Japan has several salamander species living in the forests, rivers, and streams of this ecoregion, including the Tokyo, spotted, amber-colored, Oita, and Odaigahara salamanders.
Across the coastal plains and hills of this region, rice fields stretch where ribbons of broadleaf evergreen forest once grew, a result of the introduction of rice cultivation to Japan almost 2,000 years ago. The land in this region has been almost entirely developed or converted to agriculture. Urban areas have heavily altered the landscape. The largest cities in Japan--including Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, and Nagoya, as well as the Pacific industrial belt--lie in this region. Introduced tree and grass species compete with native vegetation. Remnants of original forests grow in sanctuaries around temples and shrines, on steep, inaccessible mountain slopes, and in river gorges.
(Message edited by nuggular on January 18, 2005)
