The purpose of this symposium was to discuss some problems on regional systems of coral islands located in the Ryukyu Islands, or the South-West Islands of Japan. Especially on some regional characteristics of physical environments related with social and cultural problems were expected to discuss, to construct the new methodology of regional geography.
The participants in this symposium were made up of fifteen reporters and five commentators. The papers presented by reporters are as follow:
Takahashi, T., Kawana, T. and Koba, M.: Geomorphological characteristics of coral islands in the Ryukyu Islands.
Urushibara, K.: Calcarious soils and their genetic environments in the Ryukyu Arc.
Furukawa, H.: Water behavior in the Calcarious Islands.
Toguchi, K., Yoshikawa, H. and Mezaki, S.: Physical characteristics and human activities in the Islands of Okinawa Prefecture: land use pattern by multi-variate analysis.
Nakamura, K., Kobayashi, S., Moriwaki, H. and Nakai, T.: Seasonal pattern of traditional agriculture in the Ryukyu Arc.
Domae, R.: Traditional co-operative shops and structure of village community in the Ryukyu Islands.
Ogawa, T.: Okinawa Islands and Mainland Japan from view point of cultural geography.
Nakamatsu, Y. Physical environments and traditional religion in the Ryukyu Islands.
On these reports, the commentators posed challenging questions, made constructive comments and led the discussions with attendants fruitfully.
The discussions were focused on the following points:
1. How to treat some gaps of conception on physical environments between recent geography and that of inhabitants, to construct the regional geography of these islands.
2. Some methodological problems on regional geography of the Ryukyu Islands as another KULTURKREIS in Japan located in the coral islands world.