Correspondingly, both Japan and Thailand main religion is Buddhism, 95% in Thailand and 84% in Japan. The style of Buddhism varies between the two countries, Thailand practices Theravada Buddhism, while Japanese people take part in Shinto Buddhism. Likewise, Christianity plays little part in each country, less than 1% of the population in both countries practice the religion.

Unlike Thailand, Japan is in the envious position of exporting more than they import. In 1997 Japan exported US$421 billion worth of goods which included machinery, cars and consumer electronics, at the same time importing US$339 billion worth of raw materials, fossil fuels, food and manufactured goods. This enables Japan to have zero external debt. In contrast Thailand has an overseas debt of US$90 billion. This is because they import more than they export. In 1997 US$73.5 billion of goods were imported, these goods include machinery and other equipment, consumer goods and fossil fuels. In the same year US$51.6 billion dollars worth of goods were exported. These goods consisted of manufactured products (82%), fish and agricultural products. Both, Thailand and Japan gain large amounts of foreign currency from the tourism industry. Tourism is Thailand's largest earner of foreign exchange earnings and over 7 million tourists arrive each year. In 1996 Japan had 4.3 million tourist arrivals but Unlike Thailand; there were more Japanese people heading overseas than were arriving. 16 694 769 Japanese people traveled overseas. Japanese people are more likely to head overseas than Thai's because they have larger disposable incomes.

There are many volcano located on the Japanese islands, of which 60 are still active. There are over 1500 earthquakes reported each year, most cause little or no damage but some can be disastrous. In contrast, there are no active volcanoes in Thailand and only minor earthquakes occur. Japan experiences seismic activity such as volcanoes and earthquakes because it is located on the edge of large tectonic plates which are regularly moving. These plates are what cause Japan to have such an elevated landform. Thailand only experiences earthquakes because it is located on an area of folding and not the edge of tectonic plates. Edges of the tectonic plates run throughout Asia and have become known as 'the Pacific Ring of Fire'.

Similarly, both Japan and Thailand were severely hit by the Asian financial crisis, which began on the Thai stock exchange. Many banks and business went bankrupt and the Thai Baht devalued by 40%. Both countries required foreign aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Thailand received a rescue package of US$14 billion. The rescue packages granted the countries time to initiate reforms and turn their economies around.

There are numerous differences between Thailand's and Japan's human geography. Compared with Japan, Thailand has only a small population of 59 million. Japan's population is 125 931 533, of which 90% live on only 20% of its dry land. Japanese people are drawn to these coastal lowlands because much of Japan is uninhabitable and because of this all major industries are built on the lowlands. The lowland regions have a population density of 1561 persons per km2, the overall population density of 340 per km2. Japan has the highest physiographic density (population to uninhabitable land) of any major nation. This opposes Thailand, which has an overall population of 117 persons per km2. Thailand does not have a problem with uneven population distribution, because it is a country that has not yet industrialised to a substantial level. This means that there are not a large number of jobs available in the cities to transmigrate for.

Japan has an infant mortality rate of 3.8 deaths per 1000 live births, unlike Thailand which has mortality rate is a large 35.7 deaths per 1000. This can be contributed to the differences in their standards of health care which is as a results of their diffe

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Approximate Word count = 2710
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)