Eighty percent of the land area of Japan is mountainous. Rivers in Japan tend to be short and rapid with small basins. Due to a frequently occurring problem of flood and drought, the effective control of river water has been important and dams have been constructed to store water, control flooding and generate electricity. Irrigation canals have been build to supply water to the farmlands. The limited available plain lands have been intensively developed for farming, transportation, commerce and manufacturing. The climate of Japan is temperate and subarctic with an average of 1,700 mm annual precipitation. Rain starts from mid June to July and continues up to October. There are abundant forest resources due to the temperature, rainy climate and mountainous topography, with approximately 67 percent of its land area covered with forest. Rice cultivation became possible in eastern Japan due to the development of agricultural technology and improvements in rice varieties. This article looks at lessons learned in Japan and assesses how these can be used to benefit rice growing in Darjeeling and the Sikkim Himalayas.
