activity.3 This exists because of the oceanic Pacific plate being subducted beneath continental plate. There is also another reason that Japan receives so many earthquakes and volcanoes. Japan is located on or very close to four different tectonic plates: the Pacific Plate, Philippine Sea Plate, Omur Plate, and the Okhotsk Plate.1 Faults and subduction are frequent in just two plates, so they occur even more frequently when there is four tectonic plates. Even though Japan is not the largest country, it experiences the highest earthquake and volcanic activity in the world because of its location on the Ring of Fire and near four different tectonic plates. Plate motion in Japan is extremely common. This motion of tectonic plates sometimes causes natural disasters, which greatly affect the lives of Japanese people. However, without this plate motion, the island of Japan would not have formed.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/fire.html
http://www.earthobservatory.sg/images/stories/news/japan2011/bloc_diagramme_japan_earthquakes.jpg
http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/jpbeforeafter022312/s_j12_RTR2YAQB.jpg
show these plate motion caused disasters. Effects from plate motion are so influential in Japan that they became a part of the nation’s culture.
So why does a country as small as Japan experience more volcanoes than any other country, and more earthquakes than almost every country in the world? The main reason is because Japan is in the Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire is located on the edges of the Pacific Plate, and it accounts for almost 70% of the world's earthquake and volcanic
Tectonic plate motion formed Japan, but it also has the potential to cause widespread death and destruction. Danger from volcanoes and earthquakes are very high. The people of Japan are literally standing on shaky ground.
Earthquakes occuring in Japan