Ura-Nihon and Omote-Nihon

Map of Japan with Ura-Nihon in red, the Pacific city band in green.

As Ura-Nihon ( Jap. 裏日本 ), the "backside of Japan" or "Behind Japan" is called in Japan the economically and demographically disadvantaged in the modern age by geography and climate coast on the Sea of Japan 's main island Honshu . The opposite term Omote-Nihon ( 表 日本 ), ie the "front of Japan" or "front Japan", describes the coast on the Pacific and Seto Inland Sea , on which the Pacific city band - especially in the " Tōkaidō - megalopolis " Tokyo - Nagoya - Osaka - Concentrate population, economic power and infrastructure and where the country's cultural and political centers are located.

Since the Japanese economic miracle in the 1960s, politicians have regularly tried to prevent excessive concentration in the metropolitan areas of the "Front of Japan" by creating new industrial centers. A largely failed development plan by Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei was followed in the 1980s by the Technopolis concept, which, with a more cautious approach, achieved relatively good results in the establishment of new industrial locations, but was unable to slow the growth of metropolitan areas.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Manfred Pohl : Japan , CH Beck, 1992, p. 19 f.