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Geography Lab
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A geography lab where students study both human geography and physical geography in one department.
AboutAbout the lab
Studying human and physical geography in the same department
The Geography Lab (Department of Geography) conducts education and research across a wide range of fields in human geography and physical geography.
The department began in 1950 as the Geography Chair of the Department of History in the Faculty of Letters. It now belongs to the Faculty of Letters at the undergraduate level and to the Department of Social and Human Environment, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, at the graduate level.
Students can freely choose their research topics from fields such as human geography in general and geomorphology.
The Graduate School of Environmental Studies also has faculty in climatology, meteorology, hydrology, and other fields, so students can receive broad guidance in collaboration with other departments.
Key terms
- Human geography
- A field of geography that studies how people's lives, industries, and societies differ from region to region and how they take shape
- Physical geography
- A field of geography that studies natural environments such as landforms, climate, and water, focusing on differences from place to place
- Geomorphology
- A field that studies how the shapes of the Earth's surface, such as mountains, rivers, and coastlines, were formed
NewsLab news
Prof. Yokoyama's book review published in The AAG Review of Books
Paper co-authored by a PhD student and Prof. Yokoyama published in Habitat International
Prof. Imazato's paper published in Geographical Review of Japan Series B
A PhD student's paper published in Jinbun Chiri (Human Geography)
ResearchResearch themes
Research topics differ by faculty member and cover how people relate to space and society, including disasters, farming, mountain, and fishing villages, food culture, and food supply. In physical geography, research also covers sediment disasters, permafrost, and glaciers.
*Illustrative imageCommunity Change and Disasters
This research focuses on change in rural and urban communities and examines how space and society influence each other. Recently, using the 2004 Sumatra earthquake and the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake as examples, it has treated disasters as the destruction and regeneration of space and society, and has also investigated community-based disaster prevention.
*Illustrative imageLife and Change in Rural and Mountain Villages of Southeast Asia
In farming and mountain villages in Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and elsewhere, this research examines changes in livelihoods that depend on natural resources, and people's survival strategies in response to the socioeconomic change that accompanies globalization. It also includes surveys of natto, a fermented soybean food, and studies of food culture in the evergreen broadleaf forest zone of the Himalayas and the mainland Southeast Asian massif.
*Illustrative imageHow People in Farming, Mountain, and Fishing Villages Live and Perceive Their Environment
Through fieldwork in various regions, this research studies how people in Japan's farming, mountain, and fishing villages have lived, run their settlement communities, and perceived the environment around them. In connection with spatial cognition, it is also interested in folk classification, vernacular place names, and geographical thought, and recently there have been more opportunities to study folk religion in Kyushu.
*Illustrative imageHow Economic Spaces Emerge Through Food
Focusing on the realm of food, this research studies how diverse local economic spaces emerge within a global context. It seeks to clarify the characteristics of food supply systems embedded in particular geographic environments and the mechanisms by which they form.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Geography Lab consist of faculty, researchers, graduate students, and administrative assistants.As of 2026
- ProfessorMakoto Takahashi
- ProfessorSatoshi Yokoyama
- ProfessorSatoshi Imazato
- Associate ProfessorMasaya Iga
- Associate ProfessorHitoshi Saito
- Assistant ProfessorYuka Matsuoka
- Assistant ProfessorTakahiro Abe
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Charleroi-carte topographique de 1873” Jmh2o (pour l'assemblage) / Public domain (cropped)
- Community Change and Disasters: “Duzce 1999 earthquake damage Bilham 883” Roger Bilham / Public domain (cropped)
- Life and Change in Rural and Mountain Villages of Southeast Asia: “Hut as toilets in a flower garden in Laos” Rhin Mo Zilba / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- How People in Farming, Mountain, and Fishing Villages Live and Perceive Their Environment: “Kuki Fishing Village Center 2021-07 ac (3)” Asturio Cantabrio / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- How Economic Spaces Emerge Through Food: “Former Wholesale Fish Market, Manchester” David Dixon / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (環境法政論講座): “Close-up of Lady Justice statue holding scales, symbolizing justice and fairness” DP Singh Bhullar / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (経済環境論講座): “Renewable Energy ( )” mypubliclands / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (環境政策論講座): “Official Meeting of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions (HBCU+MSI) Advisory Council on November 20, 2024 at U.S. EPA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. - 3” usepagov / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (社会学講座): “City-urban-crowd-cityscape-tourist-uk-1060732” https://pxhere.com/es/photo/1060732 / CC0 (cropped)
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