Book Reviews: Atlas of Japan: Physical, Economic and Social

Summary

This review presents an evaluation of the second, updated edition of *Atlas of Japan: Physical, Economic and Social*, edited by Akira Ebato and Kazuo Watanabe. The atlas is assessed as an excellent and visually appealing cartographic reference work. It comprises 64 maps organized into thematic groups covering physical geography, demography and urban patterns, agriculture and fisheries, mining and power, manufacturing industries, and diverse socio-economic topics such as trade, media, income, and transportation. The review highlights the atlas’s effective use of clear statistical tables, graphs, and a striking color scheme to illustrate population density and economic flows, noting that several maps achieve a rare combination of cartographic precision and artistic presentation. A concise multilingual supplement provides brief, up-to-date explanatory essays for each map, serving as a basic primer on modern Japanese geography. The review concludes that the atlas offers a broad, well-organized overview of Japan’s modernization and constitutes a valuable, handsome reference work for any library. Robert Hall, *University of Rochester*