Soil Map of Asia to the Project of the FAO/UNESCO World Soil Map (1971)

Obviously, the soil map of Asia compiled by Soviet pedologists is a great achievement in the field of pedology. The writer has reviewed the contents of the "Soil Map of Asia" and the soil maps of the southern part of the Far-East in the USSR and of Japan have quoted from the map as an example. With respect to some soils of Japan, the writer has some questions and comments as follows: 1. According to the soil map of Asia, Brown Forest Neutral (Brown-Cinnamonic) soils of broadleaved forests are distributed from Hokkaido to South Kyushu. The occurrence of Brown Forest Neutral soils is doubtful in Japan, and even if they occur, the area of the soils may be extremely limited. Except for the high altitude area (above 1,000 m) under deciduous and coniferous forests, even the occurrence of Brown Forest soils in Kyushu as well as of Brown Forest Neutral soils is also doulful. 2. The definition of Brown Reddish Forest soils of the monsoon facies is not obvious. Some Japanese forest soil scientists have stated that evergreen broadleaved forest soils of the warm temperate zone are classified as Reddish Brown Forest soils which may correspond to Recent Red-Yellow soils defined by Kanno. The distribution areas of Reddish Brown Forest soils do not coincide with those of Brown Reddish Forest soils in the soil map of Asia. 3. It is doubtful that Meadow Leached soils frequently with gley are distributed in the Kanto Plain and Boggy Tropical soils occur in Kyushu and Honshu. Because, their distribution areas are covered with Mineral Alluvial soils having various degrees of gleyzation under rice cultivation. In particular, the adjective "Tropical" of "Boggy Tropical soils" does not fit for Japan.