Geography - Japan and the World: Regions, Climate, Industry, and Maps
What this domain tests
Aomori's geography questions ask you to place Japan's 47 prefectures into eight regions, match places to climate types, and explain why farms, factories, and fishing ports sit where they do - then read that same logic off a map or a climate table.
Climate types worth memorising cold
- 太平洋側: wet 梅雨 and 台風 summers, dry, sunny winters.
- 日本海側: winter snow, because the northwest monsoon picks up moisture over the warm 対馬海流 and drops it on the mountains.
- 瀬戸内: low rainfall all year; both monsoon directions are blocked by mountains, so ため池 and drought are recurring themes.
- 中央高地: low rainfall and a large annual temperature range.
- 北海道: no 梅雨; 南西諸島: subtropical and typhoon-prone.
Aomori in the exam's own backyard
青森 splits between 津軽 on the Japan Sea side (deep snow, 津軽平野 apple orchards, roughly half of Japan's apples) and the Pacific side, where the cold やませ wind causes 冷害. Know 白神山地 (1993 World Heritage, beech forest), 下北半島, and 津軽海峡.
Industry and fishing
Factories cluster in the 太平洋ベルト from 京浜 through 中京 to 北九州, fed by imported raw materials and port access. The 三陸沖 fishing ground exists where the warm 黒潮 meets the cold, nutrient-rich 親潮; after 200-mile limits shrank 遠洋漁業, 養殖 and 栽培漁業 expanded.
Worked example
A station reports December and January precipitation of about 250 mm each with mean temperatures near 0°C, August at 120 mm and 26°C. Winter maximum plus snow means 日本海側 (think 秋田 or 新潟). It is not the 中央高地, which peaks in summer with a far wider annual range, and not 瀬戸内, which is dry in both seasons.
Traps that cost marks
Reversing 黒潮 and 親潮; treating 瀬戸内 and 中央高地 as the same dry climate; writing a prefecture name where a capital is required (岩手県 is 盛岡市, 群馬県 is 前橋市); confusing リアス海岸 like 三陸 with straight sandy coasts.