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Geography

Landscape

Japan consists of a system of over 1000 isolated islands encompassing 377,435 sq km (an area slightly smaller than California), 80% of which is mountainous. The four major islands, listed relative to size, are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku. Politically, the territory is split into 9 regions. These regions are then further split into 47 prefectures each roughly the size of a large American county.

Resting within the tectonically active "Ring of Fire", Japan is a center of seismic and volcanic activity. There are over 40 active volcanoes in Japan. Though they do introduce the danger of eruption, it is their heat which fuels Japan's numerous hot springs. Earthquakes hit Japan approximately 1000 times each year. Most of them, however, are minor enough to escape detection without sophisticated equipment. Japan's last major earthquake hit Kobe in 1995.

Approximately 77% of Japan's 125 million people live in an urbanized center. Over 26,518,000 of them live in the Tokyo metropolitan area (16,271,000 people live in the New York metropolitan area). Such displacement puts an enormous value on all urban real estate. Hence, the slums that are commonplace in every major American city do not develop in Japan as the land is just too valuable to let deteriorate. Furthermore, the premium value of land has minimized the area reserved for roads. Tokyo allots only 15% of its total area towards roads, most of which are narrow and one-way, while New York allots 27%. A consequence of the Japanese tendency to seek urbanized areas has left the Japanese countryside sparsely populated and relatively untouched by time.

The Japanese populace is perhaps the most ethnically homogeneous in the world. 99.4% of its population are pure Japanese while the rest are mostly Korean. However, those of Korean decent are almost undetectable if they adopt a Japanese name. Hence, Japan is free from the discord caused by racial tensions felt in the U.S.

OAV Geography

The OAV series is incredibly accurate in creating a world conforming to the actual geography of Tokyo. In the opening credits, it appears that Miyuki and Natsumi are traveling south on the Shuto Expressway No. 1 The train going past them is the Haneda Airport Monorail.

Miyuki and Natsumi begin engaging the Fox at the police station during OAV 1. By examining the dots Miyuki places displaying the Fox's route, Bokuto police station is actually Fukagawa Police Station located in the Koto-Ku area of Tokyo.

In the closing credits, they are traveling back up the Shuto Expressway.