After reading about all this crazy awesome biodiversity I just have one question: where is it? I have visited a few parks and other places to enjoy nature, but I haven't really seen any of these endemic species I wrote about earlier. So I decided to some digging to find out where all this teeming biodiversity is hiding.
Long story short, I haven't seen much of it because the majority of it is being pushed to fringe areas or disappearing due to a multitude of reasons; urban development and the introduction of invasive species being a few examples. In order to compete with "the West" after WW2, the Japanese government supported logging practices and industries that abused the environment and stripped the natural landscape. Although this happened decades ago, these actions have clearly affected country's environment of today. Most of the urban landscape of today, was previously farmland or old growth forest. Japan's biodiversity index system (found here) lists over 1000 endangered vascular plant species and about 260 endangered animals.That means about a fifth of the 5600 plants in Japan are disappearing along with a third of its animals.
Importing non-native species hasn't helped environmental issues either. In general, island ecosystems, are particularly vulnerable to invasive species due to their lack of exposure to aggressive competitors. Japan like many other island nations, suffer from invasive species that have no natural predators and out compete the local species. An interesting example is the case of the American raccoon (Procyon lotor). As the story goes, these fuzzy guys were imported to the country by popular demand because of a popular TV show during the 70's. Because they have no natural predators and are scavengers by nature, their population has exploded and they have been reported to cause trouble; not only by out competing the native species Tanuki ( Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus), but by eating crops and farm animals, threatening fox and birds' nests, and causing structural damage to historical and cultural buildings.
From what I could find, a lot of the remaining large animals reside in the northern region of the main island or in Hokkaido. A lot of nationally protected parks that contain many of the unique plants are also found in Hokkaido or generally found to the west of the Kansai area. The connection I drew was that all of these areas have significantly less urban development and a smaller population. So while the immense biodiversity of the country are still relatively abundant, it isn't as prominent as one would assume based on stereotypical imagery of Japan. In order to see Japan's awesome and unique species,
Importing non-native species hasn't helped environmental issues either. In general, island ecosystems, are particularly vulnerable to invasive species due to their lack of exposure to aggressive competitors. Japan like many other island nations, suffer from invasive species that have no natural predators and out compete the local species. An interesting example is the case of the American raccoon (Procyon lotor). As the story goes, these fuzzy guys were imported to the country by popular demand because of a popular TV show during the 70's. Because they have no natural predators and are scavengers by nature, their population has exploded and they have been reported to cause trouble; not only by out competing the native species Tanuki ( Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus), but by eating crops and farm animals, threatening fox and birds' nests, and causing structural damage to historical and cultural buildings.
From what I could find, a lot of the remaining large animals reside in the northern region of the main island or in Hokkaido. A lot of nationally protected parks that contain many of the unique plants are also found in Hokkaido or generally found to the west of the Kansai area. The connection I drew was that all of these areas have significantly less urban development and a smaller population. So while the immense biodiversity of the country are still relatively abundant, it isn't as prominent as one would assume based on stereotypical imagery of Japan. In order to see Japan's awesome and unique species,
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