From a purely geological perspective, Japan represents a relative newcomer to the earth's variegated surface.

The island nation is very mountainous and still subject with startling frequency to such natural disasters as earthquake, tidal wave and volcanic eruption. As a result, Japan, geologically speaking, always seems a bit capricious, an unstable land mass, difficult to deal with, particularly for awed inhabitants all too often forced to confront their human frailties in the face of nature's unleashed fury.