This is the first English version of Tadao Umesao's classic, published
first in Japanese in 1957, with a full description of his ecological
theory of civilizations of Eurasia. Dividing the Eurasian continent into
three major ecological zones consisting of Western Europe, Japan, and
the region between them, he shows how the first two are basically
similar and demonstrates fundamental differences between Japan and
China. In 1964 a jury of ten intellectuals chose this treatise as one of
the 18 most influential treatises since 1945 from among more than a
hundred which were considered. In 1998, when an influential monthly,
Bungei Shunju, solicited the ten most impactful books in the twentieth
century from more than 170 intellectuals in Japan, this book won the
third highest vote among 67 books that were nominated.