Regional Geography
The Monsoon Lands : China and Japan
Japan i, General Survey A. B. LOWNDES, B.Com.
Talks this term have been devoted to monsoon lands. The first six were given on China; today, Mr. A. B. Lowndes is to give the first of four talks on Japan. He will tell listeners why monsoons there are less marked than in China and will make a general survey of the country. Most of the cities and railways of Japan lie along the coast.
Here the Japanese live and work, ever growing in numbers; yet a few miles outside the cities one could imagine oneself back in the feudal age among hills and valleys, where there is little enough fertile land to feed the town-dwellers...
He will discuss Japan's good natural harbours, the difficulties of railway and road construction, earthquakes, the family system, agriculture, and fisheries, industrialisation and colonisation.
Mr Lowndes, who is Head of the Senior Commercial School at the Chiswick Polytechnic, lived for ten years in Japan, where he held lectureships in commerce at Government commercial colleges. He was honoured with official court rank, and was one of the invited guests at the funeral service of the late Emperor at Tokio.