China is in the same region as Japan, but Chinese politics, climate,
population, ethnic groups, and languages. So, I think it is interesting to compare Japan
and China.
First, I would like to explain about politics. In Japan there is a prime minister
and the cabinet is appointed by the prime minister. The constitution requires that the
prime minister commands parliamentary majority; following legislative elections, the
leader of majority party or leader of majority coalition in House of Representatives
(The World Factbook). Japanese members of an assembly are elected by voting. Japan
adopt the system that the decision by majority. On the other hand China has a president,
and the state Council appointed by National People's Congress and the president and
vice president elected by National People's Congress for a five-year term (eligible for a
second term) (The World Factbook). Also Japan has no military. Japan has a Japanese
Ministry of Defense.(The World Factbook). Japan cannot fight with any countries

before other countries attack Japan. However, China has a Peoples Liberation Army.
There are Ground Force, Navy, and Air Force. Then there is also the Second Artillery
Corps. The difference between Japan and China about politics is that the existence of a
prime minister in Japan and a president in China. Moreover, the military system is
different between these two countries.
The second difference between Japan and China is about climate. In Japan,
there are four seasons in a year and most region has a same climate situation, except
Okinawa and Hokkaido. The great part of Japanese weather is a temperate humid
climate. Okinawa is a tropical weather and Hokkaidos temperature is colder than the
other regions because of the place which Hokkaido is. Hokkaido is near Russia. So, the
weather is little similar to the part of Russia. However, China has a many types of
weather situation, and the weather of northern part and the southern part is extremely
different. The interior of China is very dry and desertous, while the extreme elevation
of the Tibetan Plateau gives it a cold, tundra-like climate Northern Mongolia and
parts of northeastern China have very cold, dry, continental climates, much like Siberia
to the north (class slide). China is very big, so there are great amount of variation of
weather. However, Japan is small and there are only similar weather conditions.
Next, I would like to talk about population. There is a big difference between

Japan and China. Japan has a problem about population. The average life expectancy in
Japan is really high in the world, so there are a lot of old people, but many young people
do not get married and have children, so Japanese population is getting lower and lower.
Many Japanese people think they do not want to get married because for women, many
women has more chance to active in society, and they want to keep their job, so they
avoid getting married. Also for men, the same reason can be applied. In addition, the
cost of living in Japan is really expensive, and there are not so many sufficient system to
support children and parents in terms of money and economic supports. However,
Chinese population has become more and more. There are problem about population
which reason is opposite from that of Japan. Chinese population is getting more and
more, so government made a rule that one family can only have one child. It is called a
one-child policy. Japanese total population is 127 million (class slide). Chinese total
population is 1.355 billion (The World Factbook). Chinese population is far larger than
that of Japanese. This is the difference between Japan and China.
Then I would like to explain about each countrys ethnic groups. Japanese
ethnicity is almost homogenous and 98.5% of the Japanese population is Japanese
(class slide). Japan has a small amount of another ethic group which is called Ainu.
This group of people are only between 25000 and 200000 in Japan. These groups are

considered to be the original inhabitants of the Japanese island (class slide). On the
other hand, there are plenty of ethnic groups in China. The largest ethnicity in China is
Han Chinese, which make up 91.5% of the population. However, there are 112 million
non-Han Chinese (class slide). Other groups are Zhuang 1.3%, other (includes Hui,
Manchu, Uighur, Miao, Yi, Tujia, Tibetan, Mongol, Dong, Buyei, Yao, Bai, Korean,
Hani, Li, Kazakh, Dai and other nationalities) 7.1%. There are 56 ethnic groups in
China (The World Factbook).
Next is about languages. Japanese has Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana.
Hiragana is the simple symbol and people learn Hiragana first. Japanese people use all
these types of written languages.

Japanese people not only write or read from left to

right, but also Japanese can be written top to bottom. Chinese people also use Kanji, but
they do not use Hiragana or Katakana. People who is from other countries tend to think
these Kanji is the same as that of Japan, actually, some Kanji is similar, but most times,
the meanings are different and types of Kanji is really different.
In conclusion, I think the differences between Japan and China are stronger
than the commonalities that place them within the same region because almost
everything, for example, politics, climate, population, ethnic groups, and languages, are
apparently different. If compared Japan and Korea, or Taiwan, these countries has many

common things. These countries economically developed similarly, and the types of
ethnicity or political system are also similar. So, I think Japan and China has the greatest
difference compare to other countries.